No place for hope
Very little can match the power of hope. It can structure a life and channel ambition. It fuels dreams and sustains in the face of what may seem insurmountable. Indeed, hope appears to thrive in crises. And I’ve often wondered whether hope is responsible for the power of placebo effects.
However, when it comes to submissions for awards, applications for grants or responses to tenders, hope should get no oxygen in your document. Nor, for that matter, any other words that reek of it, like ‘pray’, ‘desire’, ‘wish’, ‘believe’ or ‘trust’. If you’ve got these terms in your submission or application document, check whether you’re using them in any one of the following senses:
you know your claims are true, but you don’t want to sound too brash or confident
you don’t have enough time or resources to validate your claim
you have little to no idea as to whether your claim is true.
The following examples illustrate these senses and their potential interpretation by readers and assessors (in italics):
‘Securing this grant would enable ABC to implement XYZ processes, which ABC hopes will improve service efficiency.’
We’ve piloted XYZ processes with some success, but we’re not sure whether they’re going to have any impact.
‘I hope that, by passing onto my clients my knowledge, they can make informed decisions that achieve better outcomes.’
I advise my clients but have little idea whether the advice helps them.
‘ABC hopes that XYZ organisations will use the platform to share learnings and reduce duplication, which in turn is expected to save time and money.’
We have little clue as to what our stakeholders need, nor do we know if the platform will work.
When you’re applying for grants, awards and tenders, it’s no time to be modest, uncertain or even loud. Simply make your claims, back them up and be rigorous. The rest may well be fill. Even if your application does not get what you would’ve hoped for, assessors will thank you for making their jobs easier.
The poet and writer Paul Kingsnorth once said of hope in his writing: ‘Hope, like despair, is something of a distraction: it gets in the way of a clear view of the horizon.’ The same could be said for documents that aim to secure an award or funding.
