Here are some words from by boss, I am sharing.
I write a sentence and then re-read the sentence and replace words with stronger words. I sometimes change the order of the sentence so that the strongest bit or punch comes first.
Then I write the next sentence and re-read it, replace words with stronger-sounding words, and so on. I have a few strong words that I try to include in every proposal to make it sound more important and exciting.
I alternate the strong words around so I am not saying the same word too much.
These strong words are: significant, strong/strongly, critical, crucial, solid, important, substantial, key, and essential.
Linking words like - address, understand, link, and interplay are good too.
So for example, I might start by writing:
"We believe that our workshop needs to be separate to discuss the controversies in this field".
The I change/add strong words:
"We strongly believe that our workshop needs to be separate to address the important and exciting controversies in this field"
Then I note that "this field" is a bit weak so I change it to:
"We strongly believe that our workshop needs to be separate to address the important and exciting controversies in the interplay between AGN, star
formation and galaxy evolution"
Then I change the order of the sentence around so that our workshop description (the strongest bit) comes first:
"To address the important and exciting controversies in the interplay between AGN, star formation and galaxy evolution, we strongly believe that we require a separate workshop"
Then I start the next sentence and do the same thing. It sounds like it would take a lot of time, and it used to take some time, but after doing a few proposals (telescope proposals, job proposals), it gets very fast.
I write a sentence and then re-read the sentence and replace words with stronger words. I sometimes change the order of the sentence so that the strongest bit or punch comes first.
Then I write the next sentence and re-read it, replace words with stronger-sounding words, and so on. I have a few strong words that I try to include in every proposal to make it sound more important and exciting.
I alternate the strong words around so I am not saying the same word too much.
These strong words are: significant, strong/strongly, critical, crucial, solid, important, substantial, key, and essential.
Linking words like - address, understand, link, and interplay are good too.
So for example, I might start by writing:
"We believe that our workshop needs to be separate to discuss the controversies in this field".
The I change/add strong words:
"We strongly believe that our workshop needs to be separate to address the important and exciting controversies in this field"
Then I note that "this field" is a bit weak so I change it to:
"We strongly believe that our workshop needs to be separate to address the important and exciting controversies in the interplay between AGN, star
formation and galaxy evolution"
Then I change the order of the sentence around so that our workshop description (the strongest bit) comes first:
"To address the important and exciting controversies in the interplay between AGN, star formation and galaxy evolution, we strongly believe that we require a separate workshop"
Then I start the next sentence and do the same thing. It sounds like it would take a lot of time, and it used to take some time, but after doing a few proposals (telescope proposals, job proposals), it gets very fast.
