Grant-writing Workshop
Date
Thursday May 25, 20238:30 am - 4:00 pm
Join the Queen's Vice-Principal Research Portfolio and fellow faculty from the Queen's research community for our two-day Grant-writing Workshop and Retreat at the Donald Gordon Hotel and Conference Centre on May 25 & 26, 2023.
Both early-career and established faculty members stand to benefit from the workshop.
Register for a single day or both days.
- Day 1 includes continental breakfast, beverages, snacks and a hot lunch.
- Day 2 includes continental breakfast, beverages, snacks and a hot lunch (by request).
Day 1 Grant-writing Workshop:
Join special guest Dr. Lorelei Lingard for a 1-day workshop, "It’s not just the Study, it’s the Story" designed to improve your grant-writing.
It doesn’t matter how good your study is: it won’t survive grant review without a good story to go with it. But most of your training (and attention) likely focuses on polishing the study, with less attention to making the story clear, compelling and coherent.
A limited amount of pre-reading (2 hours) will be distributed well in advance of the workshop, to support flipped classroom pedagogy. Please come with a very rough draft of an introduction to work on during the day.
View Day 1 Agenda, Learning Objectives and more about this session
Day 2 A day dedicated to writing:
Take the lessons of day one and some time away from the office in order to write and consult with Research Projects Advisors about your current and future proposals.
Day 2 will include:
- Quiet space to write and focus on your work.
- Meetings with the Research Projects Advisors to discuss your research proposals. (All meetings will be held at the Donald Gordon Hotel & Conference Centre).
- Lunch is available for those who dedicate the day to their writing.
Registration is now closed.
Lorelei Lingard
Lorelei Lingard is Professor in the Department of Medicine and Senior Scientist at the Centre for Education Research & Innovation, both at Western University. For 25 years she has led a research program to understand how team communication patterns shape collaborative healthcare and novice socialization. In 2018 she was the first woman to be recognized with the Karolinska Institutet Prize for Research in Medical Education. In 2021 she was made an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in recognition of the impact of her research on healthcare and medical training in Canada. She is a prolific author with a PhD in rhetoric, which she has leveraged to help other researchers improve their writing for more than a decade.
Day 1 Grant-Writing Workshop:
In this writing workshop, you will learn two new strategies – Problem/Gap/Hook and Mapping the Gap – to help you write stronger, more compelling arguments to convince reviewers that the study you’re proposing matters. We will also work through two grammar pearls: Sentence Craft and Paragraphing. These grammar refreshers will improve the clarity and coherence of your own writing, and enhance your ability to give effective, actionable feedback on others’ grants.
If time allows, we will also do a short bonus session on Metacommentary: Handling the ‘Worry Spots’ in your grant.
The workshop will combine brief didactics with application exercises, small group interaction and individual writing time with just-in-time coaching.
Agenda and Learning Objectives
Core Lesson 1: Open your grant strongly with Problem/Gap/Hook
Following this Lesson, participants will be able to:
- Approach writing an introduction using the Problem/Gap/Hook heuristic
- Articulate how the story and the study are distinct and plan their grant around this structure
- Give feedback about introductions to other grant writers
Grammar Pearl 1: How to master sentence structure for easy reader cognition
Following this Pearl, participants will be able to:
- Identify the three kinds of sentences
- Use subject position effectively to maximize clarity
- Give accurate feedback about sentence structure to other writers
Core Lesson 2: How to write a literature review that Maps the Gap
Following this Lesson, participants will be able to:
- Organize a literature review to clearly articulate the Gap their study fills
- Declare and characterize the Gap so that their study seems the obvious next step
- Give accurate feedback to other writers to improve their literature review sections
Grammar Pearl 2: How to increase coherence through strong paragraphs
Following this Pearl, participants will be able to:
- Apply a paragraph framework to their writing
- Identify how to achieve unity and coherence in their paragraphs
- Give accurate feedback to other writers to improve paragraph coherence
Bonus: Metacommentary: How to deftly handle ‘worry spots’ in your grant
Following this session, participants will be able to use ‘just-in-time metacommentary’ to manage moments where reviewers might not come along, instead of waiting till the Limitations/Challenges section.