Font of Despair

Publishing

Abstract
When it comes to requesting funds for scientific research purposes, not only are there a lot of competitors, there are guidelines to follow when writing and submitting a grant application. Dr. Joseph Schlesinger, an assistant professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at Vanderbilt University and a staff physician at the Veterans Affairs medical center in Nashville, submits a grant application that would ultimately help improve healthcare for vets.

One day, Schlesinger receives an email from the government indicating that he had made a “fatal error.” Fortunately, his fatal error was in regards to the typographical mistakes in his grant application and not related to any surgical procedures he had just finished. More specifically, the error was a typeface issue. According to the letter, his application “used a non-approved font typeface and point size in the Research Plan.” After confirming with himself and with his colleagues that he had unquestionably stayed within the scope of the 130-page guideline for typographical use, he grew perplexed.

He later finds out that the government requires applications to be submitted in PDF format. The reason his typeface violated the guidelines was because the "some bits had been automatically modulated from Helvetica to Arial, and downsized by a few decimal points,” through the “conversion from Microsoft Word."  Ultimately, the story demonstrates and help illustrates the importance of guidelines and how attention to detail is easily overlooked but incredibly crucial.