Effective writing skills for Public Relations

Style is the crucial ingredient for everything we say and do: in writing, it
is the way sentences are structured, the choice of words and the way they
are used, plus punctuation. If the style is outmoded and all over the place,
the reader will soon lose interest and might not even get beyond the first
few lines. Style calls for clarity, brevity coupled with the use of plain
language, and the avoidance of clichés and jargon. It means making sure
spellings are correct and that words are not misused. Above all it means
consistency.
This book has been designed for students and others entering the
communications industry, in particular for those intending to follow a
career in public relations. It will also be helpful for those already
employed in the public relations profession either in consultancies or as
in-house practitioners – in fact for all those earning their living by their
writing skills.
The advice in these pages is based on the authority of established style
guides, in particular the Oxford A–Z of English Usage and the Oxford Style
Manual, which embraces the Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors and
the Oxford Guide to Style, itself replacing the classic reference source, Hart’s
Rules for Compositors and Readers (now published by OUP as New Hart’s
Rules), and also on personal experience. This has covered many years of
close involvement in writing, editing and producing publications of
several kinds; from technical and scientific material to professional and
Introduction
1
trade journals, news releases, and general printwork including booklets,
brochures, manuals and leaflets.
Effective Writing Skills deals not only with the printed but also the
spoken word: for messages to be properly communicated and understood, clarity of speech is essential and a chapter is included for those
giving audio-visual presentations and taking on public-speaking assignments.
While readers will benefit from reading this book from cover to cover,
some will doubtless wish to dip into individual chapters as needs dictate.
If some sections, such as the positioning of apostrophes, appear to be
elementary, there will always be someone not far away who is getting it
wrong!
This is not a book of grammar, but does serve as a reminder of some of
the basic principles. The emphasis throughout is on those style points
which are frequent causes of argument and disagreement: for example
when and where to put capitals, how to deal with figures and abbreviations, plus the skills of hyphenating, punctuating and paragraphing. A
chapter on editing skills discusses what editors and subeditors look for
and why they change your hard-crafted copy. The fewer corrections they
make, the better for you, the writer.
The range of subjects to help writers communicate effectively has been
broadened to include tone of voice, the essential ingredient for every
message, annual reports, Americanisms and the legal issues facing all
writers. The reader will find help on designing and writing websites as
well as other internet-related topics including the language of information
technology. The skills needed for successful presentations are outlined,
but the technicalities of presentations, and the equipment needed, are not
covered since these are beyond the scope of this book. The essential
requirements for handling headlines and captions are covered in detail as
are the basics of news releases, and the need for concise language coupled
with the readability of the printed word.
In all, the book provides practitioners with a useful reference source for
their day-to-day work. Most chapters in the earlier editions have been
updated and expanded, with new material added where appropriate.
Every organisation should have a house style, and that very often calls
for a ‘style police officer’ to make sure that the rules are followed by
everyone, from director and manager to all support staff. If that is
achieved, and if as a result there is closer interest in and awareness of
style, then this book will have met its objective.
For this and the previous edition, a number of style changes have been
agreed with the publishers. Chief among these are the adoption of lower
case for internet, web and website as one word, and no hyphen in email
and online. Readers in North America may notice that words with -ize in
Effective writing skills for public relations
2
them have been changed to -ise since this is the style generally favoured
in the UK both in style guides and in the media. The author hopes that
those readers will appreciate the reasons for adopting this style