From the archive: Cutting out cut-and-paste

Defaulting to generalities in bids is a mistake—here’s how to avoid it

Researchers are not normally people with much time on their hands, and when you add in the motivational erosion that might occur after a few funding knockbacks, it’s easy to understand why some might just reach for a chunk of generic text to slot into the ‘less important’ sections of the application form. But in so doing, they are greatly reducing their chances of success, warns Adam Golberg. In this article, first published in November 2018, he identifies some tell-tale boilerplate phrases that should be avoided and discusses what to write in their place.