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Entries Tagged as 'Sample'

Sherlock Holmes Guide to Finding Hidden Styles in Microsoft Word 2007?

June 13th, 2010 · Comments Off · MS Word

Post written by Ivan Walsh. Follow me on Twitter Sandra wants to know where is the Styles menu option in Microsoft Word 2007. She wants to update her new business plan and add Notes, Messages, Quotes and other pre-formatted styles. The Styles in Microsoft Word 2003 and 2007 seem to be different.

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Kate Winslet’s 7 Smart Ways to Read Business Proposals

June 9th, 2010 · Comments Off · Proposal Writing

Post by Ivan Walsh. Follow me on Twitter. What can Kate Winslet teach you about proof-reading Business Proposals? Watch the movie The Reader and it will make sense. If she was writing this blog, she’d probably say: “Don’t do it all at once! One of the biggest mistakes you can make when revising any business [...]

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Proposal Evaluation: How To Increase Your Acceptance Rate

May 9th, 2010 · View Comments · Proposal Evaluation

What’s your success ratio with proposals? 25% is average. Very few get 50%. I help government agencies evaluate proposals. Most bids that come across my desk make the same errors, use the same flawed strategies and are never accepted. And the next time, they repeat the same mistake. Here are some ways to avoid this. It’s not painful, it just requires effort.

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Ten Tips When Writing for the Web

April 26th, 2010 · Comments Off · Proposal

Writing for the Web requires new a different approach to the writing process. Before you start writing web content, try to understand the basics of information architecture and how navigation systems work.

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Proposal Team Roles and Responsibilities: What is a Bid Manager?

March 16th, 2010 · View Comments · Proposal Writing

What are the roles and responsibilities of the Bid Manager during the proposal development process? The Bid Manager’s role is like that of the Project Manager on an IT project. Their role is to coordinate the team members, analyze the Request For Proposal, allocate resources, define the schedule, keep the deliverables on target, and ensure [...]

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Proposal Writing: 7 Mistakes to Avoid

March 16th, 2010 · Comments Off · Proposal

What’s the main mistake that business writers make when writing their first proposal? The target audience is not clear, the format is incorrect and the tone is wrong. And, the solution doesn’t align with the requirements. So, how you can improve your proposals and win more projects that you bid on? Here are some guidelines [...]

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18 Guaranteed Ways to Improve Your Case Studies

March 1st, 2010 · Comments Off · Proposal, Tips

You’ve never written a case study before, right? You wish there was some nice, easy way to get a handle on this. So, wouldn’t it be very nice if someone –guess who! – put together fifteen of the best articles on case study writing? Well, you’re in luck, we have!

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Case Study Part 3: How to Structure your Case Study

February 11th, 2010 · Comments Off · Proposal, Tips

Case studies and white papers are very effective marketing tools if you want to promote the benefits of your product or services. Case studies are the first most popular device used to promote the business. If you plan to write a case study, this article will give you a better understanding  about this type  of [...]

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Case Study Part 2: Why You Must Focus On a Single Issue

February 10th, 2010 · Comments Off · Proposal, Tips

As mentioned earlier, a case study is a soft-sell sales document. Its role is to highlight your abilities without resorting to market-speak and sales clichés.

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How Many Hours Per Week Do Actually Spend Working?

February 10th, 2010 · Comments Off · Proposal, Tips

How much time do you spend working every week? I don’t mean being in the office, but actually working. You have 37.5 hours every week, but how much is actually spent doing what you’re paid to do? When I say working I mean developing real outputs (e.g. content); this includes illustrations, diagrams, publishing etc – [...]

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Posterous Tip: How To Add Tags When Blogging by Email

February 9th, 2010 · Comments Off · Proposal, Tips

Do you use Posterous to update your site? I prefer to use Yahoo and Gmail to update the site rather than thru the Posterous site. Why? It’s easier to add images. You can add tags to your posts when you blog by email. Here’s how.

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5 UK-Based Technical Writers You Should Follow on Twitter

February 9th, 2010 · Comments Off · Proposal, Tips

From Shakespeare, Graham Greene, JK Rowling to Colum McAndrew, Ellis Pratt, David Farbey. All have all one thing in common – great writing! As my career started in the Baker Street, London in the 90s, I’ve always carried fond memories of my time in England. Here are some UK based technical writers you might want [...]

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5 Reasons You Should Leave Facebook and Join LinkedIn

February 9th, 2010 · Comments Off · Proposal, Tips

I’ve started to use my social networks, such as Facebook more strategically rather than adopting a ‘shotgun approach’. In other words, I try to leverage each site by seeing the opportunities it offers and then using these. Recently, I’ve started to shift away from Facebook and moved to LinkedIn.

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Using Google Wave to Write Technical Documentation in Real Time

January 18th, 2010 · Comments Off · Proposal, Tips

Maeve asks on LinkedIn how we can use Google Wave to write technical documents. Well, the first consideration is that Google Wave is not designed as a tech authoring tool but for collaboration and ‘almost’ real-time information exchange. Saying that, it does offer many benefits if you need to plan/coordinate/review documents in a networked environment. [...]

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How To Differentiate Yourself As A Technical Writer

January 12th, 2010 · Comments Off · Proposal, Tips

Tom Peters says, “the value of services will continue to fall” and that the only way to survive is to differentiate yourself from the competition. Is this true? How do you as a technical writer make yourself stand out from the crowd? If you don’t, what impact could this have on your career? How to [...]

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