17 May Content Planning
‘By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail’ Benjamin Franklin.
The key to a successful bid is the content you provide for the assessors – without the correct content you are setting yourself up to fail. As Benjamin Franklin highlighted, preparation is key; from baking to going on holiday, it means the difference between success or failure.
Plan content before you begin to write, know what you want to put in and what you are answering and need to get across. The first stage to content planning is to know your goal. What are the assessors looking for? Check the assessment criteria and any specific requirements, and use all this as a basis for your response.
Set out a skeleton document using the key highlights from the questions or the assessment criteria as section headings. This will not only help ensure that you have covered all the requirements but help the assessor to mark it.
With the layout ready to go, you can start putting the actual content in. Check the answer requirements, word limits, restrictions on images and formatting so you know what you have to work with. Smaller word limits will mean selecting the best bits. When you have a very basic format to work with, you need to keep the assessor interested without the use of images and bullet points potentially to break the text up.
Now you have all the tools ready to go, you can write your responses. Remember – take your time and keep referring back to the criteria to stay on point. Good luck and hopefully you are on your way to winning that work!
