Fortify your writing with strong nouns

By now, the writers and editors who read PR Daily are familiar with the advice to use strong verbs. They are the powerhouse of your sentence, and choosing clear, active verbs instead of throwaway ones will improve your message. What about using strong nouns? The same rules apply. In addition to using nouns that are clear to the reader, use specific, descriptive, concrete words, instead of general or abstract words. For example, we will most often use the word “house” to describe a house, but when appropriate, we could also use shack, shanty, lean-to, chalet, cabin,...

10 nouns I wish were verbs

As writers and editors, we are the experts and enforcers of style and grammar at our organizations and for our clients. We are often the first ones people call when they have a language question. And more than once, we’ve been asked to settle disagreements about corporate style. But sometimes even the enforcers like to break the rules. And that brings me to this week’s post. Using nouns as verbs is usually frowned upon in formal writing. In fact, it’s one of corporate communicators’ biggest writing pet peeves. (As in, “Send me a detailed outline and I’ll...

A corporate communicators guide to busin...

In corporate communications, TLAs (three-letter acronyms) are everywhere. Not only do we use our own department acronyms (NFP), but also acronyms from accounting, human resources, legal, and IT. Of course, we use acronyms to save time. It’s much faster to say (or write) CPC than “cost per click.” Unfortunately, not everyone knows what CPC means, and if an acronym is not initially defined, its meaning can get lost. Below is a list of common business acronyms and their definitions. Please note that this list is not comprehensive, but it’s a good place to start. ABC...

Thought-provoking quotes from “Str...

Always a little behind in my TV watching, I recently finished the Netflix series “Stranger Things.” Perhaps the best way to describe it is as a cross between the “The X-Files” and “Freaks and Geeks,” with a smattering of “Red Dawn,” “E.T. the Extra Terrestrial,” “It” and “The Thing.” The dialogue, foreshadowing and pacing make the show a writer’s dream. The ‘80s references, the soundtrack and the atmosphere make it pure fun. Here are a few of my favorite quotations from characters in the series: 1. “Mornings are for coffee and...

How to rein in your runaway projects

April marks the beginning of “presentation season” for our marketing department. It’s a two-month period when we focus on a mammoth project that once sucked up time and resources all year long. At my company, we produce an array of presentations for staffers to use when meeting with their various clients. There is a new business presentation (for prospects), an account services presentation (for standard clients) and several line-of-business presentations for specialized clients. We work with different departments and different sets of stakeholders for each...