The workshop was useful. Your notebook is full, and the presenter made proposal writing seem manageable. A week later, the notes are still there, but the project hasn't moved.
The handbook recommends grant-writing workshops as a way to learn and connect with experienced people. Give the session a practical job before you attend so the information has somewhere to go afterward.
Choose a session that fits a current need
You may need help with a funding call, a project summary, a budget, or the review process. Read the workshop description and consider its intended audience. A general introduction and a review of a near-final proposal offer different kinds of support.
You don't need to attend every session to take proposal development seriously.
Bring the relevant question or material
If appropriate to the session, prepare a short project summary and the call you're considering. Identify the decision you need help making. Follow any instructions about advance work, confidentiality, or sharing.
A concrete question can help you connect a general example to your own situation.
Pay attention to the reasoning behind the example
Ask how the presenter connects the problem, approach, resources, and expected contribution. Notice how review criteria shape the organization. Don't simply copy a phrase because it appeared in a funded proposal.
Keep the specific funder's requirements separate from broader writing advice.
Use practice and feedback deliberately
When the workshop offers an exercise, try it on a real part of your project. Ask for feedback on a defined issue. If the session reveals that the design isn't ready, record the development work needed rather than forcing the idea into proposal language.
A clearer decision to revise the project is still a useful outcome.
Make the follow-up small enough to happen
Choose an action such as revising the summary, confirming eligibility, or scheduling the appropriate campus consultation. Put a date beside it and identify any resource the workshop introduced.
If you met someone whose expertise fits a question, make a focused request that respects their time.
Before your next workshop, write the sentence 'I want to leave able to ___.' Afterward, choose one action that demonstrates that ability. The value of the session becomes easier to see when it changes something you actually do.
Adapted from The New Faculty Handbook by Zafer Unal, pp. 134-135.
