"tentative attempt" is correct and usable in written English.
It is typically used to describe an effort to achieve something, where the success of the attempt is uncertain. For example, "The mayor launched a tentative attempt at reconciliation between the two warring factions."
A tentative attempt to elucidate the surface solution structure has been espoused.
A first tentative attempt to draw her into a conversation was met with a sigh and an exasperated reply.
However it is understood that representatives of the two companies have met in a tentative attempt to broker a peace deal between the two sides.
It's easy to see the Umm Rawaba raid as an initial, tentative attempt to turn isolated pockets of resistance against Khartoum into a broader, more unified conflict.
SEE TENSIONS RISE A tentative attempt to set up dialogue between the Kremlin and the organizers of street protests foundered, leaving little time for the groups to ease tensions before large demonstrations planned for Feb. 4 and March 11.
MOSCOW — A tentative attempt to set up a dialogue between the Kremlin and the organizers of street protests foundered on Monday, leaving little time for the groups to de-escalate tensions before large demonstrations planned for Feb. 4 and March 11.
Over decades, science in both fields has developed independently – except for a few tentative attempts.
Yeltsin made tentative attempts to reform the security services, but they failed.
But many southerners have rebuffed his tentative attempts to accommodate them.
Their first tentative attempts at music produced only a two-fingered belching sound from the PA.
I did make some tentative attempts when I was an adolescent, sure, but I never got hooked on a journal.
