For the magazine University Affairs, I write a monthly advice column called “Ask Dr. Editor.” The following pieces are particularly relevant for researcher administrators and grants facilitators who support faculty research grant applications:
- Editing strategies: “Emphasize this: structuring highly readable sentences and paragraphs”; “Clarify this: structuring highly readable lists”; “A quick shave for your grant proposal: cutting your word count in page-limited texts”; “How to integrate storytelling into your next research grant application”; “Using the active voice strategically”; “Simple tricks to add clarity in complex sentences”; “Reducing the weight of your words”; “Writing well is hard: how to write like the best writers in your discipline”
- Impact & influence: “Demonstrating impact in your tenure dossier” (lists tools that you can use to show diverse impact); “Telling your research story with numbers: impact metrics for the humanities” (again, tools that attest to impact); “Against utility and instrumentalization: knowledge mobilization for the humanities”
- Training plan & teaching statement: “How to articulate your training plan in funding applications”; “How to incorporate equity, diversity, and inclusion in your grant applications”; “Three tips for crafting a great teaching philosophy statement”; “How to write a statement of teaching philosophy that shines”
- Budget & budget justification: “Your grant budget is a mess!”; “Drafting the budget for your first SSHRC grant application” (this three-part structure applies to any budget justification, not just SSHRC)
- Figures & images: “Three ways to use colour effectively in grant applications”; “Quick, yet polished visuals for grant applications”; “Quick yet polished timelines for grant applications”
- Other specific components of a grant: “How to write a narrative CV”; “Drafting compelling letters of support for research grant funding” (for any partner letters, likely not for IG, IDG, or Discovery); “How to write clear objectives for your research grant proposal”; “On internal alignment: objectives, outcomes, outputs, and contributions in CIHR Project grant applications” (also relevant for SSHRC and NSERC)
- Funders beyond Tri-Agency: “Becoming an academic-artist: how to apply for your first artist’s grant”; “Preventing budget overruns for your CFI Innovation Fund request”; “Submit with confidence: CFI Innovation Fund best practices”
- Other relevant pieces: “Your reader is a little bit drunk”; “Making ambitious research look feasible”; “How to show your project’s worth in social science and humanities research proposals”; “Getting “is” right”
Peer Reviewers’ Perspectives PDFs:
- Until they are formally published through University Affairs, please treat these documents as if they are embargoed. I published my summary of the NFRF Peer Reviewers’ Perspective doc in my January 2025 piece for my column. My summaries and the PDFs for SSHRC, CIHR, and NSERC will be published in my column in May, June, and July respectively.
- I was fortunate to be able to receive funding to hire three UBC graduate student interns to support this project: Andrea Kampen, Olivia Brophy, and Athena Pallas.
- Because I’m hoping to update these documents when I’ve done more interviews, I’ve asked for your email address. This approach means that I can email you with updated or new documents when they are available. Because I want to keep these docs up-to-date, I ask you to not circulate the PDFs at all; instead, please direct your colleagues to my column, where I’ll publish the URL that folks can use to get an email with the doc they’re interested in.
Writing Well is Hard: My Non-AI Text Analysis Tool
The non-AI tool that I made to analyze writing is called writingwellishard.com. Here’s a short video that I made about how to use it:
Training for New Research Grants Support Staff
In addition to the above free one-hour webinar, I also teach an asynchronous course called “Editing Academic Research Grants in Canada.” I have found that this course is well-suited to new in-house research grants facilitators and offers, and many use their professional development funds to participate in the course.
If this course doesn’t suit the needs of your team, please contact me to discuss options for customized training.
Training for Faculty:
I offer custom and out-of-the box training (webinars and in-person workshops) for faculty members, with a focus on research grant applications, promotion and tenure dossiers, and self-editing. Two of my most popular webinars are Writing Research Grant Applications: Written and Unwritten Rules and Editing Your Own Work: A Five-Step Approach.
To schedule a webinar, in-person workshop, or training for your faculty or team, please contact me.
Want to Stay in Touch?
- connect with me on LinkedIn
- check out my resources for research administrators
- get in touch with me to discuss a webinar or in-person workshop for your institution — I offer training for faculty researchers and for grants support staff
- hire me to support your understaffed grant review office during peak grant season
- meet me: I’m coming to the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences in Toronto in May/June 2025, and will be giving a number of talks there. When I have details about the dates, times, and locations, I’ll share those on my email list, The Shortlist.
- meet me: I live in Montréal and would love to connect over coffees with research administrators, grants facilitators, and generally fun people in the city. I am new to Quebec and barely know anyone, so I am especially keen to connect with folks in my new town.