“I am a world leader, directing an excellent team of – ” 

“Outstanding is better; it corresponds to a score of 5, while excellent is only a 4.” 

“Oh yes, I forgot. So, I’m a world leader, directing an outstanding team…”

Does this sound like a slightly ridiculous conversation? I hope so 🙂

It is a realistic one during Australian grant writing times though.* Researchers tell each other that they have to write to the scoring criteria, which involves a lot of self-congratulatory language (also, I learned that ‘outstanding’ really is more excellent than ‘excellent’, but that’s another issue).

So what I’m about to write would be shocking on a grant proposal: I lost momentum on something.  Continue reading →