For Immediate Release: Your Business is Newsworthy, Media Seeks Story

by Elizabeth Short

There's no debating that media attention is a cost-effective marketing tool for any business—after all, publicity via the airwaves or printed word is far-reaching, targets a wide audience and, best of all, is absolutely free. The only problem is getting it.

That's because when it comes to our perpetually scoop-driven media, nothing short of a Pulitzer Prize, visit from the Queen of England, or billion dollar NASA contract will induce journalists to point a pen in your direction, right? Wrong. The truth is, media organizations are constantly mining everyday events for the next headline. And you can give them one—in the form of a good press release.

The art of the press release is technical writing, with a twist. It brings together a topic supported by the five journalistic Ws (Who, What, When, Where, and Why), a few well-tuned quotes, and that little something extra that grabs a busy editor's attention and doesn't let go. Namely, an angle. Together, these form the bones of a news story, one that might just bring a healthy dose of publicity and, with it, fresh business to your company's door.

The Topic
Think your business isn't newsworthy? Your software company, web design firm, or consulting partnership needn't experience an earth-shattering event to warrant a press release. Topics are often more ordinary than you might think.

Unless you really have landed a hefty aerospace contract, start by asking yourself these questions: Is your company planning a special event? Have you received any awards, joined any professional organizations, or formed a new partnership with another business? Do any company employees have unusual hobbies or outside interests? Does your company engage in any charitable endeavors?

Your Angle
Once you've found a topic, it's time to access your inner novelist and unearth the story behind your story: an angle. This isn't to say you'll be fictionalizing any aspect of your business. Rather, you'll be giving the media more information—a context that supplies additional meaning, a lens with a view to wider relevance.

Let's say one of your employees volunteers as a literacy tutor, using books donated by the company. That's a good topic. But notice what happens when you place this topic in the context of the latest state legislation on standardized reading tests. Suddenly you have a timely story: a citizen and his employer join forces to help children rise to the challenge of new educational standards.

To find your angle, pay close attention to the latest stories in the media. Does your topic tie in with any regional or national trends? Does it relate in any way to a big news story? Does your topic share any similarities with stories about a recently publicized celebrity, dignitary, or politician?

The Components of an Effective Press Release
When writing your press release, always keep your intended audience—notoriously busy editors and journalists—in mind. Your document should immediately pique the reader's interest but refrain from overwhelming him or her with too much information. Keep your press release to a single page and be sure to include the following:

Contact information. The first thing a media representative should encounter on a press release is who to contact and how to do it. Include your company's name, the contact person's name, a phone number, and email address. Finally, don't forget the all-important words—FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE—either just before or after the contact information.

A catchy headline. Along with your lead (see below) a catchy headline will do more to further your press release than just about anything. Make a study of newspapers and magazines for examples of good one-liners. Then, get creative. Try alliteration, puns, or a focus on benefits to the reader.

A strong lead. Once you've attracted attention with your headline, make sure you keep it. A good lead will flesh out your angle and answer the question "Why should our readers care?" Again, an emphasis on timeliness is key.

A complete body. The bulk of your press release should offer the Who, What, When, Where, and Why of your story. Use the "inverted pyramid" method of conveying information, writing broadly at the beginning and working down to the details.

A summing up. Always repeat contact information in your last paragraph, accompanied by a 2 to 3 sentence tagline that sums up your story.

Relevant quotes. A few good quotes will make a journalist's job easier (quotes are often lifted directly from press releases)—and your story vastly more appealing. Sprinkle them throughout the body of your release, using them to support and enliven your narrative.

To view a stockpile of press releases, visit online databases like www.prweb.com or www.webwire.com. Books such as How to Be Your Own Publicist by Jessica Hatchigan and Getting Publicity by Tauna Fletcher and Julia Rockler will provide writing tips along with strategies for delivering and following up on your release.

This article was originally published in the Fall 2004 issue of DigiNews.

The Best Intentions: Editing for Your Audience

by Elizabeth Short

Monumental Mailers was thrilled with the inaugural edition of their custom email newsletter, Direct Mail Management. Linked to dozens of new clients in the first month alone, your company's latest project appears to have made quite a splash. Perhaps it didn't matter, after all, that time constraints had prevented a thorough review by the editorial team.

But when Monumental Mailers later complained that established clients were unsubscribing in droves from the newsletter rolls, you were asked to investigate. As an editor, you must now determine whether your company's product is to blame.

Sitting down with a fresh cup of coffee, you begin perusing a recent issue of the newsletter, immediately struck by the combination of good writing and eye-catching design. Five minutes later, you're on the phone with the writer. Great job on the Monumental project, you say, I'm happy to report our problem will be easy to fix.

How could such an appealing document have been at fault and, perhaps more importantly, what solution do you have in mind? The answer is elemental. The writer forgot to keep the intended audience—returning clients as well as potential ones—in mind. Packed with tips on starting a direct mail program, the newsletter fell short in its stated mission of helping clients manage, not merely initiate, their direct mail efforts.

After a short brainstorming session, you've helped your writer revise the newsletter content appropriately. Slated to offer advanced how-to articles as well as basic information on the benefits of direct mail services, Direct Mail Management is now poised to satisfy its entire target market.

Identifying Your Audience
Ideally, every writer has a firm grasp of a document's intended audience before the writing process begins. Most professional writers and editors are aware that this step will determine the depth and breadth of content, tone, terminology, and organization, as well as any visual elements such as graphics or sidebars. They also know that constructing these elements soundly the first time will save a major rewrite, and plenty of time and money, down the editorial road.

To identify a document's intended audience, as well as its unique needs, ask yourself these questions:

Who will read this document—a potential dog owner, someone seeking life insurance, a help-desk employee, a home cook?

Why will they read this document—to choose a breed of dog, to find the best insurance they can afford, to service a customer with computer problems, to cook a fine meal?

In what circumstances will they use the document—while seated leisurely on the couch, while contemplating death, while speaking with a frustrated customer, while thinking hungrily about dinner?

What will they expect this document to help them gain—a breed of dog that is compatible with their lifestyle, financial security for a loved one, a satisfied customer, relaxation and delicious food?

Your answers to these questions will shape the following elements in your document:

· The information you include—facts, figures, assurances, or instructions.
· The way information is organized—by categories, concepts, problems, or tasks.
· How information is presented—in a friendly, soothing, technical, or tantalizing tone.
· The visuals you include—photographs, sidebars, screen shots, or line drawings.

Editing for Your Audience
If you're an editor without the luxury of ensuring that your writer understands the intended audience before the writing process begins, you may find yourself faced with the tough prospect of recommending a rewrite.

Imagine your writer has prepared a pamphlet outlining the benefits of good oral hygiene. Clearly aimed at the lay person, the pamphlet is useless to the real audience—dental professionals seeking concrete strategies to help their patients establish good oral care habits. Caught between sending your writer back to the drawing board and signing off on an ineffective document, the choice is clear.

Some fixes, however, are quicker and easier than you might think. Say an insurance company hires you to edit a press release introducing its newest agent. As it turns out, the release couldn't be more complete, clear, or concise. But, written in the technical style of an insurance claim, it's also absolutely wrong for its audience—harried members of the media who are short on attention span and long on a steady supply of dry press releases.

In this case, it might be possible to salvage the bulk of the document (the who, what, when, and where) while enhancing the "why" with a unique angle (the insurance agent was hired because she's a former NASCAR driver with expertise in high risk insurance). Finally, with your audience still in mind, you can replace a dull headline with the flashy type so beloved by the media. Now the press release has a chance of grabbing its intended audience and earning some free publicity for your client.

Whether you're an in-house editor supporting a document from start to finish, or a freelancer brought in near a project's end, your job is always to advocate for the reader. At their best, your intentions will result in a final product that is comprehensible, complete, and, most important of all, effective in serving the intended audience.

A version of this article was originally published in the Winter 2004 issue of Corrigo.

10 Quick Ways to Polish Your Prose

by Elizabeth Short

You've revised your latest article a dozen times. Your writing group, spouse, and cat all insist the piece is great (read: are tired of hearing it.) But despite numerous drafts, something isn't quite right. The last sentence is long-winded, a critical passage concludes with a clunk, and your opening—Holy Hooks!—is downright dull. That's the good news.

The bad news is this: the piece is due tomorrow on the desk of an editor you've been courting (literarily speaking, of course) for months, one you're desperate to impress. Short of a telepathic plea to William Zinsser, how can you deliver strapping prose and clean copy while still meeting your deadline?

First, admit that your writerly vision has gone cross-eyed. For a change of perspective, examine the piece sentence by sentence, rather than staring down whole passages at a time. If possible, be patient. Then, be curious. Finally, be ruthless.

Second, remember that upping the sparkle factor in your writing is often a matter of revisiting the essential tenets of grammar and style. Keeping in mind that rules are made to be broken, here are 10 quick tips for polishing your prose that even a high school English teacher would take a shine to.

#1 Eliminate passive voice
Passive voice forces the reader to play hide-and-seek with your intended meaning. Replace passive sentences with active ones and watch the real subject strut from the shadows.

Example: In summer, many fresh vegetables are offered by the open-air farmers market.

Revision: In summer, the open-air farmers market offers many fresh vegetables.

#2 Substitute strong verbs for weak ones
Scan sentences for weak verbs—have, make, give, and do, for example—and swap them for strong ones such as possess, craft, furnish, and accomplish. Don't overdo it, however: people really do simply "go" to the movies, not peregrinate there.

Example: Chipotle peppers give these enchiladas more flavor.

Revision: Chipotle peppers enliven these enchiladas.

#3 Rewrite nominalizations
Wrapping an action inside a noun or adjective (called nominalization) suffocates your verb, clutters your prose, and often results in passive voice. Encourage verbs to shuck their stuffy packaging and cozy up next to a subject. Then, listen for the fireworks.

Example: An eloquent toast is complemented like nothing else by the ping of champagne glasses.

Revision: The ping of champagne glasses complements an eloquent toast like nothing else.

#4 Remove redundancies
If you've said it once, saying it again will only increase your already tight word count as well as overload the reader. An informative message, his happy grin, a shining star—you get the picture.

Example: Bake sales are great fundraisers for your neighborhood community.

Revision: Bake sales are great fundraisers for your community.

#5 Insert missing antecedents
A missing antecedent is like a black hole—it sucks the twinkle (and precision) from a sentence. Planting a colorful subject in the gap is more play than work, and one of the easiest fixes under the sun.

Example: This will intensify the flavor of your cake.

Revision: This Belgian chocolate will intensify the flavor of your cake.

#6 Choose specific nouns
Favoring a specific noun over a vague one adds precision and vigor to your writing. Words such as thing, aspect, and area can be replaced with the subjects you're actually writing about: teacup, flavor, the Milky Way.

Example: Scarlet runner beans differ from green beans in many ways.

Revision: Scarlet runner beans differ from green beans in color, texture, and flavor.

#7 Omit unnecessary words
Everyday speech—peppered with body language, changes in pitch, and pleasingly roundabout phrases—differs from well-written prose, which is clear, concise, and (sadly, perhaps) devoid of corporeal cues. On the page, readers track the author's gist word by word; when a sentence wanders, the reader's attention does, too. To maintain the spark in reader relations, practice the art of concision.

Example: Quick breads are easy to prepare. The reasons are that they don't require kneading or rising time.

Revision: Quick breads are easy to prepare because they don't require kneading or rising time.

#8 Make positive statements
Statements written in negative form are lackluster, awkward, and confusing. To hold your reader's interest, make assertions loud and clear.

Example: Don't sear the chicken breast on each side.

Revision: Sear the chicken breast on one side.

#9 Clip dangling modifiers
Dangling modifiers can be a source of snickering as well as puzzlement. For example: Packed with omega-3 oils, your family will benefit from salmon's nutritional value. While never dull, such sentences make the writer look none too bright.

Example: Packed with omega-3 oils, your family will benefit from salmon's nutritional value.

Revision: Packed with omega-3 oils, salmon is a nutritious food for your family.

#10 When all else fails, delete
Sometimes the best antidote to a stubborn passage, no matter how beloved, is deletion. If you can shorten a sentence or paragraph without sacrificing clarity, you've made the right choice.

A complete reference on grammar and style will offer many more strategies for polishing your prose. For further inspiration, revisit Strunk and White's ever-delightful The Elements of Style or Joseph M. Williams's Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace. These handy volumes are good news for head-scratching writers—and aren't we all?

This article was originally published in the June 2004 issue of CoolNewsletter4Writers.