In book - Discourse Research in the

Malaysian Context (Eds.) Mohd Kasim, Z.,

CHAPTER 3 Mohd Jan, J., Sharmini, S. (2020). pp. 54-85.

Regulating the Bidding: A Genre Analysis of Invitation to Tender (ITT)

Afida Mohamad Ali, Azwin Hasyana Azhar and Fatima Ajmal

Introduction

Tendering is such common practice for all sorts of construction projects and services such as

in universities and government institutions. It is extraordinarily wide for obvious reasons, but

what remains hidden is the information in each other's bids that competing tenderers would

like to know about and the processes that go behind the decision of a successful tender bid.

Although the tender issuer may inform a vendor on how his company's bid became the chosen

one, in most cases, how a tender bid is selected may not be widely disclosed as the discursive

processes in choosing the successful tenderer is often occluded and confidential. This may be

due to commercial aspects of rivalry and confidentiality, and the perceived ethics of not giving

too much information as practised by the tender issuer. This study will focus on the common

tendering process beginning from the genre of Invitation to Tender (ITT). However, it will not

delve into the hidden and inaccessible practices of how a tender application gets accepted.

Companies, large businesses, public and governmental institutions invite bids and

tenders for certain projects and activities such as engineering, construction and architectural

works or even purchasing particular equipment and goods. They issue a Request For Tender

(RFT) which is a formal and structured invitation to qualified vendors or suppliers to submit

competitive offers to provide raw materials, goods, or services (Smith, 2017). This invitation,

which is also known as an invitation to tender (ITT) or tender notice, marks the beginning of

the tender process. The ITT is advertised to the public and contains specific prescriptive

specifications or requirements of the service needed. In response to this invitation, a tender

which is “a formal offer to execute work or supply goods at a fixed price” is submitted by a
prospective supplier to the client (Mukherjee, 2005, p. 2240). Once the tender is received by

the client or organization, it goes through a well-defined tender process within a specific

timeline. This regulated procedure is supposed to guarantee a fair and transparent selection

process between the company that issues the tender and the supplier (Lewis, 2007). For the

company, it needs to ensure that all potential bidders receive similar information specified

in the ITT (Chrysostom, 2019). In short, all the specifications in the ITT are regulated to

ensure fair competition. These specifications that equally function as the rhetorical features

typically used in this type of genre will be the main focus of this study.

The ITT is regarded as a professional and specialised genre. As stated by Bhatia (2008),

the producer and receiver of a genre belong to specific discourse communities and maintain

their specific professional practices. Additionally, since a genre is a form of social action of

the community that practices it (Miller, 1984), it has communicative purposes or intentions

(Swales, 1990). For ITT, it functions to regulate the specific receiver’s actions via instructions

in order to serve the demands and needs of the producer. According to Thorpe and Bailey

(1996, p. 2), a tender notice invites relevant parties to make an offer to the principal which

must be capable of accepting the offer, thereby creating a legally binding contract. It involves

a “complex business process and generates a series of contractually related legal liabilit ies”

(ibid.).

Currently, available information on the specifications of tender notices is mainly

described in business and construction websites which usually contain links to governme nt -

related procurement procedure guides or policies that direct suppliers on what needs to be

done (Wood & Fitzalan, 2015). Such guides tend to be country and company-specific, for

instance the UK has its “England and Wales Public Procurement Policy 2020”; Malaysia has

its Government Procurement Policy (Xavier & Chew, 2012); the Sime Darby company has its

Procurement and Vendor Governance which sits under the Code of Business Conduct.
 Research on tender have largely focussed on what comes after the tender invitation

but seldom on the invitation itself, i.e. tender offers or bids by the suppliers, tender evaluation

and decision-making by the client, professional procurement practices or malpractices

(Chrysostom, 2019), and contextual factors of the clients and suppliers. For example, using

case studies on abuse of position, falsified documentation and unreasonable price, Othman

et al. (2010) investigated the weaknesses of Malaysia's public procurement system and found

abuse, tampering and corrupt practices in the procedures. The study concluded that the large

number of funds allocated to public procurement combined with excessive human

involvement opportunities opened avenues that increase the risk of system abuse,

profiteering and corruption. This grim scenario is further analysed in a policy-related paper

by Jones (2013, p. 1) on the shortcomings of Malaysia’s procurement system in terms of

inefficient procurement planning and weak drafting of specifications, insufficient use of

open competitive tendering, and lack of monitoring and evaluation. All these are said to have

led to “cases of procured goods, services and works that are being paid for well above market

prices, under-utilised, and substandard” (ibid.). Amirsoleimani (2014) evaluated the

procurement methods in the Middle East construction industry in order to identify the

preferred procurement method, the factors affecting the bidding strategy of the contractors

and the factors that are taken into consideration by the contractors before deciding to bid for

a project.

Numerous studies have also argued for ethical and good governance when confronted

by challenges and malpractices in procurement systems. As tendering involves

procurement-related legislation and regulatory (Adham & Chamhuri, 2012; Jones, 2013),

most studies have centred on challenges and strategies for improvement. Xavier and Xavier

(2016) insisted on reform to Malaysia’s public procurement principles with better regulation,

transparency and accountability in the procurement regime in order to increase investors’

confidence, boost the economy and help the national companies and suppliers. Similarly,

Ismail et al. (2017) found non-compliance by suppliers where they falsify their documents

during the tender application submission stage, which may reduce the competitiveness of

tenders and affect the overall project performance. In a descriptive cross-sectional survey

on tender advertisements in Tanzania’s newspapers, Chrysostom’s (2019) found substantial

weaknesses on the tender notices prepared by procuring entities as they comply by only 78%.

Hossam, Ibrahim and El-Malt (2019) conducted a survey to identify factors which affect

quality of tender documents and also the importance index to the factors affecting the quality

of tender documents. The respondents of the survey were expert contractors and consultants.

Findings revealed thirty-four sub-factors categorized under nine main factors whereby the

respondents placed high importance on the cover letter, the name and address of the

procuring entity, the explanation of where and when tenders must be submitted and where

and when the tenders will be opened, tenderer information (brief description of the work and

its cost), description of the work, location of the site, site boundaries, names of parties and

lists of drawings, and description of the project and its programme.

Tender Procedure

Proper procurement method is followed to make a successful tender. Rajpurohit (2013)

outlines seven main steps in a tender process: 1. The issuing organisation determines a

tender process. Here the organisation determines what it needs from the vendors and issues

a tender which can be of various types. 2. The Request for Tender is prepared where it

outlines what is required, along with contractual requirements and how the tenderers should

respond. This tender request or invitation to tender is commonly found in the form of Tender

Notices which are usually advertised in newspapers and online. 3. This notice invites the

suppliers or vendors "to provide a competitive proposal to win a contract for the supply of
 their products and services" (Rajpurohit, 2013, p. 11). It also describes the goods or services

to be procured in terms of work involved, technical specifications and standard

requirements. The issuing company states the terms and conditions that must be followed

by the tenderer, and this include mandatory qualifications of the supplier, e.g. performance

history, licensing, magnitude of completed projects, technical and financial capabilities.

Information on how to purchase the tender documents, price of documents, the tender

briefing, and submission of the tender is also outlined in the tender notice. 4. The supplier

or vendor must observe the requirements and meet all the criteria for successful tender

project submission. 5. The tender proposals are evaluated by the issuing organisations based

on how well the service or goods offer value for money and quality. 6. The supplier is then

informed on the result of their tender submission. 7. Finally, the successful supplier and the

relevant organisation will establish a formal contract and agreement. This study limits itself

only to the analysis of tender notices as a genre and determining the move structure.

While all these studies have dealt with the socio-cultural disciplinary practices

surrounding the ITT, this study analyses the rhetorical structure of the ITT following

Swales’ (1990) genre-based approach and moves analysis framework and identifies the

language features that are typically used in this specialised genre that have governed the

social practices of tendering. This is in line with Hodge and Kress’s (1988, p. 7) notion that

“genres only exist in so far as a social group declares and enforces the rules that constitute

them”.

Theoretical Framework – A Genre-based Approach

Genre is often described as a class of communicative events that are formed in response to

some shared set of communicative purposes (Swales, 1990, p. 58). For example, in the

case of laboratory reports, the communicative purpose is to report on experimental work. By

producing the genre, writers react to these communicative purposes and the “environment of

[the genre’s] production and reception, including its historical and cultural associations”

(Swales, 1990, p. 46).

The genre-based approach which was established by Swales (1990) revolves on the

procedure of move analysis to understand how a text is organized and also how the socio-

cultural context influences the production of the genre. In his analysis of research

introductions, Swales presented a model of four moves to explain the rhetorical structure of

the moves in the article introductions. The model, Create a Research Space (CARS), mentions

that each move is comprised of a series of steps to instantiate the move. A move is described

as a unit of language that includes the writer’s communicative purpose, which defines the

characteristics of the genre. For Biber et al. (2007, p. 30), moves are “semantic and functional

units of texts that have specific communicative purposes”. Each move possesses its particular

intention and helps to achieve the overall text’s purposes. The length of the move can vary

from less than a sentence to much longer stretches (Biber et al., 2007, p. 31).

Moves can be described on the rhetorical level (by looking at the move’s purpose)

and on the linguistic level (by looking at the usage of sentence connectors, mood, tense, etc.).

Each move can be instantiated by one step or a certain number of steps, the alternative ways

of accomplishing the purpose of the move. Mirador (2000) contends that a move is a logical

strategy adopted by the communicators in written and spoken discourse. Such a strategy is

kept to give a unified functional meaning of a sentence or group of sentences in a written or

spoken text. For Swales (1990), the “move” and “steps or sub-steps” is a regular pattern that

appears in a certain order. “Move” as a unit refers to the author’s purpose, where the author

expresses the target message through a move structure. A “step” is lower than “move” in the

text unit, and it assists the move to provide a more detailed perspective.

A move in the text is a functional unit for a set of identifiable rhetorical purpose. It
can vary in size but usually contain at least one proposition. Also, moves and steps combine

to give a text its internal coherence. To identify the moves, the analyst looks for the

communicative purpose in all the sentences or parts of sentences (Bhatia, 1993). Genre

analysis is thus used to determine whether communicative purposes (recognised by the

members of a particular community) are the motivating factors in shaping the structure of a

text. Bhatia’s main idea (1993) in genre analysis is to describe genre texts and how the social-

cultural context influences the genre. It investigates not only how a text is organised and what

lexico-grammatical features form the genre but also why the written features are different

from other texts.

Another aspect that Bhatia (2005) introduced is the practice of genre-mixing, which

has become relatively common due to the combination of communicative functions,

especially in professional discourse. These mixed genres are also called hybrid genre (Bhatia,

2004). Hybridity is an umbrella term for all kinds of blending, mixing, and combining that

occur in genres and texts (Mäntynen & Shore, 2019). For example, Catenaccio’s (2008)

analysis on the generic features of press releases revealed elements of hybridity. The textual

and linguistic features of press releases indicate that their communicative purposes fall within

the informative-promotional continuum. Her study also indicated the demarcation between

informative and promotional textual features found in advertisement-like features such as the

company logo and contact details. This hybrid nature of discourse can also be seen in the

discourse of motherhood where good mothering is commodified and marketized for public

consumption (Krzyżanowska, 2020) whereby “commodification’ of discourse is how a non-

promotional genre contains promotional strategies as a form of marketisation of the particular

genre. (Fairclough,1992, 1994).

Genre-mixing – Quasi-legal Discourse

Tender notices, i.e. open tenders, are extensively advertised in a variety of media, to allow

all interested suppliers an opportunity to bid for the project. Wood and Fitzalan (2015, p.

4) explain that in terms of the legal status of ITT or RFT, when an ITT is issued by a client

or company requesting that a tenderer submits a tender, is it seen as an invitation to treat,

of which the tenderer responds, negotiate, and make an offer with a contract in mind.

However, because a legally binding contract is not usually established until the tender

process has been completed and a tender has been accepted, an ITT is regarded as an initia l

formation towards a process contract (p. 6). This gives the ITT a quasi-legal characteristic.

In addition, the quasi-legal nature of ITT can be seen in the language used, which

usually contains terms and conditions, standard regulations and requirements that are typical

in prescriptive legal discourse. It is also promotional with the presence of peripheral features

like letterheads with company logos, company credentials, targeting the market and soliciting

response (Catenaccio, 2008). Echoing Catenaccio’s (2008) argument on the hybridity of a

genre, the tender notice does not strictly attempt to promote the company’s services or

product, but rather to promote the company by displaying its engagement with other

companies and that the company still exists and is thriving. In an analysis of university’s

recruitment posts or job advertisements, corporate and commodity advertising are combined,

allowing a mixture of policy and promotional discourse (Feng, 2019). Different communicative

functions such as promotional, informational, regulatory, instructive and relational are blended

together in an interdiscursive relationship to attract potential candidates.

Bhatia (1993) argues that the description and evaluation of a product or service in a

positive manner are the most used strategies in promotional discourse in advertising. The

tender notice can be seen to use four of Bhatia’s (2004) nine moves of advertisements, i.e.

letterhead with company logo, company credentials, targeting the market and soliciting a
response. For the semiotic element in the letterhead, the study followed Bateman’s (2009,

p. 1502) Genre and Multimodality model (GeM) which argues that “social practices are

seen as the context for the production of multimodal artefacts”. These artefacts are linked

to the rhetorical layer of the text and form a text-image (verbal-visual) relationship. This

means that a move or step may extend its communicative functions to a semiotic feature.

While advertisements can be informal, the tender notice leans more towards the language of

legality with its high degree of formality, its professionally exclusive nature and archival in

a sense that it relates to rights and obligations (Jackson 1995). Its quasi-legal status gives the

tender notice a prescriptive and descriptive communicative function and may also fall under

what is called substantive provisions, which is principally concerned with establishing legal

commands, requirements, prohibitions, permissions and authorisations (William, 2007).

Apart from analysing the move structure of a genre, the linguistic features are also

analysed to distinguish the communicative purposes. The linguistic features and pragmatic

function of a particular text are essential as they also contribute to the communicative

function of a genre. For instance, a text that requires an action to be taken uses performative

utterances. Especially in prescriptive legal texts, “the legal performative is considered the

most straightforward, trouble-free example of the performative utterance, and the

performative utterance is, in turn, the most straightforward class of speech acts” (Kurzon,

1986, p. 54). As tender notices require an action to be taken by the bidders, it follows the

prescriptive nature of legal texts. With legal requirements, prescriptive legal texts contain an

abundance of implicit performative classes, e.g. when regulating human behaviour, the

modal auxiliaries shall, may and must are intrinsically performative (Palmer, 2001).
Method

Data

Thirty tender notices or ITT were randomly selected by using an online search. They are

categorised under open tender which allows anyone to submit a tender to supply the goods

or services required, and offers an equal opportunity to any organisation to submit a tender.

The data consisted of an array of deliverables, e.g. construction, supplies and other services.

All the ITT belonged to Malaysian companies of which eleven are in the Malay language and

nineteen in English. Malay tender notices were included for the simple reason that genre exists

across languages and according to Hyland (2002, p. 2) “language is seen as embedded in (and

constitutive of) social realities since it is through recurrent use and typification of

conventionalised forms that individuals develop relationships, establish communities and get

things done”. Genres are the consequences of the action of discourse participants acting within

their specific contexts and who possess the awareness of existing generic types (Kress, 1989).

This study argues that such conventionalised rhetorical forms in tender notices are similarly

practised in both English and Malay tender notices. All tender notices were published by big

and small Malaysian companies from diverse backgrounds that include both private and

government agencies. Data collection was carried out until it reached a saturation point.

According to Saunders et al. (2018), saturation has attained widespread acceptance as a

methodological principle in qualitative research.

Analytical Procedure

Mix-method research was used in this study where the data analysis was done in two phases:

i) the qualitative analysis of tender notices to find move and steps was done by manually

annotating the data for moves and steps, ii) the quantitative analysis to find the frequency of

moves and steps in the data. In the first phase, the analysis followed Biber et al. (2007, p. 34)
in determining the genre’s rhetorical purpose, identifying and grouping functions in text

segments, refining the coding of moves with inter-rater reliability check and finally,

developing a protocol for moves and steps. Coding involved assigning attributes or categories (in

this case, labelling of move or step using gerunds to emphasize primary author agency) to specific,

meaningful units of analysis such as a sentence, phrase or word in the documents. These meaningful

units or segments must each contain at least one proposition. Following Moreno and Swales (2018)

segmentation protocol for moves and steps, the segments were interpreted based on the

communicative functions inferred from the sentences used and also by reference to linguist ic

clues from Bhatia’s (2004) move structure of advertisements and secondary literature on

tender. Clear-cut cases happen when a meaningful unit contains a particular single attribute or

proposition. However, in cases where embedding of several different new propositions occur

in one meaningful unit, then each of the proposition is labelled as a step.

The study adopted Mayring’s (2002, p. 120) notion of evolutionary coding where

categories evolve from theoretical considerations into a full-fledged operational list based on

empirical data. Several revisions were made to the coding schema which was mainly about

deciding which segments that can be listed under a particular move, and thus becoming the

steps for that move. It was decided that if a segment contained related information to the

previous proposition in a move, then the segment was maintained as a step under that move

(for example, see Table 4.1 for the four steps for Move 7).

As mentioned before, an ITT contains elements of advertising with two semiotic

features that required the coding schema to be refined. Both features pertained to the generic

design and layout of the text. The first is the use of tables which Bateman (2009) termed as

layout unit, and the second is the letterhead (company logo combined with the name of the

company) which is a base unit. Most of the tender notices had 1 to 2 tables placed in the

centre of the document. The placement of such elements gives them more informational value
(Kress & van Leeuwen, 1996), and they are functionally motivated (Bateman, 2009). These

tables (a minimum of 1 to 4 rows with 2 to 8 columns) contained new, important but brief

information about the tender project, e.g. title of tender and tender number, tender

requirements, price of tender document, tender briefing/briefing details, place of selling

tender document and tender submission, time of selling tender document, tender

opening/closing date and location, qualification of tenderers and so forth. Each tender notice

may or may not have the same categories displayed in the table, and the arrangement of the

categories in the table was also different across texts. Following the tables are usually long

paragraphs and sentences which sometimes reiterate the same points from the tables. On

closer inspection, the sentences appeared to be the standard regulations to be followed by the

supplier.

Hence, the decision was made that since there were tables in the middle of the texts,

analysis of the texts began from the top centre where the letterhead is positioned, moving

down to the left and to the right repetitively till the end of the document. For the tables, the

analysis began from the left-most column to the right-most in order to derive the moves and

steps. This is in line with Bateman’s (2009) notion of text flow which is linear-interrupted

text, where diagrams, images, tables and such may occasionally interrupt text-flow, but the

two-dimensional space is not used to communicate additional meanings. For the second

element, which is the letterhead, the study categorised it under Establishing Credentials. This

is because a letterhead acts as the first introduction of a company’s image, distinguishing the

company from another (Holly, 2018). It also gives a good impression to the audience as it

implies professionalism and promotes the company’s corporate identity as well.

The reputation of the company is heightened as the letterhead aids in adding authority

to the company's branding. Also, a letterhead is often used in all official correspondences

because it is considered a legal document. For the second phase of analysis, the moves and
 steps were quantified for the frequency of occurrences. The study also consulted a

disciplinary expert from the industry to further understand and clarify the information in the

tender notice and the sequence of the moves.

Results and Discussion

Move- step Structure

The move-step structure of the ITT is presented in Table 4.1. The study identified nine moves

in the data, highlighting six moves that are obligatory (present in 80% or more), two to be

usual (50–79% present) and one as optional (< 50%). Table 4.1 also displays the quantitative

results of the moves and steps (in percentages) found in the data. Tables 4.2 to 4.6 display the

moves and steps in the tender notices, along with examples taken from the data. The linguist ic

features that signal the moves and steps are marked in bold in order to highlight their usage.

The six obligatory moves form the core communicative functions of an Invitation to

Tender (see Table 4.1). The first obligatory move-step combination (M1s1, Establis hing

credentials - Display of letterhead) can be seen in the form of the company’s logo and name

signalled with either a coloured or monochrome image (see Table 4.2). With a 100%

occurrence, this is the most common and important attention-getting device practised by

companies issuing the tender notice. According to Longacre (1992), a letterhead serves to

identify the organisation that has sent out the document. Pragmatically, the indication of

the author is most likely to be given in the text when the necessity is high, in order to

demonstrate authority and impose rules on people (Dubroskaya, 2012), which is the case

for ITT. Move 1 contains another three steps, M1s2 (Stating the website of the company),

M1s3 (Stating company registration number) and M1s4 (Introducing the company). These

three steps are used mainly by private companies rather than government ones, probably due

to the need to impress the international crowd and show good reputation. The registrat i on
number of the company is signalled by a noun phrase Company no. and numerical digit s ,

e.g. 902884.

Table 4.1 Move-step Structure of Tender Notices

Moves Code Description of moves and steps Frequency

and Steps of
occurrence
(%)
Move 1 Establishing credentials
Step 1 M1s1 Displaying letterhead - logo and name of 100.0
organisation (issuer)
Step 2 M1s2 Stating the website of the company 23.3
Step 3 M1s3 Stating company registration number 23.3
Step 4 M1s4 Introducing the company 26.7
Move 2 M2 Declaration of the document (Tender Notice/ 96.7
announcement/offer)
Move 3 M3 Inviting the vendor 96.7
Step 1 M3s1 Specifying the vendor 83.3
Move 4 M4 Detailing vendor’s scope of work 100.0
Step 1 M4s1 Stating tender number and title of project 96.7
Step 2 M4s2 Requirement for vendor qualifications 73.3
Move 5 M5 Instruction on tender briefing/ site inspection 70.0
Step 1 M5s1 Stating time, date and venue of tender briefing 60.0
Step 2 M5s2 Indicating compulsory attendance 50.0
Step 3 M5s3 Stating condition for tender briefing 36.7
Move 6 M6 Instruction for purchasing tender documents 100.0
Step 1 M6s1 Stating time, date and venue of opening and closing 100.0
date for document purchase
Step 2 M6s2 Stating the price of the document 83.3
Step 3 M6s3 Specifying methods of payment 86.7
Step 4 M6s4 Stating additional requirements for tender purchase 86.7

Move 7 M7 Instruction for submission of tender documents 90.0

Step 1 M7s1 Stating address, venue, closing date and time, for 93.3
tender submission
Step 2 M7s2 Specifying mode for tender submission 63.3
Step 3 M7s3 Stating vendor's responsibility for incurred costs 26.7
Step 4 M7s4 Indicating conditions for late submission 33.3
Move 8 M8 Stating company disclaimer 70.0
Move 9 M9 Soliciting response (for further inquiries) 46.7

In M1s4, the writer introduces the company with a short yet impressive background

of the company and its core business. It usually states how the company began, signalled by
passive verbs like is established, was set by, is engaged in the exploration, development and

production operations for the Garraf Oil Field pursuant to…. These are the peripheral features

that make this genre almost promotional.

The second obligatory move (M2 Declaration of the document) (Table 4.2) refers to

the name of the genre itself, which can be varied, e.g. Tender Notice, Notice of Tender, Tender

Announcement, and Tender Offer. It is written in a matter of fact manner and clearly placed

at the top position of the ITT to announce the client’s intention. As stated by Dubroskaya

(2012, p. 303), notices are “not simply a linguistic accompaniment to the physical

environment: through language forms they construct our living environment, imposing

certain forms of social behaviour and inculcating particular values in the community”. The

third obligatory move (M3 Inviting the vendor) (93.7%) is where the writer or client tenders

are invited, and this is followed by Specifying the vendor (Step 1) accounting for 86.7% of

the total corpus. Along with the author, another important pragmatic element in genre analysis

is the recipient of the notice, i.e. somebody whose social behaviour is regulated by notices.

For this purpose to be achieved, addressees must be able to identify themselves as part of the

target audience (Durbroskaya, 2012). This move is signalled by the company inviting the

suppliers, using the performative verb invite, sometimes in the present tense invite prospective

bidders, invites tenders, invites experienced and qualified contractors... or passive

constructions, Tenderers are invited from contractors…/ Tawaran adalah dipelawa … (Offers

are invited…).

Searle (1976) classifies invitations as directives, whose illocutionary point is that the

hearer does a future action which is tender submission. By initiating an invitation, the speaker

wants the hearer to supply the goods or services via tendering. This move is substantiated with

a step, Specifying the vendor in terms of qualifications (M3s1), signalled by the past tense

verb registered followed with the general qualifications of the tenderers, e.g. …contractors
registered with CIBD (Construction Industry Development Board) with specified grade and

category/ Ministry of Finance Malaysia under the relevant code and types of registration…

Specifying the exact vendor along with prerequisites from the beginning enables potential

vendors or suppliers to decide early on their eligibility status for the project and also sends a

stringent message on the kind of suppliers that are approved by procurement laws.

The regulation of potential suppliers begins early in the ITT with the exact specification

of the type of vendor. Contractors or tenderers are immediately narrowed down to what the

client requires. For government tenders, construction suppliers are mostly required to be

registered with the Malaysian Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) which is a

national body established by an Act of Parliament (Act 38 of 2000) to oversee the sustainability

and growth of construction enterprises across the country. If the tender relates to technical

supplies, then the supplier must be registered with the Ministry of Finance. In short, the

tenderer must be Malaysian registered companies. However, ITT from private companies does

not state this specification as only contractors seeking to participate in public sector

infrastructure delivery must be registered. This can also be seen for the tender briefing where

conditions are not specified for the tenderer if the client is from the private sector.

Table 4.2 Examples of Moves 1 to 3

Move 1: Establishing credentials

M1s1: Display of letterhead - logo and name of organization (issuer)

1.

2.
M1s2: Stating the website of the company
1. https://www.petronas.com/join-us/be-our-partner/pcihby-tender

2. www.utar.edu.my

M1s3: Stating company registration number

1. (CORE REG NO: 331374-K)

2. MRT – Company No. 902884V

M1s4: Introducing the company

1. PETRONAS Carigali Iraq Holding B.V (PCIHBV) is engaged i n the

exploration, development and production operations for the Garraf Oil Field
pursuant to a Development and Production Service Contract (DPSC) with South
Oil Company of Republic of Iraq.

2. ECERDC is a statutory body established under the East Coast Economic Region
Development Act 2008 to implement all programs and initiatives identified under
East coast Economic Region Master Plan

Move 2: Declaration of the document (Tender Notice/ announcement)

1. NOTICE OF TENDER

2. TENDER ANNOUNCEMENT

Move 3: Inviting the vendor

1. PCIHBV, as the operator of the Garraf Oil Field, hereby invites prospective

bidders…

2. Kumpulan Wang Persaraan (Diperbadankan) invites tenders…

M3S1: Specifying the vendor

1. Tenderer(s) are invited from contractors registered with CIDB with specified

grade and category, which is still valid and are allowed to tender at the point of
 tender with the following:

2. Tender are invited from the contractors registered with the Ministry of Finance

Malaysia under the relevant code and types of registration…

The fourth obligatory move Detailing vendor’s scope of work (M4) (100%), describes the goods

and services to be procured, the work involved, technical specifications or details relating to

requirements, deliverables or outcomes of the project (Rajpurohit, 2013). One obligatory step is

distinguished for this move, Stating tender number and title of project (M4s1). The tender notice

must have the tender number for easy reference and record purposes (see Table 4.3). Stating

tender number is indicated by a series of alphanumeric codes, e.g.

UiTM/B2/PR/SHR/B/1118/0052. A long title of the project, which doubles as the specifications

of the service needed, is usually written following existing standards like upper case font, with

nouns that relate to putting something in place at a particular area, e.g. SUPPLY, DELIVERY,

INSTALLATION, TESTING, COMMISSIONING AND MAINTENANCE OF TOLL

COLLECTION SYSTEM FOR PROJECT SUNGAI BESI-ULU KELANG ELEVATED

EXPRESSWAY. The common nouns used are supply, delivery, installation, testing, construction,

procurement, completion, commissioning and maintenance. The types of services identified in

the ITT include supplying computer servers, ballot boxes, loose furniture and interior design,

repair works, building offices, toll collection system, traffic surveillance system, signage,

transportation systems, security services, led lighting and fire extinguishers. The upper case title

is intended by the writer as a way to emphasise the specificity of the intended job scope that the

company requires from the supplier. This probably functions as a reminder to indicate that a

tender bid can fail if the vendor does not keep to the specifications.

In another step, Requirement on vendor qualifications (M4s2) (73.3%), the writer provides
extended requirements of the goods or services to be delivered and specific qualifications of the

vendor in terms performance history, licensing, magnitude of completed projects, technical and

financial capabilities and a high paid-up capital. M4s2 is signalled by nouns regarding the

supplier’s grade, category, license, certification, registration, code number and years of

experience (see Table 4.3). The common ones would be the grade, category and specialisation

of the supplier. These specifications are important in order for the vendor to understand his

company’s suitability and ability to manage the project, and increase the chances of getting a

successful tender bid (Rajpurohit, 2013).

Table 4.3 Examples of Moves 4

Move 4: Detailing vendor’s scope of work

M4s1: Stating tender number and title of project

1. TURNPIKE-SUKE-T-TCS-029

2. UiTM/B2/PR/SHR/B/1118/0052

1. SUPPLY, DELIVERY, INSTALLATION, TESTING, COMMISSIONING AND

MAINTENANCE OF TOLL COLLECTION SYSTEM FOR PROJECT

SUNGAI BESI-ULU KELANG ELEVATED EXPRESSWAY

2. THE PROPOSED DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION AND COMPLETION OF

GOVERNMENT OFFICE BUILDINGS CONSISTING OF OFFICE TOWERS
PODIUM PARKING AND EXTERNAL WORKS.

M4s2: Requirement on vendor qualifications (grade, category, license, certification,

registered, code no., experience)

1. Tender Requirements: CIBD G7 and Company Registration, The Companies

Commission of Malaysia

Other requirements: Experience in construction and completion of the Toll

Collection System (TCS) and Traffic Control Surveillance System with a minimum
value of 5 million within the last FIVE (5) years

2. CIDB
 Grade: G5 and above
Category: B and/or CE
Specialization: B11 and/or
CE13

For Move 5 Instruction on tender briefing/ site inspection (70%), the vendor is instructed by

the client/company to attend a tender briefing, usually indicated by the noun phrase Tender Briefing/

Taklimat (see Table 4.4). The briefing is held before the tender submission is due. Three steps follow

this rhetorical move, Stating the time, date and venue of the briefing (M5s1) (60%), Indicating

compulsory attendance with conditions (M5s2) (50%) and Stating condition for tender briefing

(M5s3) (36.7%). The former is simply signalled by nouns, e.g. Date, Time, and Venue where venue

refers to the address where the briefing is conducted. For the latter step, compulsory attendance to the

briefing is indicated using a directive verb are required + to attend + a

MANDATORY/COMPULSORY tender briefing. / Syarikat yang ingin menyertai tender in adalah

diwajibkan menghadiri taklimat tender… The word mandatory, compulsory and diwajibkan is often

capitalised to stress the importance of attendance.

Tender briefings are usually indicated as compulsory in the tender notices that pertain to

construction and engineering. According to Zemaitis (2019), pre-tender briefings allow vendors or

suppliers to ask questions and get new information as some tender descriptions might be vague.

Vendors can also go for site inspection at the tender briefing in order to gauge the feasibility of the

project. Apart from that, there will be an opportunity to meet the competitors who are eyeing for the

same project, and vendors can, therefore, improve on their proposals. In M5s3, the conditions for the

attendee who comes to the briefing is also strictly regulated in terms of qualifications of the contractors.

Among the conditions found in the ITT were for suppliers or representatives to produce/present valid,

original, certified true copy of certificates from the governing agency, to have a minimum number of

representatives attending the briefing, and that the supplier will be disqualified if he failed to turn up
at the briefing (see Table 4.3). A possible reason for the stringent requirement on who can attend the

briefing is it allows the company or client to control the number of vendors attending the briefing and

ensures that those who attend are the resolute and competent ones who fulfil the briefing conditions,

e.g. The participation will not be considered if the interested company fails to attend the briefing

(example from ITT). This practice also saves time as the process of tender submission is rather

complicated and time-consuming.

Table 4.4 Examples of Moves 5

Move 5: Instruction on tender briefing/ site inspection

1. The project brief which provides details of the documentation fees and date of
purchase of the Tender Document will be distributed during the Project Briefing
Session

2. Tenderers are also requested to confirm their interest to attend the briefing

by calling ECER Development Council…

M5s1: Stating time, date and venue of tender briefing

1. Date: 12 March 2013

(Tuesday) Time: 10am

Venue: PUTRAJAYA HOLDINGS SDN BHD, Presentation Room, Level B1,

Menara PJH, No.2 Jalan Tun Abdul Razak, Precinct 2, PUTRAJAYA.

2. Date: 20 March 2019 (Wednesday)

Time: 9:30 am (Toll Collection
System)

Venue: PROJEK LINTASAN DAMANSARA-SHAH ALAM SDN BHD

24&26 Jalan Apollo CHU.5.CH Bandar Pinggiran Subang Seksyen U5, 40150

Shah Alam Selangor

M5s2: Indicating compulsory attendance

1. Tenderers are required to attend a MANDATORY tender briefing at the

date, time and place stated above.

2. Tenderer(s) are required to attend a COMPULSORY tender briefing as per

detail above.

M5s3: Stating condition for tender briefing

 1. Contractors are required to present their valid original copy of Registration
certificates issued by the Construction Industry Development Board Malaysia and
Companies Commission of Malaysia upon attending the Project Briefing.

2. Briefing shall be attended by a minimum of two representatives only.

3. Representatives of the tenderer are required to produce a VALID, ORIGINAL,

CERTIFIED TRUE COPY certificates….for the tender briefing.

4. The participation will not be considered if an interested company FAILS to

attend the TENDER BRIEFING SESSION.

5. Penama di dalam sijil pendaftaran …layak menghadiri taklimat tender.

If the scope of work suits the vendor or supplier, the tender document will be

purchased. In the next obligatory move Instruction for purchasing of the tender document

(M6) (100%), the terms and requirements are outlined to the vendor which involve four

obligatory steps: Stating time, date and venue of opening and closing date for document

purchase (M6s1) (100%); Stating the price of the document (M6s2) (83.3%); Specifying

methods of payment (M6s3) (86.7%); Stating additional requirements for tender purchase

(M6s4) (86.7%). In Move 6 (see Table 4.5), the vendors are required to buy the tender

document, and this is usually signalled by the performative modal verbs shall and will.

The modal verb shall is used as a directive in a conditional sentence, e.g. Tender documents

shall only be sold to tenderers who attend the briefing. For M6s1, specific expressions

used were on the date (day/month/year), time (during office hours from 8.30 am to 4.30

pm), and venue to purchase the document (address of the place PUTRAJAYA HOLDINGS

SDN BHD, Level B1, Menara PJH, No.2 Jalan Tun Abdul Razak, Precinct 2,

PUTRAJAYA). This is followed by M6s2, Stating the price of the document, which is

usually indicated by the currency of Malaysia (RM530 per copy, Ringgit Malaysia Four

Hundred). Specifying the methods of payment (M6s3) is signalled by obligatory phrases,

e.g. must be in the form of + Bank Draft or Bankers Cheque or Payment shall be made

through Bank Draft/Money order/ wang pos.

 For M6s4 (Stating additional requirements for tender purchase), in order to

purchase the tender document, the client requires the tenderer to show proof of company

status via valid documents and proof of purchaser/representative status. For proof of

company status, a tenderer must give evidence on the status of his company, using valid

licenses and registration certificates issued by relevant authorities in Malaysia. This is

signalled by the verb phrase required to present + valid original and copy registration

certificates issued by + relevant authorities. The other proof is regarding the purchaser of

the document. Move 6 begins with what appeared to be clear instructions on purchasing

the tender document and later proceeds with the importance of the relationship between

the purchaser of the document and the person who attended the tender briefing. The person

who is going to be responsible for buying the tender document must attend the Briefing

session, e.g. Tender Documents shall only be sold to tenderer(s) who attended the briefing.

This is another way for the company to monitor the seriousness of the tenderer in taking

up the project, that is, through consistency. Besides, important information will not be lost

if the same tenderer attends to the whole tendering process and avoid having

representatives from his company to replace him. That is why the requirements of the

person attending the briefing need to be very competent, one who is experienced and senior

is his position, e.g. Representatives…shall be…key qualified personnel with sound

knowledge… and duly authorised by the company. The modal verbs will and should are

used to indicate the obligatory condition that needs to be followed by the representative to

purchase the tender document. This is a probable way to maintain the confidentiality of

the tendering process.

 Table 4.5 Examples of Move 6

Move 6: Instruction for purchasing tender documents

1. The Tender documents will be displayed and made available for purchase
from the date, time and location specified in the above table.

2. Tender Documents shall only be sold to tenderer(s) who attended the briefing.

M6s1: Stating time, date and venue of opening and closing date for document purchase

1. Tender Document can be purchased from 21 February 2017 to 27 February

2017 during office hours from 8.30am to 4.30pm at the East Coast Economic
Region Development Council (ECERDC) offices:…

2. Date and place for the purchase of tender document …

M6s2: Stating the price of the document

1. Document Price: RM 530 per copy (inclusive 6% GST of RM30.00)

2. Tender document fee is set at Ringgit Malaysia: Four Hundred (RM400.00)

only, inclusive of service tax and is non-refundable.

M6s3: Specifying methods for payment

1. In the form of Bank Draft or Bankers Cheque only under the name of
TURNPIKE SYNERGY SDN BHD

2. Payment shall be made through Bank Draft/ Money Order/ wang pos in
favour of Kumpulan Wang Suruhanjaya Pengangkutan Awam Darat.

M6s4: Stating additional requirements for tender purchase

1. Contractors are required to present their valid original copy of registration

certificates issued by Construction Industry Development Broad Malaysia
and Companies Commission of Malaysia upon attending the briefing.

2. Petender dikehendaki membawa chop rasmi syarikat …membeli dokumen

tender.

4. Tender document will only be issued to authorized representatives of the

contractors. For this purpose, representatives of the contractor should bring the
original documents and one (1) photocopy of Certificate of Registration or
Application for registration certification card with Ministry of Finance.

Once a vendor responds to the tender notice, the next stage is the preparation and

submission of the response. This can be seen in the specifications and rules on submission,

which is the sixth obligatory move Instruction for submission of tender documents (M7) (90%)
signalled by the modal verb shall, should and must are directives that must be followed in

order to submit the tender, e.g. Completed Tender Document shall be submitted, the company

is only allowed to submit 1 set of tender…(Table 4.6).

This move has four steps, although with only one obligatory step - Stating address,

venue, closing date and time for tender submission (M7s1), e.g. Venue of submission and

closing date and time; The closing date of the Tender is on 23rd November . Step 2 of this

move (Specifying mode for tender submission) (M7s2) is only a regular move with 63.3% of

occurrence in the whole corpus prescribing the mode for tender submission using modal verbs

shall, should, must and the mode of submission used is a sealed envelope that is marked

appropriately on the outside (Completed Tender documents shall be submitted in a sealed

envelope/ should be submitted in separate sealed envelopes/ These envelopes must be marked

with../ Dokumen tender yang telah disempurnakan hendaklah dimeterai, ditulis nombor

rujukan tender di sebelah sudut kiri sampul surat (Completed tender documents must be

sealed, written with the tender reference number on the left corner of the envelop). The other

optional steps are M7s3 (Stating vendor’s responsibility for any incurred costs, 26.7%) used

the directive shall, e.g. (Tenderers shall bear all cost/shall be borne); and M7s4 (Indicating

condition for late submission, 33.3%) mainly used the modal will to show certainty that late

submissions will not be accepted or considered. Opening and closing dates are crucial as

organisations only offer and accept project tenders for a limited amount of time (Rajpurohit,

2013).

Towards the end of the ITT, companies usually provide some disclaimers (Move 8).

Move 8 Stating company disclaimer (70%), is used depending on the nature of the goods or

services needed. This move is usually signalled by the noun Tenderers/bidders + modal shall +

bear/be borne + all costs.../ will bear the… This move is also signalled by the proper noun The

issuing company + verb reserves the right/ is under no obligation/ not be liable/ is not bound/ does
not bind itself + to accept the lowest bidder/to award or not to award. In quasi-legal texts such

as certain contracts or municipal notices, disclaimers are used as a defensive measure, for the

purpose of protection from unwanted claims or liability (Williams, 2007). Modal verbs such

as will, shall and can are used to express the necessity of the action verbs. The word shall is

commonly found in contracts to convey the meaning of an obligation. It is used to indicate a

requirement that is contractually binding, meaning it must be implemented, and its

implementation is verified (Wheatcraft, 2012; Williams, 2007). The modal will is used to

indicate a statement of fact. It also shows the action that can or will be taken in the future. For

example, Tender documents will only be issued.... The word will show the future action of the

tenders after the suppliers respond to it.

Secondly, imperatives are used to show commands, requests and demands. In tender

notices, imperatives are used to give a command to the supplier. An action must be taken in

order to bid in the services. For instance, the expression Tender applicants are required to…

indicate a command by the writer to the suppliers who are interested in bidding. The word

required indicates an action that should be taken in order to bid with the offers. Thirdly, the

performative verb invite in simple present and past tense indicates a polite tone to what is

mainly a prescriptive and formal genre with several discursive actions to be performed by the

tenderer/vendor. It is also noticed that there is minimal difference between the Malay and

English tender notices and the language features appear to be direct translations with each

other. This further strengthens the notion that genre is practised according to the typical norms

of the discourse community that uses it and language is merely the mode to convey similar

communicative functions.

Finally, Move 9 is one of the optional moves which is Soliciting response, typically

signalled by the noun phrase further enquiries/any queries + please contact + person’s

name /email/ phone number. An ITT may have information that is not so clear to the
recipient. Hence, further elaboration can be provided when the writer provides contact

details for the tenderer to use. As stated by Diah Kristina et al. (2017, p. 431), the function

of this final move is to prompt future tenderer’s response “through a follow-up contact for

a future mutual benefiting cooperation.” Since this move is optional, it may or may not be

included in the ITT. Its absence may indicate the established reputation of the company and

readers are expected to know how to contact the company.

Table 4.6 Examples of Moves 7 to 9

Move 7: Instruction for submission of tender documents

1. Completed Tender Document shall be submitted …

2. A company is only allowed to collect and submit 1 set of tender document.

M7s1: Stating address, venue, closing date and time, for tender submission

1. The closing date of the Tender is on 23th November 2017 at 12.00 noon.

2. Venue of submission and closing date and time: TURNPIKE SYNERGY

SDN BHD Tingkat 22, Menara PNB,201-A, Jalan Tun Razak 50400 Kuala
Lumpur, 4 APRIL 2019 (THURSDAY) Not later than 12.00 noon (Local Time)

M7s2: Specifying mode for tender submission

1. Completed Tender documents shall be submitted in a sealed envelope and

placed in the Tender

Box…

2. All completed proposals should be submitted in separate sealed envelopes in

accordance with the tender instructions. These envelopes must be marked with
the title and tender no. on the upper left-hand side of the envelope and written
as follows:

M7s3: Stating vendor's responsibility for incurred costs

1. Tenderers shall bear all cost related to this tender exercise.

2. All expenses incurred relating to the preparation and submission of this exercise
shall be borne by the respective participating bidder.

M7s4: Indicating condition for late submissions

1. Submission of bid after the closing date and time will not be accepted.
 2. Late submissions will not be considered

Move 8: Stating company disclaimer

1. The Landowner reserves the right not to accept the highest offer or any offer

at all and is under no obligation to provide any explanation on the outcome of

above tender or any decision made thereafter.

2. The ECER Development Council is not bound to accept the lowest or any
tender.

Move 9: Soliciting response (for further inquiries)

1. If you have further enquiries regarding Tender announcement, please email

tender_iraq09@petronas.com.my

2. Any queries pertaining to this tender shall be in writing and faxed to 03-2095

21212 or email to procurement@mymrt.com.my

The discussion above has shown how writers from government and private companies

produced the rhetorical features of a typical ITT published in Malaysia. Although the selection

of ITT is limited to Malaysia and that the data covered various kinds of request for services

and supplies, the typification of rhetorical action (Berkenkotter & Huckin, 1995) of this quasi-

legal genre can still be captured in the analysis. The particular practices of the experts in the

related field have influenced the structural make-up of the ITT where according to Miller

(1984), a genre is a form of social action and a response to a social need of the situation. The

quasi-legal nature of ITT dictates and prescribes the recipients on the terms and conditions to

be adhered to in order to guide the recipient towards submission of the tender bid of the project.

The ITT is a necessary antecedent (Swales, 2004) to another genre which can be a tender

submission and so forth. This is in line with Wood and Fitzalan’s (2015) claim that the ITT

genre arose due to a need of the company to procure some services which initiated an invitation

to treat the need.

From the structure of the ITT, the stages or step by step process reflect the recipient’s

discursive practices which most probably begin with the decision on whether the recipient can
provide what the client needs and want to participate in the tendering process. This proceeds

to a matching of the tender’s requirements with the supplier’s company status, and finally to

respond to the ITT either by giving a call to attend the tender briefing and so forth. For the

recipient, the goal-oriented purposeful activity of ITT is to prepare and secure the tender, sign

the contract between both parties and execute the service (Wood & Fitzalan, 2015). For the

sender or company, the ITT is a form of regulation on how to procure supplies and services in

a controlled, transparent and ethical way. Hence, the purpose-related rationale gives rise to the

genre conventions of the ITT.

While this study has investigated the traditional mode of ITT as advertised in the

newspapers, a new form of ITT has emerged a few years back via internet websites.

Technology, economy and user preferences have affected the fluidity, dynamic nature of genre

and produced new forms of genre (Swales, 1990). As mentioned in the literature, the unethical

practices in the procurement procedure in Malaysia have changed the social landscape of

tendering to an online-based procurement system. Adham and Chamchuri (2012, p.1631) stated

that “The Malaysian Government has aggressively taken up efforts in transforming its

government procurement system to ensure the best value for money and reduce corrupt

practices”. The E-procurement system has enabled most government agencies to publish their

ITT on their official websites, e.g. E-Perolehan (E-Procurement), E-tender PKNS

(Perbadanan Kemajuan Negeri Selangor), JPJ (Road Transport Department) e-bid, to name a

few. In some of the government websites, the traditional layout and structure of an ITT are no

longer available, unless the website provides the downloadable pdf file of the ITT. The long

sentences in the moves analysed previously have been replaced with a point-form format where

the information is slotted into a table format. Among the different features are the letterhead as

that is not needed anymore since we are already accessing the particular agency’s website,

tender documents can be purchased online now but only if one has attended the briefing, and
any registration that needs to be done by the tenderer can be performed online with the required

certifications uploaded into the website.

Conclusion

The advent of e-commerce and IT infrastructure have changed the way certain genres

are written and executed by the sender to the receiver. It has also adapted to the way the

audience read online. Long-winded and packed information is no longer compatible with those

hit and run, skim and scan readers nowadays. This can be seen in the truncated style of new

ITT in e-commerce websites where one can see a gradual phasing out of the linear structure

and fixed sequence of moves and steps mentioned in this study.

Additionally, internet language is written in hypertext, which means information can

be placed using links and in a non-linear format. Readers can skim and scan from one page to

another for the information they are more interested in rather than reading methodically in a

prescribed sequence. A question that arises is how ITT writers maintain the communicative

functions of the genre where the main propositions may change due to hypertext discourse.

According to Santaella (2014, p. 218), in the hypertext world, the concepts of writing and text

suffer considerable changes as “cyberspace appropriates and mixes, without limitation, all pre-

existing systems of signs and genres”. In light of what has been said, one would have to return

to the idea that genres are constantly evolving and they are sites of contention between stability

and change (Swales, 1990; Berkenkotter & Huckin, 1995). As long as the discourse community

maintains the discursive practices involved in the tendering process, the ITT genre may still

achieve its overall purpose to regulate tender practices.

Studies similar to this can also be done on ITT from other countries. Professional or

specialised genres like the tender notice are mostly learnt in the curriculum of civil engineering

(Hosny, Ibrahim & El-Malt, 2019; Hossam, Ibrahim & El-Malt, 2019) and business law degrees,
but it has never received its fair share of research in the linguistic world. By analysing the move

structures of this genre, one can understand how the rhetorical organisation of the ITT specifies

the needs of the clients and regulates the actions of the recipients. Moreover, the genre-mixing

quality of ITT realises the intentional pragmatic function of the text itself. Although there is a

slight influence of promotional element, this quasi-legal text leans more towards regulation

and requirement in the tender process. Since genre analysis of tender notice has never been

researched, this study provides a stepping stone for future researchers by providing them with

a move and step model to conduct this research on a wider scale.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Bikash Chandra Taly, Muataaz Riyadh Khalil and Fawziah Faez

Almutairi for their help in the data collection.

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