When Bad Punctuation, Spelling and Grammar Happen to Good People

 I'm delighted for these students but to paraphrase the words of Inigo Montoya, "This headline does not mean what they think it means."

For heaven's sake, where was the copy editor? Managing editor? Reporter? Anyone?

What ever happened to reading your work before hitting "send" or going to print?

It seems that more and more, people are making grammar and spelling errors that are funny to many, cringe-worthy to multitudes, but also embarrassing for the perpetrators; in many cases, they show an ignorance to rules of grammar, spelling, and punctuation that should have been mastered throughout 12 years of school, not to mention college or grad school after that. It's getting so bad that HubSpot ran a blog article about this back in June. In fact, there are a lot of web pages dedicated to these writing snafus and I just found this Pinterest page devoted to these bloopers.

This need not be. Thanks to the internet, there are plenty of sites to use for doing a quick check on spelling (American vs. British English, online dictionaries) as well as grammar. Journalists and public relations/news release writers use the AP Style manual (I just looked to make sure it was in there, and yes, firsthand as an adverb or adjective is indeed one word!). Publications have editors and proofreaders (well, they should have them) as do ad agencies.

Have you read the wonderful book, "Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation" by Lynne Truss? Please do. Do you check grammarly.com? Go ahead, I dare ya. Or have a friend or trusted colleague read over your work before it's published. Please. There are plenty of resources available if you're not sure, folks—but if you are a writer, please, in the name of all things sacred, learn to spell and punctuate correctly, and check your work before it's printed, published or recorded.

Here's another goody for you, from a local restaurant:

 

Now, I know the owners meant that the place was "formerly" Giovanni's, since they changed the name (the tip-off). They did not mean that it is "formally" known as Giovanni's as in, "officially" and then misspelled "formally." I'm sorry, but the Grammar/Spelling bitch inside me says this is simply not acceptable. A friend of mine who is a printer said that printers may sometimes bring up suspected errors to clients if they have the time to do so (if they actually recognize the error, right?) but often they assume it's how the client wants it. I sure wish this restaurant owner's sign printer had noticed the error and corrected it.(I have fingers crossed that "cappuccino" is spelled correctly on the menu and that, here in New Jersey, the restaurant does not serve "expresso" but that's for another day.)

I believe we can partially blame spell checking programs for this social ill. I mean, why bother to learn how to spell when the computer will (not always) correct your mistakes? I also blame the societal meme about how no one has time to read anything, everyone is skimming, blah blah blah de blah ... I don't believe it and it shouldn't matter. That said, I would like to know who was able to read and decipher this nugget:

Colleges and Universities are Earning High Marks Through Tailored Content

It’s not just large corporations that use social collaboration tools and content to connect different audiences. Institutions of higher learning are reaching out and communicating with their various stakeholders through different types of content as well.

Students, faculty, staff, alumni and donors … these all represent different audiences for whom content must be tailored. Those colleges that are using content to engage and create stronger community are going to the head of the class.

Content for educational institutions must sometimes be the same and just as often be quite different.

1. Students want to read about what they’ll discover at the school or get information about courses, clubs and schedules; staff needs access to content regarding employee policies and procedures or financials.
2. Prospective and current students may want to read the school’s blog on career advice, the advantages of various majors, or learn about successful graduates and their paths to success.

This content can be used to attract new, high-quality students, recruit strong faculty, encourage donations, or boost the school’s online visibility and brand reputation. It can be website content, an alumni newsletter, segmented emails, even social media posts. By inviting various constituencies to read and comment on content creates community and in the world of higher education (just as in the corporate world), engaged students are happy students.

For example, the Fashion Instituteof Design & Merchandising (FIDM) in California had needed to create content and platforms for its various groups to use. Students, staff members, alumni, student prospects all need access to different information and applications (not the enrollment kind).

The college needed solutions that would weave together the thousands of students, employees and others. Three portals are used (one for the public, one for students and alumni, and another for employees), the different programs are related to those specific audiences, but all users have a single point of access to get the content they need and enjoy online collaboration. You can read the full case study of how solutions from IBM helped various stakeholders access the online information and apps they need.

Content for different users: students, faculty and staff
There are many ways to create content geared to the different constituents in a college/university setting—and many reasons to do so. From developing and maintaining a donor base to recruiting new students, content can be a dynamic growth generator. And because the audiences are so diverse across ages in particular, the need to communicate across traditional and digital channels is important. Here are a few ways to bring content marketing into higher education and go to the head of the marketing class.

·        Blog posts, infographics and videos are excellent recruiting tools, combining the valuable information that prospective students and families need in an engaging, image-rich format. The more information (or education about the school) you can give users without being sales-y, the better.

 

·         Website content hubs by user – Microsites for various audiences, all accessed through the school’s public website, allow for community engagement for new students, prospective students, parents/families, alumni, and faculty. Everyone has access to the same general information but can read up on what’s most pertinent to them at any time.

 

·        Online tutorials and competency-based learning -- Self-paced learning, outside of the traditional lecture hall, gives students as much time as they need to grasp a challenging concept and is an excellent tool for students who need additional help with course material. They can watch the content as many times as they need, at their own pace to keep up with class work and achieve better grades. Remedial courses or massive open online courses (MOOC) can also be deployed by colleges to boost efficiency and serve more students. MOOCs, which arose out of distance education (a growing trend) use collaborative tools that help build a community for students, professors, and teaching assistants.

 

·        Online press releases help support an institution’s messaging about programs, the student body or faculty, and feed into website and newsletter content about the same or similar topics. Together, they can be a marketing powerhouse.

 

·         Alumni magazines help keep alumni connected to the school through their content. A 2010 survey from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) found that 58 percent of alumni feel that these publications strengthen their personal connections to universities.

 

• Articles may be about interesting faculty or alumni, new research or curriculum initiatives, and showcase outstanding students or staff. These stories all engage alumni and can help keep endowments strong and develop the next generation of students there.
• For younger students or alums who are accustomed to doing lots of reading online, digital editions make a lot of sense and save money over print versions.

 

·        Email – Offices of student life, alumni, student financial services and the bursar, the dean of students or department heads … the list of emailers and audiences is vast in a college or university setting. Email marketing requires content to engage each particular audience.

• Another CASE study* (about the use of social media in higher education) found that many school administrators think of email as a legacy medium that is being replaced by texting and other short messaging tools; however, the white paper states that, “When asked to compare email to social media for its success in meeting unit goals, 46 percent of this year’s respondents confirmed that they considered email more effective than some social media channels, and an additional 31 percent rated it over all social media.” [Source: *Social Media Enters the Mainstream: Report on the Use of Social Media in Advancement, 2014 by Jennifer Mack and Michael Stoner

·         Social media – it’s here to stay and it’s growing in the higher education field. But even YouTube videos need well-written descriptions (content) to help boost each video’s online presence and social media communications (Facebook posts, tweets) can be part of an overall content marketing strategy. Between 70 and 87 percent of institutions in the study were using it in their annual giving programs (generating interest in an initiative, thanking donors, keeping donors in the loop); and 47 percent overall (public and private institutions) were using social media in their fundraising efforts.

Content enables educational institutions to connect with its diverse audiences in so many ways. Implementing collaboration tools that help foster even stronger connections pave the way for a more engaged student body, provide opportunities for distant (and different) learning, and provide avenues for alumni and donors to maintain long-standing connections to their alma maters.

 

Writing a Press Release? AP Style Matters

Writing a professional news release that the media outlets will take seriously is serious business, but it's not difficult. I've written before about making sure your news is actual news, that it is something the press and/or the listeners/viewers/readers will want to know about, as well as reasons to write a press release. 

Here are a few tips on how to write a press release the way a public relations writer would do it, with adherence to AP Style (the Associated Press Stylebook is readily available and is an excellent resource/guide for all matters of news-related reporting).

NOTE: These days, being the era of the digital and SEO press release, you should make sure to include keywords in your headline and in your supportive subhead that are also included in the body of your release.
That being said, here are some handy helpers and this list is by no means complete.

1. Give the editor what she needs to know in the Five Ws: who, what, where, when and why. Pack this information in the top part of your press release in case the very busy editor or reporter who is reading it is skimming and needs to move on to the next 1000 in her inbox. 

2. Get to the point quickly--don't make anyone read a few paragraphs before they figure out what your news is. Your headline and supportive subhead should telegraph the main premise and key talking points and your Five Ws should follow as immediately as possible. 

3. Titles are not always capitalized! GRRR ... this one always makes me just this side of loony. Clients always think a job title is capitalized. I have no idea where this misconception comes from. In a press release, the person's title (unless it is honorific or formal) is only capitalized when it precedes the person's name (Principal Figgins, Executive Director Caryn Starr-Gates) and is lower case after the name (Figgins, principal of McKinley High School or Caryn Starr-Gates, executive director of a whole lotta nuthin'). 

Formal titles, such as Senator, President, Princess are capitalized and appear before the person's name. There is a lot to read up on in the AP Stylebook about this.  

 4. You only use a person's full name the first time it appears, after which you use only the last name (usually; a few exceptions exist). So when I write about Dr. Arnold Pepper (that's Dr. Pepper's first name, right?) I would write, "Dr. Arnold Pepper, the lead scientist on the soft drink project ..." and later on I would write, "Pepper reported that Starr-Gates said she felt there was something really yucky about that soda and that she always prefers seltzer."

5. Write out some numbers, use digits on others. All ordinal and cardinal numbers first through ninth and one through nine are written out; move to numerals at 10th and 10.

6. Don't use first person. It's not "I" and "we" unless those are used in quotes in the story. It's news, written in the third person. Using first person will immediately tell the recipient, "I'm an amateur." 


7. Months that have more than five letters in them should be abbreviated. See the AP Stylebook for how to abbreviate those pesky long ones.

8. Postal abbreviations for state names (and the way they are written) are not the correct state name abbreviations for news releases. Some are the same, as it turns out but not all. Writing a letter to grandma in Tennessee? Write TN on your envelope but if you are talking about news in that state, write Tenn.

9. Spell correctly and punctuate correctly. Proofread that release before you hit "send." Remember that in American English, commas and periods go INSIDE the quotation marks. 

Although it makes me sad, serial commas are not used (I love me some serial commas). This is not to say that your feature article or book that you are writing according to another manual of style (hello, Chicago!) should not be peppered with serial commas; just not in your AP-style news release.

10.  Most book /magazine titles are in quotations. Don't italicize these. And not everything is put in quotes (reference material for example). Look it up in the "AP Stylebook."

11. Give the document some space. Many people double space their press releases, a throwback to the days of old when releases were mailed or faxed and editors needed room to edit. I usually space my documents at 1.15 to make them easier to read.

12. Make sure your facts are straight. No sense making stuff up and then get caught in a lie or in spreading misinformation. You'll get blackballed in no time! If you know who this dude is and why I stuck his photo here, feel free to share that in the comments.

Here's a final tip: hire a professional writer to help you strategize, develop a newsworthy angle or bring out your real story, and write a professional, AP-style press release that won't be deleted before it's read! 

If you'd like me to review something you're working on, send it to caryn@starrgates.com.

Cover the five Ws: Who, What, When, Where, and Why. A press release functions as the hook to get an editor's attention. However, even if you have her attention, if you do not cover the necessary information, she will still find something else to print. The five Ws tell the editor the importance of the information presented.

2

Start with your main point. In journalistic writing, the main point, or overall topic, needs to be at the beginning. If the editor has to dig for it, he will find some other press release to print. You can also underline your main point by including a sample headline.

3

Look carefully at your use of dates and numbers. For example, ordinal numbers first through ninth have to be spelled out, while anything 10th and over uses numerals. the same applies for cardinal numbers one through nine, with 10 and higher written as numerals. Dates and years use numerals. All months with more than five letters, such as January, are expected to be abbreviated.

4

Go over your punctuation. It is important to remember to use one space after the period. Also commas and periods go inside of quotation marks, and serial commas are not used. That is, if you have a list of items, you do not need a comma before the last item: "This is a list of one, two and three items." Some writing styles do require a comma after the "and."

5

Check names and titles. The first time a person is introduced, you must use her first name and full title. Formal titles, such as President or Senator, must be capitalized and appear before the person's name. Informal titles such as deputy secretary of government agency are in lowercase and can appear either before or after a person's name. After first use, only the last name is necessary, except in cases where two people have the same last name or the name is mentioned in a direct quotation.

6

Double check and double space. When you finish writing your press release, double space the body of the release in order to give the editor space to edit the piece as necessary. Also, double check all your facts, including grammar and spelling, to ensure you are putting the best possible face on your company.

Read more : http://www.ehow.com/how_8029607_write-release-proper-ap-style.html

Twenty Great Reasons to Write and Publish a News Release

In my last blog post (which is too long ago, I admit that), I wrote about the downfall of businesses who think all their news is fit to print.

Honestly, sweethearts, it's not.

But it is not all that difficult to find reasons to communicate with the press (which in this case is not limited to print journalism--although many people on LinkedIn have argued that a press release is something that goes to "press" in traditional print way, rather than a news release that is sent to all news outlets. Whatever).

A news/press release can be about a lot of topics or matters related to your company or practice but should resonate with prospective readers, viewers, listeners (there, I've covered all ways to consume the news -- print, video/televisions/online, radio/podcast. Anything else?). 

Aside from announcing a new product or service you offer, which is true news (especially if it has real merit to your audience), here's a far-from-exhaustive list of (twenty) reasons to put out a news release about your company:

1  Announcing your new company website or significant upgrades to your existing website--and how they help your customers.
2.  Involvement with charity work; community service earns press and positive relations with the public. 
3.  Results or findings of a new study or research in your industry or field.
4.  Useful tips related to your product or service (without being overtly self-promotional).
5.  Forecasts about your industry or upcoming changes in your field that will affect consumers.
6.  Comments on current events or trends that relate to your industry.
7. Receiving an award -- this can be an employee, manager, owner, or the company. Share the good news!
8. An offer of a free downloadable white paper or e-book that benefits your audience; people love free information.
9. Adding new employees or opening a new office/location.
10. Saying goodbye to long-term employees who are retiring -- nice reason to craft a feature release.
11. Your office is hosting a special event or educational webinar or seminar.
12. Announce a reorganization or a renaming of your business.
13. Somewhat related, announcing the rebranding of your business (could be a renaming and corresponding marketing overhaul, or a periodic rebranding to refresh and renew how customers see you).
14. Community events your company is sponsoring, from high school fundraisers to Little League teams to social action endeavors.
15. Marking a milestone anniversary for your business (great way to include a retrospective of important business accomplishments or contributions over the years).
16. Gaining a big-name client or inking a big deal (as long as it's OK that this is public knowledge).
17. Presenting at an industry conference, exhibiting at a trade show, or sponsoring a program.
18. Crisis communications -- responding to negative press about your company, product, or service; managing your reputation with your public (where the rubber meets the road in public relations).
19. Making an appearance on a talk show or participating in an expert panel, from internet radio to television interviews to business interviews in the newspaper. All good.
20. Major financial or structural changes in your company-- merger or acquisition, going public, expanding overseas.

What are some of the reasons why your business has issued a press release? Feel free to share them in the comments box.

Is Your News Release Really News?

Clients often call me to write a news release for them but quite often, I'm left asking, "What exactly is your news?" All too often, business owners or managers believe that what is news to them or important to them carries equal weight with the reporters and editors who will be receiving the press release release, or with the public that will end up reading it.

Sorry guys, not so much. However, there are ways to make your non-news become somewhat publicity-worthy and earn you some free publicity.

1. Try to zero in on a trend that will catch the attention of the media and your intended audience and develop a story around that, one in which you can slide in your announcement. For example, hiring a new employee is not of vast interest to anyone outside of your office; but hiring someone because it reflects growth in your sector or industry, or signals growing strength in the local job market, could be newsworthy.
2.  Tie your news announcement into current events to create greater relevance. I once had to write a press release about an area private school that had a "sister school" relationship with one in Japan. This was around the time of the terrible tsunami that hit Japan two years ago. The school was initiating some type of support project for its sister school overseas. OK, that's pretty good. But I had read a story  in our local daily newspaper a week before about a public school in the county that had some kind of program with another school in Japan. Voila! There was the tie-in. I wrote and submitted the press release, with a note about how this story dovetailed nicely with the newspaper's recent coverage. A reporter called my client to find out more about the program and ran a story in the local section about it.
3. Alert your media targets to an emerging trend or breaking industry news that relates directly to your organization or business. The fact that you opened a real estate staging practice is no big deal to most people beyond your family and friends; however, you can position yourself as an expert real estate stager and inform the media (and thereby, inform your audience) of a study that shows how well-staged homes sell faster, even in a tough real estate market.
4. Offer a free seminar or workshop that is open to the public or that caters to specific market. Free works nicely and is seen favorably as something of a public service. (Hint: a newspaper is also less likely to expect a paid ad for a free program.)  Educational, informational, and helpful programs are also great ways to get exposure for you and your business. You'll want to send a short news release about your upcoming event to the local press or to the appropriate trade publications and post it to your social networks.
5. Perform community service or create a charity drive in your office and invite the public to participate. The fact that your office is doing a coat drive in the winter is your business but opening up to area residents as they are preparing to shop for winter clothing is classic public relations.

Do you have favorite tactics for turning a ho-hum news story into something worthy of a true press release? Share them here!