The phrase "a tentative effort to" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used when describing an initial or uncertain attempt to achieve something.
Example: "The team made a tentative effort to improve communication among departments."
Alternatives: "a preliminary attempt to" or "an initial effort to".
The zip line represents a tentative effort to bridge that divide.
After a tentative effort to relieve Tobruk in mid-May 1941, Wavell made a greater one in mid-June, with fresh reinforcements.
Ending his speech with a tentative effort to lift the hopes of his unsettled population, Mr. Barak referred to the Bible.
But there were whiffs of conciliation: The senator told his crowd that Clinton had graciously called him earlier that evening, he skipped his usual criticisms of her, and he made a tentative effort to quell the boos that arose at the mention of her name.
Several provinces in southwestern China made a tentative effort at economic cooperation in the 1980's, but it largely petered out for lack of interest.
All this suggests that the Saudi peace initiative, whatever its public relations value, may also be a tentative effort at solving one of its serious political problems.
His brief and tentative effort to distance himself from the military may have been a way of signaling these voters that even if he imposes curbs on religious groups, he will do so reluctantly.
In fact, Fichte had not originally intended to publish this work at all, which was written less than a year after his first tentative efforts to articulate for himself his new conception of transcendental philosophy.
It would be the waste of a chance if it failed to do so.Over the past couple of years, the Americans have made tentative efforts to start a political dialogue with the Iranian government.
The joint declaration, issued at midday, was a striking exception in which Mr. Putin appeared to give moral support -- and perhaps reassurance -- to a nation making one of its first tentative efforts to enter the world at large.
Last spring, with a seasonal haze obscuring the 360-degree view of the Lanna hills, Mr. Nathanson put the house on the market, a tentative effort involving a Web page.
