Aligning Proposal Development with the Standard 5-Step Writing Process
Proposal writing can be stressful. We often yank authors
away from their day jobs, or worse, ask them to perform both tasks at the same
time. What’s more, we throw all of these foreign terms at them: Pink Team, Red
Team, and Gold Team. It can be overwhelming for even the seasoned proposal
professional!
Sometimes it can be helpful to step back and break thing
down into terms that may be more familiar to your authors. For example, most
authors will have seen the standard 5-step writing process before. In this
week’s article, I’ve aligned the proposal development process to the standard
5-Step Writing Process; the one I used
for this post is published by the University of Kansas (KU) Writing Center.
STEP 1: PREWRITING
Think & Decide
Make sure you understand your assignment. Before you dive
into writing the section, you should review the limitations of your assigned
task. Consider things such as your page limits and relevant RFP sections to
address. You should also review and understand the proposal schedule and any
major deadlines.
Consider who will read your work. It is important to
consider your audience, especially with proposals. As yourself the following
questions: Who is the customer? Is a technical person likely reading your
section or someone else? What are their major hot buttons?
Brainstorm ideas about the subject. Brainstorming will help
you come up the content for your section. Consider the following: What are the
likely strategies of the competitors? What are their strengths and weaknesses?
What are your company’s strengths and weaknesses? Are there any past performances
or proof points to cite?
*Note: Most
storyboard templates provide places for you to document the outcomes of this
thinking phase!
STEP 2: RESEARCH
Search
Make an outline to help organize your research. Use the Request for Proposal (RFP) or outline provided by your Proposal Manager to develop and/or document your section
outline. Annotate the outline with the information you will need to complete
your section.
List places where you can find information. Consider the
information you need to complete your section. Are there past proposals you can
use? Boilerplate? Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) you need to interview? Document these in your annotated
outline.
Do your research. Look through proposal libraries, past
proposals, and reach out to your SMEs. As you find the information you need,
organize and store any source materials you have found and update your
annotated outline with the location of each.
*Note: Most storyboard templates provide a space for you to
document the outcomes of this research! After completing this phase, you will
be ready for the Storyboard Review, often called the Blue Team.
STEP 3: DRAFTING
Write
Put the information
you researched into your own words. Start going through the past proposal
content, boilerplate, and SME interview content that you have gathered.
Organize and tailor the content to your customer and their needs. Consider
whether the content you found makes sense for this specific proposal and
solution. Make necessary updates to your draft.
Write sentences and
paragraphs even if they are not perfect. You will probably need to form
your own paragraphs and sentences to help link any reuse material together and
to form a coherent section. Remember that it is easier to revise content than
to start from a blank slate. Put words down on the page even if you are not
100% happy with them.
Read what you have
written and make sure it says what you meant. Now you can clean up the
words that may not have been quite right. Adjust your text for clarity and
flow.
Form your theme
statements. If you didn’t form theme statements or strength statements as
part of your brainstorming (i.e., storyboarding), now is the time to add these
into your section. Consider the win themes as well as the strengths that are
coming out of your draft. Link discriminating features of your section with
benefits. Form a theme or strength statement for each first- and second-level
section.
Write some more.
Continue writing to fill in gaps.
Read it again.
Judge if your message is coming through how you intend. Make necessary
adjustments.
Write some more.
Continue filling in gaps.
Read it again.
Judge if your message is coming through how you intend. Make necessary
adjustments.
Repeat the reading and writing cycle until your section is complete.
*Note: At this
point, your section is Pink Team ready! Sometimes your draft will have some
gaps at Pink Team. That is OK!
STEP 4: REVISING
Make it Better
Read what you have
written again. With Pink Team reviewer comments in mind, review what you
have written again. Start making the necessary revisions to address the
reviewer comments.
Do more research (if
necessary). The reviewers might have identified issues that may require
additional research. Think through where you need to go to find the necessary
information. Make notes of this in your draft and keep researching until you
have located the information you need.
Rearrange words,
sentences, or paragraphs. Once you have addressed the review comments,
start cleaning up the section. Move things around so that your section flows
smoothly.
Take out or add
parts. Remove content that doesn’t fit or directly address the section
requirements. Add in content that may be necessary to strengthen the section
(e.g., proof points, graphics, additional text, etc.).
Replace overused or
unclear words. Comb through your section and look for words that may need
to be changed. Here is a comprehensive list.
Read your writing
aloud to be sure it flows smoothly. Reading out loud helps you catch
mistakes that you might miss when reading in your head (when you read things
silently, you tend to hear your writing how you meant it to read rather than
how it actually reads). Make adjustments as necessary.
*Note: At this
point, your section is Red Team ready!
STEP 5: EDITING AND
PROOFREADING
Make it Correct
Read what you have
written again. With Red Team reviewer comments in mind, review what you
have written again. Start making the necessary revisions to address the
reviewer comments.
Be sure all sentences
are complete. Look for subjects and verbs and make sure you are using
active voice.
Change words that are
not used correctly or are unclear. Check for commonly misused words and other unclear
formations in your draft.
Correct spelling,
capitalization, and punctuation. If you have time to clean your section up
before it goes through the edit, you will help speed up the editing process.
Make sure you are
using the appropriate styles and formatting. Using the embedded styles within
your Microsoft Word section template is a good first step! Also, most proposal
style guides provide guidance on things like capitalization, bullet use,
acronym use, and other common stylistic rules to follow. Following these
conventions will also help speed up the desktop publishing and editing
processes!
*Note: At this
point your draft is ready for desktop publishing, editing, and then the Gold
Team Review!
Final Thoughts
At proposal time, stress levels are at their peak. Sometimes
it can help to make the process more familiar for our authors. I hope that you
have found this breakdown useful and that you will be able to use it to help
guide your writing teams as we approach our peak season. Cheers!
Written by Ashley Kayes, CP APMP
Senior Proposal Consultant, AOC Key Solutions, Inc. (KSI)
LinkedIn
Comments
Post a Comment