BuzzTart

I don’t want to get snarky, but sometimes I wonder if anyone is bothering to teach grammar and punctuation in Australian schools.  As I run a press release service, I often have to reject copy because of errors that could have been averted by spelling and grammar checking.  If I published it, I would be risking my own business reputation and the reputation of the company or individual concerned.   Yet I thought it was well known that when you publish content online, it could appear anywhere else on the web.  If this content is related to your business, such as a press release, how does it reflect on your brand when it’s littered with grammatical and spelling errors?  It’s really easy to solve this – just proofread, and if you don’t know the correct way to do it, ask someone who does.

Here are some common errors and the correct usage:

1.  In quotation marks, a comma or fullstop should be inserted before the closing quotation mark:  “I don’t know where to put the comma so I just leave it out,” she said. She said: “Put the fullstop inside the last quotation mark if it is at the end of the sentence.”  A comma may be placed outside the closing quote marks if it’s a “partial quote”, such as this one.

2.   A quotation should not contain several sentences before the reader know who’s speaking. Attribute  quotations as soon as you can, typically after the first phrase or sentence. “Each press release should begin with a summary of the main newsworthy issue,” she said. “Usually it answers the questions ‘who, what, where, when and why’.”

3.  Using single quotation marks instead of double is another common error; this will just annoy the journalist — as will capitalised headlines. Have you ever seen single quotation marks or capped headlines in a newspaper? Single quotation marks are used only where needed within double quotation marks. For an example see the last sentence of (2) above.

4.  Spelling mistakes; there is a massive incidence of wrongly spelled words. Instead of showing you the misspelled words, here are some correct spellings –

• “confectionery”(there’s no ‘a’)
• “stationary” (still) but “stationery” (paper, envelopes, etc)
• its = the possessive (its claws were sharp); it’s = it is (it’s well known that….the apostrophe stands for the “i” in the contraction of it is)
• hassle not “hassell” (which I think is an architectural firm)
• minuscule (it comes from the Latin ‘minus’ and not mini)

Sorry for the rant but I have much more where that came from. By the way, I have highlighted the fact that this phenomenon is Australian. Press releases from American companies seem to be written with care – in the US it is just not acceptable to send out poorly constructed corporate documents.  Editors are employed as a matter of course before distribution of releases and marketing collateral.  Press releases written by people for whom English is not the first language may be excused to some degree.

citizen journalism, free PR, free publicity, how to write a press release

I read the gorgeous Simon Small’s blog and couldn’t resist a rant on my favourite topic.
As I commented to Simon, I agree that social media is of course another PR outlet – because PR is not just media relations, it’s the whole shebang of getting a message across to people using any medium. But there are a few differences and coming from a background of old school journalism i feel kinda sad that trained journalists may not be perceived of value up against the flood of bloggers. The biggest difference is that journalists are trained to report a story more or less without prejudice (this argument can take place separately LOL) , whereas bloggers ALWAYS have prejudice….
Journalists are paid to to present their story from many viewpoints, and because they get paid they can hone their message to give it depth and/or entertainment value. Eg, i would be deeply saddened, even distressed, if the Australian Financial Review could no longer employ great journalists because of a lack of ad revenue. IMHO – and as I’m actually building a business based on Simon’s premise that the web allows you to control your message, this is not self-serving at all — trained journalists can’t be replaced by casual bloggers unless the whole thing comes down to money. It’s always been said that people get the politicians they deserve; much as i love and adore the social networks – i hope we are not going to get the newspapers and other media outlets we deserve if all their ad revenue goes where the eyeballs apparently are.

Further, yes you can promote your product online rapidly using self-publishing tools combined with DIGGing, Google News etc — but you still need the skills of a GOOD or even GREAT PR person to manage your message – it’s not just about the relationship with a journalist, it is multi-dimensional. Somewhere along the line you want someone to buy your product – Simon does and I do. Somewhere along the line you need to close the deal. I’m interested to see how the wonderful world of social media will wend its way — inevitably towards that sale!
Thanks, Simon, for getting me going with a real blog!! Mmmwaaah xl

citizen journalism, social media, social networking