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I am teaching an undergraduate grant writing course for the second time, and will (perhaps! depending on scheduling issues) be teaching a grant writing course on the graduate level (humanities, social sciences, and arts only) next fall. One of the discussions that comes up a lot with my students is the frustration many of the best students have at not getting it "right" the first time. I talk about the process (and my grading is based on a modified portfolio version where the first drafts, worth very little in point value, are given 100% for effort, and lots of feedback for revision--multiple revisions). I am planning on sharing the link to this post with my current (and perhaps future students), because it concerns a grant project that I have been working on for some time: a Tolkien Stylistics Corpus project.
I might have just posted in the class, as I've done before with work, but I think there is so much mystery about the grant-writing process in general that the materials here might be of interest to other humanities scholars who want to work on grants.
I include information on the NEH grant categories I wrote for; my grant narrative; some screenshots of what the data looks like in the UAM Corpus Tool which I'm using; and the reader reports--direct from the NEH (they are anonymous of course) that explain the reasons my first draft (and by "first draft" here I mean "first draft submitted" not first draft written--I probably wrote about six drafts along the way--I'm not as careful as I used to be about saving each distinct draft with a number) were not funded. One of my linguist colleagues who is working with me on other grants was surprised at the tone of the comments--apparently linguist evaluators are nicer! I've been hearing since 1965 how trashy and popular and bad Tolkien is, and since the early 1990s how crappy my scholarship is for dealing with science fiction, fantasy, etc. that I'm more or less immune to it, so don't mind sharing. Additionally, in between some of the people who clearly think Tolkien OR stylistics OR both are worthless are some excellent responses that give me a lot of ways of re-conceptualizing and re-working the project (I always tend to take on TOO MUCH) over the next few years.
I like that the NEH sends the reader reports out on request--though odds are the review committee for later grants will be different, there are useful suggestions here that will apply no matter the make-up of the committee.
So, without further ado, my Tolkien Corpus Grant Materials!
( the NEH grants I applied for )
( Grant Narrative: TOLKIEN CORPUS PROJECT )
( samples of data from the UAM Corpus Tool )
( Fellowship Reader Reports )
( Summer Stipend Reader Reports )
( My plan for revisions )
I might have just posted in the class, as I've done before with work, but I think there is so much mystery about the grant-writing process in general that the materials here might be of interest to other humanities scholars who want to work on grants.
I include information on the NEH grant categories I wrote for; my grant narrative; some screenshots of what the data looks like in the UAM Corpus Tool which I'm using; and the reader reports--direct from the NEH (they are anonymous of course) that explain the reasons my first draft (and by "first draft" here I mean "first draft submitted" not first draft written--I probably wrote about six drafts along the way--I'm not as careful as I used to be about saving each distinct draft with a number) were not funded. One of my linguist colleagues who is working with me on other grants was surprised at the tone of the comments--apparently linguist evaluators are nicer! I've been hearing since 1965 how trashy and popular and bad Tolkien is, and since the early 1990s how crappy my scholarship is for dealing with science fiction, fantasy, etc. that I'm more or less immune to it, so don't mind sharing. Additionally, in between some of the people who clearly think Tolkien OR stylistics OR both are worthless are some excellent responses that give me a lot of ways of re-conceptualizing and re-working the project (I always tend to take on TOO MUCH) over the next few years.
I like that the NEH sends the reader reports out on request--though odds are the review committee for later grants will be different, there are useful suggestions here that will apply no matter the make-up of the committee.
So, without further ado, my Tolkien Corpus Grant Materials!
( the NEH grants I applied for )
( Grant Narrative: TOLKIEN CORPUS PROJECT )
( samples of data from the UAM Corpus Tool )
( Fellowship Reader Reports )
( Summer Stipend Reader Reports )
( My plan for revisions )
