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Words and expressions to avoid when writing a research grant proposal
-“To the best of our knowledge”
Problem: Reviewer might think: “Do they know their field? What do they know anyway?” Better: Describe what you did to validate the statement. “We performed a literature search via abc / We searched in database abc with keywords xyz and found …”
-“if”, “may”, “might”, “could”
Problem: They express too much uncertainty. Better: Be clear and forward looking. “We will…”, “Our goal is…”
-Any superlatives “Our strong/interesting/clever…”
Problem: The reviewer might not agree with your statement. It will put them off. Better: Describe your idea/science/impact and the context and let the reviewer decide on its merits.
-Unnecessary adverbs “really”, “very”, “extremely”
Problem: They are just fill words and do not add much. Better: Avoid them.