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Does Style and Tone of Writing Matter in Proposal Writing?
By Dan Safford
Style and tone matter a great deal in proposal writing. The customer's
selection process is really a process of elimination. Your job is to
make it as hard as possible for him to eliminate your proposal. One way
you can do this is to keep your writing from boring him to death.
That's a sure way to make him lose interest.
When you're writing your proposal sections, try to achieve a "clear"
style. Most of us know clear writing when we see it, though it may be
hard for us to define.
Clear writing is easy to read. The language is simple and familiar, the sentences short and to the point.
Clear writing is also efficient. The writing does not include extra words that clutter up the document.
And finally, clear writing is easy to understand. Concepts are explained in language appropriate to the context and the readers.
The best thing about clear writing is that it makes it easy on the
reader; he can see what you're getting at quickly and does not have to
waste time trying to figure it out. This will make him happier. And
that's what you want.
Here are some tips:
- Write to express, not to
impress. You're not going to score any points by showing off your
vocabulary. Don't write ingress and egress when you could write in and
out. Don't say "It will greatly facilitate our work if we can augment
our staff by three," when you really mean "It will help us if we can
add three people to our staff." Writing like this puts people off.
- Avoid long sentences, which by the way are a hallmark of
technical writing. 55 word sentences are the kiss of death; they are
hard to get through. In fact, no one will get through them. Your
average sentence length should be 17 words.
- Avoid jargon. Jargon may be clear to the people in your
technical field, but you can't be 100% sure that all the people reading
your proposal will be in your technical field. Managers with no
technical background at all often read proposals. When you write
proposals you should minimize the jargon.
- Write in the active voice, not the passive voice. The
passive voice kills the reader's momentum. It is an unnatural way of
expressing an idea; we do not think in the passive voice, and we
usually don't use it when we speak. We would rarely say, "A records
database will be designed." Instead, we would say, "We will design a
records database."
- And finally, proposal writing style is characterized by
citing benefits to the customer throughout. Don't simply say you will
do X. Tell the customer that you will do X, which will result in
benefit Y.
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