Time to Pay for that (free) TC Degree

I've spent the past few days researching grant opportunities and extant partnerships amongst institutions in the State of Texas. Now I need to apply this work toward applying for a grant. I plan to focus on getting funded digitization for a small-sized project, something that appears to be unique amongst current Texas digital collections; it is also a collection that both the subject matter expert and I believe will draw a wide teaching audience.

The field of technical communication and rhetoric is apparently known for producing students who are good at writing grants. Since I have not had the opportunity to take the TC grant-writing course at my university, I will have to be creative and persuasive in my argumentation, and I will have to try to write a document that is free of flaws and written with strong elocution.

In short, I'll try to write good. I'm excited. The research I've done on extant partnerships and grant recipients in Texas basically tells me that there is a dark void in West Texas, as far as digitization grants go, and it also seems that most institutions that receive grants are in large cities for corporate- or urban-based collections. (There are a handful of grants that fund large institutions to digitize small communities' materials.) But I haven't seen very much in regard to digitization of things like what we have here at the SWC/SCL.

Researching grants appears to be similar to researching inventions, or even to researching arguments. What makes one invention unique or relevant? Why should an organization fund this invention?

These are very minor, small, initial questions. As with everything, only time can tell the story of who receives funding and who gets stepped on by the Jolly Green Giant.



Oh, and this is a nifty link about the oldest writing in the world and where it was found.