This appendix contains copies of some of the checklists from the earlier chapters, arranged on individual pages for ease of use.

Please note that they are copyright and whilst it is reasonable for you to copy them for your own use it is not legal to copy them for wider distribution or commercial purposes.

WRITING CHECKLIST – A SAMPLE STYLE GUIDE

Ten points to remember

• Remember the core themes for your bid – for example, ‘credible’, ‘sustainable’, ‘value for money’.
• Express material so that it is relevant to the client. Answer the question!
• Write easy answers early – if you can, do it now.
• Keep sentences short when you can. Journalists motto: ‘Make it short, make it snappy, make it up?’ (Well, not the last bit.)
• Keep to any page and word count limits at all times.
• If a word isn’t needed, cut it out.
• Use positive language – ‘the <organisation name> will …’; avoid ‘feels’ etc.
• Don’t use marketing speak.
• Break up text with diagrams, tables and pictures – don’t write if you don’t have to!
• Read it aloud when you have finished. If it doesn’t read right, it isn’t written right.

Finally, remember

Fact – feature

Benefit – ‘so what?’ test

Use benefit/how achieved tables where appropriate.

• Singular versus plural
• It’s means ‘it is’; its means ‘belonging to it’.
• SLAs not SLA’s

Answer the question the customer asked, not the one you wanted them to.

EDITING CHECKLIST

• The basics:
  • spelling
  • grammar
  • readability
• The details:
  • abbreviations
  • acronyms
  • logos
  • company names
  • trademarks
  • glossary
  • format
• Proofreading:
  • Have you done enough?
  • Are all questions answered?
• Presentations:
  • spelling
  • grammar
  • readability
  • abbreviations
  • acronyms
  • logos
  • company names
  • trademarks
  • links
  • format

CHECKLIST: COMPARING SUPPLIER AND CLIENT CULTURES

Language. Is English their first language? Are they fluent English speakers who use a different variant of the language, e.g. American or Indian? Will the document need to be translated into another language for delivery? Make sure you use language the readers will be comfortable with and find easy to understand. Do they write formally or informally? (Hint: examine the language of the requirement documents they issued you with – if in doubt use a similar language style.) Make sure you get their name right, and ask permission before using their logo.

Culture. Are you aware of their culture (see the checklist earlier in this chapter) and how it fits, or doesn’t, with that of your own organisation? Have you identified where the cultures support or, where they are different, complement each other? Have you thought of ways of minimising the impact of differing cultural norms? This may be as trivial as choosing to be very precise or formal in the language you use in the proposal (this is the equivalent of wearing a suit when you visit a client where that is the norm).

Values. Do you know what their values (often expressed as ‘core values’) are? It is good practice to support these values in your bid where you can. For instance, one of my clients includes ‘Honesty’ and ‘Trust’ amongst its values. You could support these by offering shared access to, for example, statistics relating to service delivery. Of course, many of these, though expressed in such high-level words, are supported with further detail. This detail can be used to identify specific areas you can help with. These values can also be expressed via straplines and can manifest themselves in broader terms via CSR activities.

Goals. Have you identified their business, social and organisational goals? This is over and above identifying goals for the specific project or service they are buying (you should research that, too – but they are more likely to have told you it, anyway, as part of the procurement briefing documents). Are there any undocumented goals that you are aware of? For example, they may have had bad press from a recent project or service failure and want to be doubly sure it does not happen again, or they may want good publicity as a spin-off from the new project. What do you think they define as ‘success’. How will what you do help them achieve that success?