How to Prepare and Submit Your Bid

Abstract

One day I received a telephone call from the contracting officer at the naval Oceanographic Office. It was during the Vietnam war, and the U.S. Navy was letting a few small contracts for technical translation of documents in French, Chinese, and other languages. For example, the only good pilot’s guide for the Mekong was in Mandarin Chinese, and I had earlier had the difficult task of finding a translator for it. (I found one in NASA.)

How not to do it, particularly when it’s an IFB. The basic road map for proposal writing, with dos and don’ts.