Writing quality: Seven tips and tools to quickly improve your writing

I confess that I am not the best editor of my own work. I sometimes overlook misspelled words and don’t always use the correct punctuation. However, I implement these seven helpful tips and tools to improve my writing quality:

1. Revisit your work after a “cool down” period to edit and refine it.
2. Conduct a final edit to verify that the document has a compliant format, structure, and length.
3. Use Microsoft (MS) Word’s Editor feature to fix spelling, grammar, and language issues (clarity, conciseness, formality, inclusiveness, and punctuation).
4. Consider adding the Grammarly online writing assistant tool to detect issues and recommend improvements.
5. Use MS Word’s Read Aloud feature to verify that your document sounds good.
6. Use MS Word’s Insights function to verify that the sentences per paragraph and words per sentence are not too long and that you have an acceptable Flesch-Kincaid reading grade level.
7. Use MS Word’s Accessibility Check to verify that your documents meet Section 508 compliance requirements as needed.

By Brenda Crist, Vice President at Lohfeld Consulting Group, MPA, CPP APMP Fellow

Lohfeld Consulting Group has proven results specializing in helping companies create winning captures and proposals.
As the premier capture and proposal services consulting firm focused exclusively on government markets, we provide expert assistance to government contractors in Capture Planning and Strategy, Proposal Management and Writing, Capture and Proposal Process and Infrastructure, and Training. In the last 3 years, we’ve supported over 550 proposals winning more than $170B for our clients—including the Top 10 government contractors. Lohfeld Consulting Group is your “go-to” capture and proposal source! Start winning by contacting us at www.lohfeldconsulting.com and join us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

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