I have just completed one of my greatest pieces of fantasy. It is a speculative, historically-based, narrative that will weave together ideas from contemporary and historical media sources, inspiration from current policy directions and futuristic approaches to fundamental health issues. And all in only 23 pages! At least the proposal is 23 pages. The final manuscript will of course be more weighty.
It has to submitted in signed septuplicate. Yes – it is a grant application that took me approximately a month to pull together. As I proofread the final version I pondered on the fact that last year 1500 people applied for these three positions. So, if everyone’s application was approximately the same length:
1500 x 23 = 34,500
34,500 x 7 = 241,500
Any guess on how many trees 241,500 sheets of paper equals?
My other writing time has been limited to jotting ideas on notepaper while waiting between meetings. Oh the exotic life of the writer!
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2 comments:
Differing web pages provide different answers.
HowStuffWorks reckons 3 trees provided the paper for those 1500 proposals last year. http://science.howstuffworks.com/question16.htm
WikiAnswers proposes 41 trees (but that's for A4 size paper). http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_trees_cut_down_for_1_sheet_of_A4_size_paper
Assuming my math is correct in both cases. In any case, it's a lot of paper, and a lot of work to produce the words on those pages.
Well they were A4 pages so 41 trees is more accurate. It's an interesting way for the university to save money by shifting it onto the grant writer. Doesn't save the trees though.
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