Back to the Basics: Why Using Transition Words is Critical in Proposal Writing
In proposal writing, the goal is to convince the customer
that your solution provides the greatest benefits through clear and concise narratives.
However, because of limited resources and time, we often find
ourselves rushing to piece together content from various sources (e.g.,
boilerplate content, past proposals, notes from SMEs). Then you get to Pink or
Red team, and the reviewers provide unsurprising feedback:
- The writing doesn’t flow well
- The section seems choppy
- The writing is disjointed
The problem?
You probably didn’t go back and add the necessary transition
words. Transition words serve to establish logical connections between the sentences,
paragraphs, and sections of the proposal.
Effective transitions enable the themes, strength
statements, important features, and customer benefits to flow together.
Transitions should occur at a variety of places in the response to form
cohesive paragraphs and sections.
The main types of transitions include:
- Additive
- Adversative
- Causal
- Sequential
Additive. You
should use additive transitions when you want to show that the current point is
an addition to the previous one. Examples of additive transitions include:
And
|
Or
|
Further
|
Moreover
|
Alternatively
|
As well
|
On the other hand
|
Either
|
Too
|
Nor
|
Not only…., but also…
|
In fact
|
In addition
|
Actually
|
Neither
|
Additionally
|
Adversative. You should use adversative transitions when you want to signal conflict, contradiction, concession, or dismissal. Examples of adversative transitions include:
But
|
However
|
Whereas
|
Conversely
|
At least
|
Nevertheless
|
Though
|
Whichever
|
Either way
|
In either case
|
In contrast
|
While
|
Even more
|
Above all
|
Nonetheless
|
Although
|
Still
|
Yet
|
Causal. You
should use causal transitions when you want to show how a circumstance or event
was caused by other factors. Causal transitions make it easier for the
evaluator to follow the logic of the major points you make in the proposal.
Examples of causal transitions include:
Accordingly
|
And so
|
For this reason
|
So
|
Thus
|
In the event that
|
With this in mind
|
That being the case
|
As a result
|
Consequently
|
Then
|
Therefore
|
Because
|
Under those circumstances
|
Sequential. You
should use sequential transitions when you want to express a numerical
sequence, continuation, conclusion, digression, or summation. Examples of
sequential transitions include:
First (Second, Third, etc.)
|
Beginning with
|
Secondly
|
Next
|
Afterward
|
After this/that
|
As stated previously
|
So
|
Starting with
|
Initially
|
Subsequently
|
Before
|
To conclude with
|
Finally
|
In short
|
Thus
|
Final Thoughts
Sometimes we need to save time by piecing together
information from various resources. However, once we pull our sections
together, we need to go back and make sure we are using transition words to
connect our ideas together and ensure the sections flow properly. Without these
critical transitions, our writing will be choppy and disjointed. So before your
next color team review, go back and review your drafts, and make sure you are
including these critical transition words. This easy step will help your
sections to flow so much more smoothly!
Written by Ashley Kayes, CP APMP
Senior Proposal Consultant, AOC Key Solutions, Inc. (KSI)
LinkedIn
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