The effect of writing style on success in grant applications

Abstract

• The study analyzes whether the writing style of grant applications has an effect on the panel scores and on the panel decisions. • Several covariates are included in the study, such as past performance of the applicant, gender, English language proficiency, and discipline. • The study finds that the writing style of the grant application does have an impact on the scores and on the decisions. • This holds the project description, but also for the CV text. Why are some research grant applications selected for funding while others are not? In this paper we investigate whether the writing style of grant applications influences the evaluation scores and the decisions by selection panels. A linguistic analysis of the grant proposal abstract, the project description and the CV of the applicant does reveal several characteristics of the texts that have a positive effect on the score the grant applications receive, and through that on the probability to be selected for funding. The explained variance is moderate, suggesting grant proposal reviewers base their decisions not only on the scientific content of the grant application, but also on the form in which it is presented.