5 proofreading tips for tender writers

Louise Ferguson, Principal Tender Specialist (Perth)

Proofreading your responses prior to review deadlines and before submission is an essential part of the tendering process. Often seen as a luxury rather than necessity, proofreading to ensure consistency of language, terminology and message is a vital element of the tender process to safeguard a successful tender submission. Here are five tips to make checking your tender easier. 

1.           Set your language to English (Australia)

Avoid being seen as lazy in the eyes of evaluators. Tenders submitted in Australia should use Australian spelling. By setting this as the system default, the spellcheck function will be more efficient, however always search for ‘ize’ and replace with ‘ise’ at a minimum.

2.           Eliminate distractions and slow down

Proofreading takes time and focus, which is often not recognised in the overall bid plan. Skimming a document is not proofreading, so make sure enough time is allowed to read the document properly. By removing distractions, you will be able to efficiently concentrate on the task at hand.

3.           Read out loud

Sounds odd, but if you want to improve the readability of your document, reading it aloud (or backwards!) helps to identify any issues.

4.           Use track changes

Use track changes to provide peace of mind to authors that you have not altered the context of the document with your responses.

5.           Refer to a writing guide

A writing guide should have ideally been established at the beginning of the tender process and will be one of your main references when proofreading. For the uninitiated, the purpose of a writing guide or writing style guide is to provide one source of truth relevant to agreed writing conventions, problem words and tender specific terminology to guide authors when drafting tender responses and to ensure a consistent approach throughout the entire tender submission.

Examples of these include:

• Agreed tender-writing conventions:

  • Headings - will you use sentence case in lieu of title case?

  • Dollar values – do you write the number in full, if so, do you use a comma to separate the zeros?

  • Bullet points – how many levels are acceptable? Do you use a comma after each?

• Common problem words usually include words that may or may not use hyphens, capitals or need spacing, for example, off-site versus offsite, tender manager versus Tender Manager, sub contract versus subcontract.

• Tender-specific terminology usually includes product, solution, technical or client-specific terms.

Whether you are new to tender writing, tender reviewing or proofreading, or simply looking to hone your existing skills and practices, we hope that these tips have been helpful. Finally, don’t forget to double check your work and amend the formatting after you have made changes to the document.

Tender Plus operates nationally, is located in Brisbane, Sydney and Perth and offers sophisticated tender consultancy services that are guaranteed to boost the quality of your tenders. If you’d like to learn more about how we can help with this or with tender strategy, tender management, tender coordination, tender writing and more, get in touch! We’d love to help.