Reflecting on a hectic week juggling many tasks, including writing a grant, I found myself questioning the place that reading holds in grant writing. How can we be strong writers if we’re not also readers of books?
Our days quickly fill with work, family obligations, and a steady stream of notifications. In all this hustle, reading can seem like a luxury from another era. Yet consider this: picking up a book immerses us in new ideas, transports us to distant worlds, and lets us experience life through the eyes of others. It’s a powerful activity, often overlooked when we’re busy chasing deadlines.
Among all the advice I’ve received about writing grants (most of it not very useful), none has ever highlighted the importance of reading more. But think about how we learn to write: we’re typically taught to produce text for examiners or academics, people paid to read and correct our work from beginning to end. Grant reviewers, however, aren’t compensated to do that. They skim, evaluate quickly, and expect clarity. Some reviewers, like me, don’t follow a linear path: they start at the bottom, jump to the top, and then back down again. To hold their attention, we must guide them through a logical argument step by step. Our writing needs to be clear, engaging, and easy to follow.
In my experience, two key steps help make this happen:
- Develop Ideas. First, write to explore what we want to say. This is where we spill out thoughts, refine concepts, and let new ideas emerge.
- Rewrite for the Reader. Next, reorganise and clarify our text with the reader in mind, ensuring that all logical steps and explanations are in place.
Artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT can be useful, but they do not necessarily bridge the gap between these two stages. When I have fed a rough draft directly into ChatGPT, I have received polished sentences that still lacked clarity or logical flow (sometimes even becoming messier).
There’s a more fundamental way to build strong writing skills. Around age ten, I was encouraged to read because I was making frequent grammar mistakes, and the results were transformative. I became an extremely avid reader; not only did my grammar improve drastically, but I also began to write with a smoother flow. Reading helped me recognise logical steps in a text and develop a style that engages the reader. An excellent way to practice both developing ideas and rewriting with the reader in mind.
So, when was the last time you really lost yourself in a book? If the answer is “probably too long ago,” maybe it’s time to pick one up again. It’s easy to assume we don’t have time to read, yet reading is one of the most effective ways to sharpen our writing. I remember summers after high school, devouring a book every couple of days, losing hours in the pages of each new story. It’s said that The Odyssey can be read in about 12 hours; even reading for just 20 minutes a day could get us through it in a month. With a bit of discipline, reading can become a habit that not only entertains but also improves our ability to communicate in ways that resonate with others.
Reading reminds us that behind every text is a reader searching for clarity and inspiration. And by reading more, we will undoubtedly write better.
Mar 2025
