How do you persuade a correspondent to t...

When I’m puzzled by someone’s behavior, I think about the aphorism, “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.” Or perhaps a version that is a little less harsh: “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by inexperience.” That is the only explanation I have for a series of emails that I received last week. The person sending them seemed to be inexperienced and not know he was being appallingly rude. In keeping with my previous posts on bad email manners, here’s what happened. Like so many other PR Daily...

Should these terms be one word or two?

Corporate communicators can become easily distracted by style and usage issues. For example, when someone asks a usage question, I can’t let it go until I find out the answer. This week’s distraction was the term “cyber security.” A co-worker was insisting that the term was now one word, “cybersecurity.” And indeed, I confirmed this with several dictionaries and in the AP Stylebook. “Cyber” is now considered an accepted prefix. So “cybersecurity” — like “cyberspace” or “cyberbullying” — is one word. I don’t agree with the designation of...

10 corporate writing crimes

Corporate communicators with years in the trenches are all too familiar with seeing writing transgressions every day. Some we commit; some we correct. Here’s a sampling of the worst crimes:   1. Writing for your boss rather than your audience. In corporate communications, “writing for your audience” often takes a back seat to politics and the whims of executives. Be honest: Is that ad copy for prospects or for your CEO? Is that press release for reporters or for your board of directors? In a corporate environment, it can be tough to remember that the...

8 more tips for better proofreading

A few weeks ago, I wrote about ways to improve your proofreading skills. Tips included checking your work on the screen and on paper, reading your text aloud, and chewing gum or tapping your foot to stay focused. PR Daily readers also offered their proofreading advice, and had some excellent tips to share. Here are eight of the best: 1. Read your copy backwards. 2. Use an app with a speech option and have it the copy to you. “Sometimes this will uncover things that you might miss even when reading it out loud to yourself.” 3. Have a “read aloud” session. Get two...

Is the singular “they” okay?

How many times have you corrected a sentence like this: Everyone should return to their seats. To correct it, you can either do this: “Everyone should return to his or her seat,” or this: “Passengers should return to their seats.” You could also write, “Audience members should return to their seats,” or “Everyone return to your seat.” What if we didn’t have to fix it, though? What if we could just leave the “their” in the sentence? That option may soon be a reality. Over the last several weeks, several prominent language blogs have...

10 distractions corporate communicators ...

For many corporate communicators, the job largely entails writing and editing. At least, that’s what we signed up for. Sometimes, however, it seems like the last thing we get to do during our long, busy days is write. This week, it seemed like every time I opened a document to start writing, I was distracted by a non-writing task. Here’s what I found to be the most common distractions in my job: 1. Unwanted writing advice. I once had an extensive email exchange with a co-worker who wanted us to use “includes, but is not limited to” instead of “includes” in an...