Penmanship

In second grade I got As in penmanship. Now, my handwriting is a mess. It’s been bothering me for a while, but there never seemed to be a reason to do anything about it.

Recently, however, as I looked at the jar on my desk crammed with pens and markers, I realized my obsession with this collection might be about more than an opportunity to write in pretty colors. It was a call to action to improve my handwriting.

I’m sure by now you’re wondering what this has to do with writing for donors. I’ve learned that in order to write neatly by hand, I have to slow down. And slowing down has benefits for writing documents for funders.

• I think more carefully about what I want to write, why I want to write it, and why it’s important.
• I take stock and have new ideas.
• I can better absorb, assess, and make use of the voluminous information needed for a complex RFP.
• I see the forest for the trees. Grants require both creativity (new ways to write about solving big problems) and precision (sentence construction, word choice). Slowing down helps.
• It also improves quality.

Last, but certainly not least, when I slow down my handwriting improves. This is a source of great satisfaction, and relief. I can write neatly after all.

Naturally, we can’t write proposals by hand. Nor do you have to handwrite anything at all to improve your writing. Slowing down, however, may be helpful.