Creating the Text

• Past bids, perhaps for the same client, can provide a base from which to start building ideas. It is tempting to use as a model a bid that brought success on a previous occasion and even to recycle bids that were unsuccessful but include renewable technical material. Try to understand why a particular approach may have worked in your favour and how it might be developed in the future. Retrieve useful material and adapt bids to a new lease of life. Be careful though not to become dependent on a stock formula. Do not reproduce the same headings and the same paragraphs in every bid without questioning whether they are the best way to address the particular needs of each contract. Even though a new client may not have seen your style before, ideas that are repeated too often become stale and your thinking grows stale with them. Treat previous bids as a platform from which to strengthen and sharpen your approach with an innovative response to each new work opportunity.

• A useful function of the bid development worksheet is that it prompts you at the start to prepare a draft structure and assign responsibilities for input to the text. Your ideas about the structure may change as the bid begins to take shape; the important point is to have from the outset at least a provisional framework on which to organize the material, altering and adapting the structure as you gain new information and insights.

• Map out the content of each section and identify key points. Don't worry at first about getting things in the right order or the right words. The draft is meant to help you decide the items that you need to include in each section. Check through the notes for overlaps and inconsistencies. Make sure you are not repeating points unnecessarily from one section to another.

• Tight deadlines and professional commitments mean that bids generally have to be written under intense pressure; but it is not always easy to sustain a focused effort. Pace the work so as to make the best use of the times of day when your mind is at its freshest. Set a target completion date for each section of the bid, taking account of word-processing, checking and editing stages. Work out how long you might spend on the more straightforward parts and then try to cut down this amount to allow more time for sections requiring detailed analysis. Make sure the easiest work is done quickly. Contract experience, corporate information and CVs can often be prepared in draft ahead of the rest of the document.

• Do not try to determine in advance the number of pages of typescript to be filled by each section, unless the bid specification, as noted earlier, sets limits on the size of the bid or on the length of a particular section. It is better to base targets on the timetable for completion than on amounts of paper. The time to assess relative brevity and prolixity is when the bid is in a more advanced state and you are gauging the internal balance of the text: you can then see which sections appear overlong and which may need expanding.

• Keep in mind how the material you or your colleagues are writing in one part of the bid may affect the content of other sections.

• Cross-referencing within the bid will help tie together the logic of the text, projecting an image of consistency and cohesion. But don't raise an issue in one part of the bid and then redirect the client to some other part to learn your response. Having to search backward and forward for information irritates clients.

• In setting out the text, it is advisable to state a conclusion first and then present the substantiating reasons - ie:

  x (the conclusion) because y1 y2 y3... (the data),

  rather than

  y1 y2 y3... therefore x.

  This is the reverse of conventional practice in research papers, but it works better in bids and technical reports and makes practical sense.

• Do your best to get the draft right first time; but always be ready to revise it if there are ways of improving and simplifying it. Read your text more than once; if possible, get a colleague to look it through, to see if any point doesn't make sense, sounds unconvincing, contradicts something you've written somewhere else or needs more detail or explanation.

• If you are bidding for work from an overseas client whose first language is not English, word the text carefully to avoid intricate sentence constructions, unusual turns of phrase and colloquial expressions that the client might easily misunderstand. If the bid is to be translated, bear in mind that some languages do not possess the wealth of nuances and shades of meaning found in English, while others may apply a variety of expressions to replace one word in English. Don't make the translator's job unnecessarily hard.

Guidelines on technical writing

Sections

• Be clear about the purpose of each section of text - what is its function in the document?

• Put down a statement of this purpose and use it at the start of the section.

• Use sub-headings to identify and manage areas of information.

Paragraphs

• Keep paragraphs short - no longer than about 10 lines.

• Do not crowd too many ideas into one paragraph.

• Make each paragraph a distinct and consistent step in the sequence of information.

• Link paragraphs to each other, to bring out the logic of the text.

• Would bullet points work better than a paragraph? Generally, the answer is yes.

Sentences

• Know how each sentence is going to end before you write it down or key it in.

• Keep sentences short - a sentence should be either one statement making a single precise point, or a group of related statements linked as clauses.

• Long sentences work only if their structure is clear. You will have fewer problems if you limit sentences to 20–25 words. Don't let sentences ramble on or become convoluted.

• Every sentence has a part to play in reinforcing the logic of the text. Write as precisely as you can. Don't leave the client wondering what you mean or writing 'so what?' in the margin.

• If you don't state clearly what you mean, clients will assume you don't know what you want to say. If what you write is obscure, they will suspect you have not thought it out clearly. If they have to read a sentence two or three times to work out what you mean, you have failed to communicate.

Choosing and using words

• There is never just one way of saying something. Think how you could make the point more straightforwardly. Look away from the words; focus on the sense of what you want to say. The more you clarify and simplify, the more value you add to the bid.

• Grammar, spelling and sentence structure must all be correct in a document intended to express professional quality.

• Vary the sentence structure. Don't write in a monotonous drone.

• Don't write hesitantly or vaguely: clients do not want contractors who are insecure. Write positively, using 'will' rather than 'would' - avoid using the conditional to excess.

• Make important points strongly and clearly. Emphasize not by saying 'It should be emphasized that...' but by using the right emphatic phrasing.

• Your bid is unlikely to get a good reception if it contains remarks and wording that the client will view as insensitive.

• Make sure that what is shown in a table and what is said in the text are fully consistent, and that each table and graph has a text reference. Never leave tables, graphs or diagrams unnumbered.