Grammar is NOT that important

It is a well-accepted truth that good grammar is needed for RFP responses to win. But is this really true? In our three decades of experience, we’ve seen many RFP responses win that were riddled with grammatical, spelling, and formatting errors. Why did they win? But before we get to that, let’s consider just what exactly is good grammar? I challenge anyone to show me THE definitive English-language grammar book. Yes, many books self-identify as grammar rule books and style guides. But you realize these differ by country, by region, by industry, by academia, by practice, by time period…so what’s the “real” one? And yes, there are accepted conventions that we all use when writing. Personally, I was taught to use two spaces after a period. I was taught that "to decimate" means to reduce BY 10%, not TO 10%. I was taught to separate items in a list with a comma before the "and." Yet today, one space is the norm, “to decimate” means to reduce TO 10%, and the comma before the “and” is a suggestion. And I always spell honour, neighbour, and colour with the "u," much to the amusement of my American colleagues who don't do this. Am I wrong to use these "rules"? Are "they" wrong to ask me to change my ways? The answer is that there is no right or wrong because our language and communication conventions are continually evolving. The approaches I mention above changed over the last several decades, a period of time in which we’ve also seen an unprecedented explosion in the speed of communication and the growth of social media. For those who remember their Latin proverbs, “tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis” (commonly translated as, “times are changed, we also are changed with them"). No one would think of using the myriad spellings and conventions popular in Shakespeare’s day, so why should we be apprehensive that our grammar is wrong? Should it not be enough to just be understood by our audience? Why yes, it should, and we can take away a useful lesson: write for your audience. When you are writing your RFP response, answer the questions. That’s it. Just answer them. Make sure your answers are full and complete and leave no ambiguity in the minds of your evaluators. Sure, check your RFP response for grammar, spelling, syntax, format, style, and anything else. But above all, check that you’ve answered the questions thoroughly. So to answer the question we posed above about why RFPs riddled with grammatical, spelling, and formatting errors won, a possible reason may be that they answered all of the questions, and the evaluators understood the answers. Isn’t that what it’s all about? Of course, the cynics among us could point out other reasons for wins, such as pre-existing relationships or loss-leader pricing, but those are subjects for another day.

Tiberius the Cat (as captured by Karen Galati of CrazyKPhotography) is watching you write your RFP responses and judging you. Always judging you. Don't be like Tiberius.