Students who apply for research funds often use a character counter much more than students at other academic levels. The primary reason is that students have to state their research proposal as per the length imposed by the research funders. The apparent reason is that:
- Students don’t send novels in the form of research proposals
- Ease the work to the reviewers to examine only 2 pages of the application instead of 200 pages.
However, the underlying reason is that short and crisp ideas usually make the best research papers. Thus, they don't stop imposing limits on pages, words and characters. Here is a simple way to save more characters without using a character counter.
- Double spaces:
Investigate and reinstate every incidence of double spaces with one space. Double spaces generally arrive uninvited when someone presses two spaces after each period. It is a practice many typists use. One cannot do anything but search and replace.
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- Spaces at the end of paragraphs:
Look for spaces at the end of each section and erase them. Sometimes the word processor in which the document is typed attentively puts them automatically. Occasionally one divides a paragraph into multiple subsections. It doesn't matter how one gets there, but the fact is double spaces are not needed. While working in a Microsoft word document, one can either check "show invisible characters" or type a space paragraph mark to show the invisible characters.
- Delete redundant phrases
Simple phrases like “of this research", "of this project”, “The aim of this research is…” or “The outcomes of this project will be…” are redundant since the applicant works on a single project to get grants for the application. The reader already knows the purpose of writing the project.
- Active voice:
Though the research paper mandates using a third person's voice to type the paper, an applicant can ditch the step in the research proposal. It will make the writing easier to understand and make the message clearer. Moreover, it is the quality of the thoughts that will get funded, not the field's conventions.
- Ampersand:
It may not be eye soothing to see an ampersand used in place of ‘and’ in the document but using it for a reasonable amount of time is harmless. Moreover, it saves 2 characters on every use – ‘and’ takes 3 characters while ‘’ takes one.
There are several ways to save space while writing a research proposal. Following these tips will save the characters while following the rules of academic writing and simultaneously state more ideas.
