5 hot tips for word-perfect business award entries

Entering a business award can take stamina! In addition to writing responses to the entry questions, there’s the editing and proofreading of the draft entry to contend with. Sadly, many award entrants overlook the need to edit and proofread their entries before they submit them, meaning that their entries are sub-par. If you consider all the time you’ve invested in drafting your award entry, why wouldn’t you want it to be word perfect? The world’s bestselling authors have copy editors to help them get their copy just right. So why shouldn’t you? In fact, copy editing is an essential part of the award entry writing process. Why? Because it will dramatically improve your draft entry. You too can benefit from the boost that Award Writers’ expert copy editors give to draft award entries. Good copy editors are worth the investment. They’ll transform what could be a mediocre draft award entry into a compelling entry.

What is a copy editing and why is it important for business awards?

Copy editing is the stage of the content production process between writing the award entry and proofreading. If numerous people have contributed to the writing of your award entry, you’ll know that the content needs a professional polish so that it reads as if written by one person. Other times, you may have written the award yourself and want to be sure that it’s word perfect. At these times, using a professional copy editor is invaluable. They’ll turn your draft into professionally written content that flows, is grammatically correct and that is consistent in tone and style throughout. Editing is more complex than purely proofreading. It can involve making major changes to your award entry draft. But it’s time well spent as it will turn an average award entry into a winning award submission. Your copy editor will review your draft submission and make changes to it, sometimes rewriting or restructuring parts of the draft, to create a final award entry that is clear and succinct. They’ll proofread it too, as copy editors are usually great proofreaders. Award Writers’ parent company, Proof Communications, has great proofreaders to assist you.

Here are our 5 hot tips to help you submit a word perfect award entry

1. Check your draft several times

Making multiple edit runs is especially useful when you’ve written the award submission yourself.

2. Give yourself time to rest before editing

Once you’ve written your award entry, give yourself a break before you start editing it. Getting away from it for a while will give you a fresh perspective when you come back to it. You’ll read it with fresh eyes and may end up rewriting the whole draft, which is a large part of the editing process.

3. Read the draft aloud before you make any changes

Reading your draft award entry aloud will give you a chance to review your writing voice, the overall structure of your submission, and the flow of the words—all things you might need to revise as you edit. It will also alert you to any sentences that don’t make sentence or that are tricky to read. You’ll want to edit these to make sure all is ship-shape.

4. Keep your language simple

For readability’s sake, use simple language and sentence structure. Yours won’t be the only award entry received. The judges will be wading through many, perhaps even hundreds of entries. Make your writing stand out by keeping the words to the limits, if any, and writing in plain, simple English. There are lots of ways to cut the waffle when writing awards, and indeed any business documents. For example:

• For the purpose of…instead use…To
• In order to…instead use…To
• A wide range of… instead use… Many
• For the reason that… instead use…Because, Since

Also, be consistent with your style. For example, if you hyphenate a word in one place, make sure to hyphenate it throughout your document.

5. Use headers, bullets and numbered lists to break up the content in your award entries

Using these techniques makes it easy for your reader to get the heart of the award entry and makes the content easier to read. Nobody wants to read an award submission that seemingly goes on forever.

And one final tip:

If you don’t feel comfortable with your own writing and editing skills, have an experienced copy editor look at your work. Winning business awards is good for business. So make the most of your opportunity to win with great copy editing. The great news is that with the Award Writers team at Proof Communications writing or editing your award entries, you’ll almost guaranteed to become a finalist. More than 90% of the business award entries we write for clients become finalists. And of these, more than 65% win their business awards. We’ve written and edited hundreds of successful award submissions for clients from engineering, healthcare, law, construction, media and marketing, real estate, IT and professional services – almost every industry you can think of. Some are SMEs; others are national and global companies. But all have an inspiring story to share. Isn’t it time you shared your story as well? Contact us today to discuss your award entry with our professional writing team.