Grant Proposal Editing

What is Different about Grant Proposal Editing?

The ability to secure funding is crucial to academic success. In Australia, it is imperative to gain nationally competitive (category one) grants in order to secure academic employment, to conduct research and for career advancement. Grant proposal writing differs from other forms of academic writing, as it requires the presentation of a compelling idea within limited space for an audience of assessors with limited time. An application for a nationally competitive grant needs to be written in such a way that an intelligent and informed (but potentially non-specialist) reader can easily grasp what is being proposed in the research project or scientific investigation and is firmly convinced of its value.

Grant proposal editing guarantees that, in addition to meeting all guidelines and formatting requirements, your application is worded perfectly to ensure you have the highest chance of success. Capstone Editing’s specialist academic editors have worked on countless proposals in all the major funding rounds, including those for Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery and Linkage Programs and National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Program and Project Grants. The services of a skilled academic editor experienced in grant proposal editing are certain to give your application the best chance of funding success.

The Benefits of Grant Proposal Editing

Our editors specialise in editing for academics and apply their expert knowledge to a large number of grant applications in each funding round. Whether your proposal builds on your existing work or initiates an entirely new area of investigation, we can ensure it is polished, concise and convincing at the point of submission.

Specifically, your editor will ensure that your grant application:

Provides a compelling and succinct summary of your research, written as an original proposal or based on work that is already in progress
Concisely conveys the greatest possible amount of detail about the value of your study in the limited space available
Emphasises the details and importance of the study, demonstrating its national benefit
Presents your past research achievements with particular emphasis on their quality and relevance to the proposed study
Itemises all expenses clearly and accurately, and demonstrates the benefit of your study in terms of funding investment to research output
Adheres to any page limitations specified and conforms to common stylistic conventions, such as the use of abbreviations
Is free of errors, inconsistencies in referencing or typos, which may detract from your research proposal

Having your proposal edited by Capstone Editing:

Saves you a significant amount of time
Ensures your proposal responds to the most up-to-date measures stipulated by funding bodies, such as those of impact and engagement
Gives you the competitive edge of a polished, error-free proposal, increasing your chances of success

Capstone Editing’s Grant Proposal Editing Services

Academics needing assistance with their grant proposals can select from the full range of services offered by Capstone Editing.

Premium Copyediting

Our Premium Copyediting service includes all aspects of language editing for your grant proposal, including grammar, spelling, punctuation, clarity, consistency, style and structure. Your copyeditor will ensure that the proposal conforms to the accepted conventions for the field and the funding body, as well as word limitations if necessary.

You can submit your grant proposal for our Premium Copyediting service at any time.

Substantive and Platinum (Heavy) Editing

For grant proposals that require more work from a specialised academic editor to ensure they have the best chance of funding success, our Substantive or Platinum (Heavy) Editing service may be more appropriate:

Substantive Editing:
This service includes all aspects of the Premium Copyediting service, but with a greater focus on improving structural, organisational and length problems, and any issues relating to linking sections of your grant application to form a single, focused proposal. This service is particularly valuable for early career academics who may be writing their first major grant proposal, or clients who require help adapting existing writing or research into a new grant proposal in their field.
Platinum (Heavy) Editing:
This service expands on the Premium Copyediting service to include additional features developed specifically for non-Native English (ESL) writers. This includes major sentence rewording and detailed advice and assistance to improve the structure of your grant proposal and to identify sections of the proposal that may require additional support.

Please email us to receive a quotation for our Substantive or Platinum (Heavy) Editing service. Simply state which service you would like to access and attach the grant proposal you need assistance with.

Proofreading

If you are satisfied with the substance of your grant proposal, or it has already received professional copyediting provided by your faculty or your university’s grants support officer, you may want to use our proofreading service. This service is provided for clients whose documents do not require a complete copyedit.

It will ensure that your writing is internally consistent and that the grant proposal is flawless in its presentation and adherence to funding body guidelines. Capstone Editing’s proofreaders will provide a polish to your grant application so that you can be confident that it will be assessed on the merits of your research proposal. Please contact us to find out more about our rates for this service.

Tailor-Made Services

If your grant proposal requires services additional to those listed, our highly experienced specialist academic editors can help. Perhaps you want help to adapt a segment of a previously written work (such as an article or book chapter) into the description for your grant proposal. Or perhaps you are reviewing the feedback from a former proposal with the view to resubmitting and would like a second pair of eyes to ensure all feedback has been adequately addressed. Whatever your needs, please email us your document and instructions and we will be happy to provide a quotation.

Our Reputation

We are proud of our reputation as the highest-quality academic editing service available. Testimonials from our past clients and the examples of our editing we provide here demonstrate the quality of our work.

Editing examples

These documents provide representative examples of our work for past clients.

Testimonials

I would like to thank Lisa for her thorough edit of my grant proposal. Her suggestions gave me better ways of expressing myself with clarity and (importantly for grant proposals) with fewer words! She provided detailed comments on her edits that helped ensure that we didn’t inadvertently change the intended meaning. I appreciated her attention to the details of formatting and nuances of meaning across the document. I highly recommend her to help improve the readability and clarity of academic documents.

Dr Monica Barratt NHMRC Postdoctoral Research Fellow University of New South Wales

Lisa has edited several journal articles for me. Her thorough command of language really helps in making sure that the article is well expressed and free of errors. Lisa works very quickly and I have found it invaluable to have somebody format an article to the style of the particular journal. It is a massive time saver that allows me to move on to my next piece of work. I plan to use Lisa’s services again, including for a book project I have coming up. I highly recommend her to academics wanting to save time and wanting to submit their work with the confidence that it has been thoroughly looked over and formatted to their particular requirements.

Associate Professor Dominic O'Sullivan Political Science Charles Stuart University

The fast, elegant and professional service provided by Dr Lines and her team saved me hours, days and weeks of work for which I am truly grateful. They worked to very tight deadlines and formatted, fixed and corrected my thesis so that I could submit it on time (and within my budget!) The editors who edited my thesis had phenomenal attention to detail and provided me with tremendously valuable feedback that improved the quality of my thesis. In addition to the usual material, my thesis had dozens of tables in both portrait and landscape format, a research study and case studies. My editors very quickly corrected and fixed all the material I threw at them and went beyond the call of duty to provide me with a beautifully referenced and immaculately formatted thesis. I am so appreciative of their advice and assistance.

Cheryl-Anne Whitlock Master of Arts (Journalism) University of Wollongong

Capstone Editing’s simple order process provides easy access to professional academic editing. In most cases, universities cover the cost of editing for their academic staff and we can invoice them directly.

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Capstone Editing has chosen to partner with Payright (Devizo Pty Ltd ABN 24 605 753 535) and Humm (Certegy Ezi-Pay Pty Ltd ABN 28 129 228 986) because they are Australian businesses that practise responsible lending.