Chapter 20: Sentence Structure: Maximizing Your Clarity


Overview

Most lousy proposals have a few characteristics in common. By now, I'm sure you know what they are as well as I do: They're product focused rather than client focused. They're factual rather than persuasive. They're disorganized. They lack a clear value proposition. But there's one characteristic we haven't looked at yet: They use pompous language to impress or intimidate the reader rather than writing clearly to communicate.

Assuming that you subscribe to the linguistic version of the Golden Rule, "Send unto others what you would like to receive yourself," the question arises: How can you write proposals that are clear and easy to understand? And what is clarity, anyway? How do you know if something is clear or not?

Here's my definition of clear writing: the reader understands what you wrote after reading it once. That's it. If the reader has to go back over something in your proposal and reread it to figure it out, you messed up.

In this chapter we'll look at some simple techniques that will help you maximize your clarity.




Persuasive Business Proposals. Writing to Win More Customers, Clients, and Contracts
Persuasive Business Proposals: Writing to Win More Customers, Clients, and Contracts
ISBN: 0814471536
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 130
Authors: Tom Sant

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