Write about your track record

• Writing about your track record will vary depending on the context so be flexible and write according to the formatting requirements. 

• Be specific when outlining your achievements – you want to provide concrete examples to highlight the significance of you and your research.

• Space is of a premium in your track record, so be succinct! 

• When collating the track records of others for an application, providing a ‘model’ track record may help with overall cohesiveness. Always factor in extra time for liaising and editing. 

Read time: 4 min

The track record information you’re asked to provide will vary considerably from one job to another, from one fellowship scheme to another, from one prize to another, and so on. (Yet another reason to create a master CV.) What will also vary is the way, or the form in which, you’re asked to provide it. Sometimes you’ll be permitted to write about your track record in free-flowing prose in a document which you then upload. Other times, you’ll have to fill in a series of fields online, with tight character constraints and no formatting options. You therefore need to become adept at dealing with whatever track record requirements are thrown at you. 

Although we cannot discuss here all the possible permutations of track records, we can introduce you to two skills that you must acquire to write any track record effectively: precision and concision. 

Which of these two sentences sounds more meaningful and interesting to you: ‘I have been highly successful in winning research funding including a major fellowship’ or ‘I have won $1.3 million in research funding, with $900k as lead investigator including an ARC DECRA (2019-21)’? The first sentence is devoid of detail, the second is replete with specifics.

When someone reads your track record, in all likelihood they are comparing it to many others in a competitive process. The more generic your wording, the less you differentiate yourself from everyone else. A useful rule of thumb is: don’t bother using a sentence if someone else could also have written it. 

Another one is that clear, measurable metrics (in the example above, amount of funding and DECRA information) are always preferable to non-quantifiable statements. 

Generic statements are also less convincing because they lack the concrete detail that offers a kind of substantiating evidence that puts you in the best light. So, when writing your track record, use precise language. Include names, places, dates, numbers, and any other details that will set you apart, engage your readers’ attention, and strengthen the veracity of your claims. Your track record is you on a page. Details will give your track record ‘colour’, making it unique and interesting, and bringing you to life.

How often do you read something where the sentences drag on and on and become really convoluted, sometimes changing direction midway through so that the end of the sentence has not connected to the beginning of the sentence and you are not really make sense of it, and while the kettle just boiled but you’re out of teabags, yet notwithstanding you’re thinking they could have said that in half the words if only they’d bothered to edit it and ‘When will this ever end!’?

There is no space in track records for longwinded, rambling prose. There is always a page, word or character limit. Learning to write concisely will help you maximise the amount of information you convey in the space available. You’ll get better at writing concisely with practice, but concision is ultimately the product of editing. 

Editing your first draft

If you are allotted, say, 3000 characters to write about your ‘research leadership’, do not limit your first draft to 3000 characters. Write 3500 characters, then edit it. Your first draft will always contain unnecessary verbiage. That is, a 3000-character first draft probably contains only around 2500 characters of substantive information.

In regards to writing, you may have heard or seen the expression ‘Murder your darlings’. It was coined by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch (1863-1944), an English academic, poet, novelist, and literary critic. Here’s the complete quote:

Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it — wholeheartedly — and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings.

It’s a wry exhortation to be as expansive and self indulgent as you wish when you draft something, but then to edit it ruthlessly. Ruthless editing requires detachment: the more time or ‘distance’ you can put between writing a draft and editing it, the more detached you will be. This is why, in your writing timeline, it’s crucial to build in time away from writing.

Compiling team track records

On a side note, this brings to mind a common challenge when working with teams. If you’re leading, or helping to put together, an application from a team of researchers, you will need to collate everyone’s track records; and you will often find that they have not been tailored to the application in question. 

Compounding this problem, you may not receive them until quite close to the deadline. There are two solutions; and it’s best to do both, if you can. First, produce a ‘model’ track record and circulate it to the team as soon as you can; you may want to include explanatory notes. (This also helps with making track records internally consistent.) Second, prioritise track records in your project management timeline; ask for first drafts early so that there’s plenty of time to fix them, if need be.