Persuasive Business Proposals: Writing to Win More Customers, Clients, and Contracts

Editing: A Five-Step Process

Perhaps an even more important issue than how much editing you should do is how you should do it. Most people were never taught true editing skills. Instead, what they learned to do was proofread.

Proofreading is part of editing, the final step before you print and deliver the proposal, but it’s not the whole job. In fact, there are four other steps that must precede proofreading.

Warning: Don’t Edit Immediately After Writing. You must let your writing “cool” before you edit it. If you look at it immediately after finishing the first draft, you’ll miss a lot of errors and problems. Apparently, this is a variation of the Gestalt principle of completion of form. Because you know what you meant to say, you are unable ...