Proposal Crutch Words – What They Are and Why You Should Avoid Them
Many of us are familiar with crutch words in speech—those filler words that give us more time to think about our response or next point. Common crutch words we may use when we talk include:
- umm
- like
- er
- ah
- right
- and
- so
- anyway
- okay
- well
- like I was saying
- I guess
- you know.
In oral proposals, we commonly practice our presentations
and questions responses while minimizing these crutch words. This is because crutch
words quickly become distracting to the evaluators and detract from our main
points.
But did you know that we tend to use crutch words in our proposal
writing as well? You may have heard crutch words called by other names—fluff, filler
words, or weasel words. However, these all refer to the same bad habit
of cluttering and diluting our message. In this week’s blog, I’ll review some
common proposal writing crutch words and present some strategies from removing
these from your text.
Avoid Words That Indicate Quantity But Lack Precision
Some common crutch words we use in proposals are adjectives,
adverbs, nouns, or verbs that indicate quantity or intensity but lack
precision. We tend to use these words when we don’t have the exact information
readily available, or because we want to add emphasis. However, using these
words will only dilute your message, so you should try to avoid using them in
your proposal text. Some examples of these common crutch words include:
- a lot
- many
- few
- several
- very
- really
- extremely
- nearly
- almost
- quite
- totally
- slightly
Replace these weak crutch words with actual numbers, metrics,
and measurements. For example, instead of: “Our solution saves the Government a
lot of money,” specify how much the Government will save: “Our HVAC, lighting, and
water system efficiencies reduce the Government’s annual energy costs by
$500,000.”
Avoid Unnecessary Adverbs, Which Can Obscure Your Points Rather
Than Support Them
Adverbs make up another category of common crutch words. An
adverb is a word or phrase that modifies or qualifies an adjective, verb, another
adverb, or a word group. The adverb typically expresses a relation of place,
time, circumstance, manner, cause, degree, etc. In the professional writing
world, adverbs are the hallmark of a lazy writer. What’s more, in proposals, certain
adverbs can obscure a point rather than support it, so you should take care to
eliminate these unnecessary and problematic adverbs from your proposal writing.
Some examples are:
- truly
- honestly
- just
- almost
- basically
- actually
- definitely
- literally
- essentially
- absolutely
- seriously
- obviously
- certainly
- probably
- basically
- virtually
Similar to imprecise words of magnitude, we tend to use adverbs
to add emphasis to our writing. However, using these words can actually dilute,
or worse, discredit your message. For example, using “truly” and “honestly” can
come across as insincere, or can cause the evaluator to contemplate why you
felt the need to emphasize your truthfulness or honestly in this case and not
others. So as a rule, you should try to avoid using unnecessary adverbs in your
proposal text.
Avoid Clichés, Which Can Make Your Text Seem Trite
A third category of common proposal crutch words are clichés.
Clichés are overused words that have lost meaning and/or effectiveness. The
word cliché stems from the French word for the sound of a printing plate, which
prints the same thing over and over. Clichés tend to become crutch words for us
in our proposal writing, yet they add little to no value, often come across as
trite, and can even signal to evaluators that you haven’t put much thought into
your narrative. Watch out for these words and try to eliminate or reduce your
use of them in your proposal text. Examples include:
- best-in-class
- industry-leading
- right-size
- cutting edge
- world class
- raising the bar
- reinventing the wheel
- hard and fast
- last but not least
- thinking outside the box
Similar to imprecise words and unnecessary adverbs, removing
clichés from your proposals will declutter your writing and strengthen your
overall message.
Final Thoughts
Proposal writing is certainly an art, and even the best
writers find themselves falling into the trap of using crutch words. However, crutch
words tend to lack precision, obscure the message, and can come across as trite
and even lazy. By knowing your own crutch words, you can search for them in
your writing and replace them with more precise and meaningful language. You
can also keep a list of common crutch words that your team tends to use. Have
your editors search for these crutch words during the editing process and
revise the text to eliminate or reduce their use. Reducing or eliminating the use
of common crutch words will strengthen the writing, making it clearer and more
compelling to the evaluators. This will enable evaluators to focus on and find the
content that addresses the evaluation criteria—and help them to score you
higher.
Written by Ashley Kayes, CP APMP
Director, Quality and Performance Center of Excellence
Key Solutions, Inc. (KSI)
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