Chapter 15 Public Relations Writing 12 05 2012 Writing for the Eye and the Ear Fundamental skill must be the ability to write Practitioners write for a wider range of purposes and use a great number of communications methods o The principles remain the same whether writing for the Internet an annual report or a case history an employee newsletter or a public speech Writing for a reader differs dramatically from writing for a listener o A reader has certain luxuries a listener does not A reader can checkup on a writer if the facts are wrong a reader can o To be effective writing for the eye must be able to withstand the most find out pretty easily rigorous scrutiny A listening gets only one opportunity to hear and comprehend a message o Need to grab the listener quickly o A listener who tunes out early in a speech or a broadcast is difficult to draw back into the listening fold Anyone that practices wants to practice PR should understand the differences between writing for the eye and writing for the ear Fundamentals of Writing The idea must precede the expression o Relate to the reader o Engage the reader s attention o Concern the reader o Bin the reader s interests o Each new writing situation doesn t require a new idea come up with cleaver ideas lies more in borrowing old ones Don t be afraid of the draft o Rough draft product Necessary and fool proof method for avoiding mediocre half baked Writing can always be improved with a second look Helps organize ideas and plot their development before you commit them to a written test o Outline before the draft Simplify clarify o The simpler the better Shop talk jargon and in words should be avoided What makes sense is the simple rather than the complex the familiar rather than the unconventional and the concrete rather than abstract o Clarity Tightness each word passage paragraph must belong o Writing requires judicious editing copy must always be reviewed with an eye toward cutting Finally writing must be aimed at a particular audience Flesch Readability Formula Rudolf Flesch Anyone can become a writer The people that write the way they talk will be able to write better o Less inclined to complicate their writing with 25 cent words and more inclined to substitute simple worlds then not only would communicators communicate better but receivers would receive more clearly o Ex Flesch approach Tom I ll mull over it and get back to you as soon as I can the opposite to the Flesch approach Your suggestion has been received and after careful consideration we shall report our findings to you Seven suggestions for making writing more readable o Use contradictions such as it s and doesn t o Leave out the would that whenever possible o Use pronouns such as I we they and you o When referring back to a noun repeat the noun or use a pronoun Don t create eloquent substitutions o Use brief clear sentences o Cover only one item per paragraph o Use language the reader understands Ylisela Cornerstones of Corporate Writing Get to the point The reason most corporate writing is mostly dull uninspired and convoluted is that Jim Ylisela a journalist and organizational writing instructor writings are fearful to express themselves forcefully Make the words count o Be specific Corporate writing is too vague demand writing that is about something we can grasp o Use more words o Find better verbs Stretch your vocabulary avoid key quality Avoid leveraging and facilitating Action oriented verbs o Pursue the active voice Subject verb object o Omit needless words Count the number of words print it cut 10 of words in document o Embrace simplicity and clarity Avoid big words and convoluted phraseology Clear simple language ride of hype and corporate speak Use examples illustrations anecdotes and personal experience to o Tell a good story make points Avoid generalization o Find interesting voices o Take chances o Rewrite Quote people who are interesting and say interesting things Stick your neck out with writing and defies the conventional Everything can be improved The Beauty of the Inverted Pyramid Writing style is the Flesch Ylisela approach in action Words are precious not wasted every word counts Climax of a newspaper story comes at the beginning critical facts in a newspaper o If readers decide to leave a news article early they have already gained the appear at the start basic ideas Inverted Pyramid o The first tier or lead of a story is the first one or two paragraphs which include the most important facts The most crucial element usually answering questions concerning who what where when where and occasionally how highlight the pertinent facts and gets the point quickly Usually 20 words o Paragraphs are written in descending order of importance o The selection and organization of the facts more than it is an exercise in creative writing The News Releases First recorded news release was issued by Ivy Lee in October of 1906 as a Statement from the Road offering an explanation from client Pennsylvania Railroad about the month s crash that killed 50 people published verbatim by the NYT Basic interpretive mechanism to let people know what an organization is doing No better clearer more persuasive way to announce news about an organization PR Newswire a paid wire service used by PR people in 170 countries to distribute releases issues more than 1 000 news releases virtually by email every day A news release may be written as the document of record to state an organization s official position o Ex court case or announce a price or rate increase Releases have one overriding purpose to influence a publication to write favorable about the material discussed Professionals releases to editors in hope of stimulating favorable stories about their Most news releases are not verbatim may stimulate editors to consider covering a organization story o Releases are poorly written More complicated and difficult to read style o Releases are rarely localized Releases are not localized but newspapers focus largely on regional development o Releases are not newsworthy Impact a major announcement that affects an organization its community or even society Oddity an unusual occurrence or milestone one millionth customer Conflict significant dispute ore controversy Labor disagreement or rejection of a popular proposal Known principle greater the title of the individual making the release Proximity how localized the release is or how timely it is relative to being used the news of the day
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