Grants and Writing Resources for Liberty University

Liberty's moot court program won its second national championship in February 2026. A senior studying pre-law and history and a junior in national security and intelligence took the American Moot Court Association title at the University of Kentucky College of Law, in a season that drew more than 500 teams nationwide. The program's first title came in 2021, in a virtual final. In March, two Liberty law students won the National Tax Moot Court Competition at Stetson University College of Law, and one was named Best Oralist in the final round.

Research Week and Student Journals

The Jerry Falwell Library sponsors Research Week, an annual event open to all current residential and online students. Presenters bring a poster or give an oral/3MT presentation with slides. For Research Week 2027, the top three undergraduate and top three graduate presentations in each research category win $250, $100 or $50. Montview: Journal of Research & Scholarship publishes humanities, science, social science and creative arts papers, and it invites submissions from Research Week award winners.

Honors students publish in The Kabod, the Honors Program journal. A paper qualifies after it earns an A from the professor and the editor-in-chief approves it, and a staff of Honors students edits the accepted work. The Helms School of Government Undergraduate Law Review is student-run and publishes legal scholarship written from a Christian worldview.

Grants for Projects and Travel

The Office of Sponsored Programs and Research (OSPR) takes applications for internal student awards on a rolling basis. A Student Research Project Award of up to $2,000 pays for equipment, supplies, travel (overseas trips included) and consultation fees. A Student Research Presentation Award of up to $2,500 covers travel to present at an outside event, and the applicant must be a significant contributor to the work. Residential students who attend an academic conference without presenting can request a Student Conference Award of up to $2,000. Money has to be requested before the event, and a faculty sponsor or department administrator handles the spending.

For undergraduates, OSPR also funds presentations at the National Collegiate Research Conference at Harvard, the Council on Undergraduate Research's NCUR, and the Network for Undergraduate Research in Virginia. Each student can be funded for one of those three per academic year.

Fellowships and Assistantships

The Provost's Award for Research Excellence pays for academic research, creative and performing arts projects, or study at a language institute. It provides up to $3,000 for work in the continental United States and up to $6,000 outside it. Undergraduates must be sophomores or above, and graduate students must have completed a research course in their program. The award typically goes to five students a year, each of whom agrees to apply for a Fulbright grant within two years.

Fulbright applicants prepare with the Fulbright Program Advisor in the Helms School of Government and interview with Liberty's Fulbright Committee before the national submission. The same page lists other national awards, from the Gilman and Boren scholarships to the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.

Graduate assistants work 20 hours a week in an academic department for a stipend or hourly wages, plus a tuition scholarship covering 18 credit hours a year. The positions are residential and require a 3.0 GPA. Doctoral students can also hold Teaching Fellow posts in select programs and Research Fellow posts in select schools.

Writing Centers

Residential undergraduate and graduate students book free peer coaching at the Writing Center in DH 1100, or walk into the Writing Lab in JFL 160 without an appointment. Coaches help at every stage of a paper, including citing and formatting, and they also coach presentations.

Students in Liberty Online courses use the Online Writing Center. Its tutors review up to 10 pages per assignment, returning a targeted review within 24 hours and a full review within 48, and they hold live audio sessions with screen sharing. Feedback names patterns of error and gives explanations, examples and links.

Theses, Dissertations and Outside Editors

The Online Writing Center does not review end-of-program projects, a category that includes dissertations, theses and final case studies. Its policy sends those writers to their departments or to qualified editors. A library answer on finding a dissertation editor adds that many departments keep lists of editors students can hire, that the lists are offered for convenience, and that the chair or handbook sets the expectations for editing. The School of Education's dissertation handbook (2022-23 edition) required a professional edit during final revision, either a full edit or an APA edit, at the discretion of the chair or committee.

Accepted graduate work is published in Scholars Crossing, Liberty's institutional repository, through the library's electronic thesis and dissertation submission. Graduate students are encouraged to deposit, and ProQuest submission is optional. The library checks each submission for completeness, and students make their final edits before submitting. Honors Scholars finish with a 25-page senior thesis in HONR 495, a required 3-credit course, and one thesis each year receives the Outstanding Senior Thesis plaque.

Liberty chairs and handbooks set the editing expectations for a thesis or dissertation, and our editors work within them, giving finished manuscripts and course papers a final edit for grammar, consistency and the required citation style. See our Liberty University dissertation and thesis editing and Liberty University essay editing pages, or write to editors@editorsforstudents.com.

From Our Writing Guides

• ProQuest Readiness: The Final Mechanical Audit
• Managing the Committee: Depersonalizing Critique
• How to Write a Persuasive Essay: Building a Compelling Case