Don’t Block Your Own Shot

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With newsrooms downsizing and the subsequent workload being shouldered by journalists lucky enough to retain their job, knowing a reporter's pet peeve could mean the difference between your news being covered or disregarded.

Here are a few journo pet peeves that you’ll want to be conscious of.

Sending a press release as an email attachment

As a PR professional, you have to assume every pitch you send is just one of over 250 emails a reporter receives per day. With this volume of emails, the two seconds it takes to open the attachment is two seconds too long and you can bet the house your email will be deleted. What’s more, attachments are known vehicles for viruses and phishing scams. They pose a real threat to everyone, but especially journalists. To increase the odds that your press release will get read, take the minute and a half to copy the text of your press release into the body of an email and format the accompanying image; it’s the golden rule when pitching.

Typos

Typos happen. However, make sure they don’t happen when initiating dialogue with literary professionals. These people spent countless hours, and big bucks, studying and perfecting their use of the English language. Overlooking simple rules – using “then” instead of “than” or mixing up “there” and “they’re,” for example – can be interpreted as careless. If you don’t care enough to get your press release right, why should a journo care to read it? Try thinking of all journalists as the fictional author Hank Moody from Californication, an individual whose personal mission it is to protect the written word. Proofread after you proofread.

Lengthy subject lines

Crafting your subject line can be a real balancing act. The key is to grab a reporter’s attention without your subject line getting cut off in their inbox by their email server. Typically, subject lines should be about 40 characters, including spaces. Write subject lines using the inverted pyramid model, placing less meaningful words, which may be cut off, toward the end. Emphasize the most important information, the attention-grabber, at the beginning of the subject line.

Late Friday pitching

Some argue that there is no best day to pitch journalists. With that said, journalists are people, too, and unless they’re weekend assignment editors for a news station, their weekend starts Friday at 5:01 p.m. It’s easy for journalists to disregard information over the weekend and when they’re cleaning up their inbox Monday morning, including your pitch in the list of highlighted emails destined for the trash folder is even easier. Unless you’re sending your news to a weekend assignment editor or a nightclub’s VIP manager, pitching on a late Friday afternoon should be reserved for breaking news necessitating an immediate release. Do yourself and your client a favor: get the news out earlier in the week and in the morning whenever possible.

Acknowledging these pet peeves won’t guarantee your press releases will get read, but ignoring them pretty much guarantees they won’t.

Five Tips for National Grammar Day! #GRAMMARDAY

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What a great excuse to write about my favorite grammar gaffes! This blog post is intended as a friendly refresher to all who email, text, type, blog, post or copywrite for a living. (However, like good table manners, good grammar is an asset no matter what you do for a living.)

1. It's or Its

This has to be the most common grammatical error. It's just too easy to slip up. The only solution is to carefully proof every its/it's in your writing and ask your colleagues to do the same when they proof it. (You do have a second set of eyes to review your writing, don't you?)

2. Commas

Here's the deal. When two independent clauses (i.e. clauses that stand on their own as sentences) are joined with a conjuction (and, but, so, etc.), a comma is required before the conjunction.

However, if you're connecting an independent clause and a phrase, no matter how sorely tempted you are, don't use a comma. E.g.:

(W)right On Communications is up for an InfluenceSD Agency of the Year award, and our team would be honored with your vote. (correct)

(W)right On Communications is up for an InfluenceSD Agency of the Year award, and would be honored with your vote. (incorrect)

3. Possessive or Plural?

The possessive s, like it's and its, is something to proof very closely. Most often, I find that the possessive is omitted. E.g.:

The cars horn blared. (incorrect) vs. The car's horn blared. (correct)

Neither fear nor forget the possessive plural. Approach it as a thing of beauty and a sign of your awesomeness every time you get it right: The cars' horns blared. (I'm awesome.)

4. Compliment vs. Complement

This is another common grammatical challenge, especially for people who write restaurant menu descriptions, apparently.

The cabernet reduction compliments the beef. (incorrect, unless the sauce can talk)

The cabernet reduction complements the beef. (correct)

The waiter compliments your good grammar. (correct)

Complement means to go well with something. E.g. Julie, blue complements yours eyes. If you were to say this to me, you would be paying me a compliment. (By the way, feel free.)

5. Creative Prose vs. Gobbledygook

Grammar is the difference between creativity and gobbledygook, in this blogger's humble opinion. Rules are meant to be broken, of course. But it's only creative genius if you're breaking the rules intentionally. Otherwise, it's wreaking havoc.

Trying to write creative, colorful copy without a basic understanding of the fundamental building blocks of the English language is like auditioning on American Idol when your only singing experience is in the shower or for your mom. You might think it sounds good...

Respect the rules, but experiment.

Two Questions for Others

Where do you stand on commas before "and" in a list? I had a client early in my career who insisted on using one, so I adopted that practice for her and hung on to it by habit. Since that time, I've had another client who prefers no comma before "and." I have two rules of thumb: 1) whatever you choose to do, be consistent, and b) if you're writing for a client and he or she has a strong preference, adopt it and be consistent.

I proofed this post as best as I could, but if I made any typos, misplaced commas, etc. please let me know so that I can improve. Thanks!!