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Ten tips to make sure your press release fails
Any fool can write a good press release that hits its target audience and creates an impact. Writing one that fails means work. There are people who have mastered the art. As an editor I’ve seen some...
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Go easy on the adjectives
Write mainly with nouns and verbs. Use adjectives only if they make your meaning more precise. In Daily Mirror Style, Keith Waterhouse describes the journalist’s view of adjectives. He says: Adjectives...
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Where you should use capital letters
Use capital letters for proper nouns. Avoid them for common nouns. Proper nouns are the names of things. So use capitals for the names of people, places, months, days of the week, companies and so on....
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Avoid ‘aplenty’ in headlines
I hate seeing the word aplenty in headlines. At first I thought my reaction to seeing the word in a news headline was a matter of personal taste. Or perhaps prejudice. To me the word feels...
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Online headline writing
Great headlines turn browsers into readers. They point readers to the rest of your words. Online headline writers can learn from old school newspaper editors. They used headlines to draw readers to...
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Write great online news headlines
News headline writing is an art and a science. Each news format has its own needs. Newspaper headlines have to fit the space, look good and catch the reader’s eye on a page. Good radio news headlines...
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Writing for the web in 300 words
Start straight away. Don’t waste time warming up. Reduce barriers between your ideas and your audience. Write clearly. Use readily understandable language. Be unambiguous. Learn grammar. Forget what...
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Wasteline test your writing
Helen Sword’s Wasteline Test is a great online tool to improve your writing. You cut and paste samples of your writing into a box, hit the button and the software scans your writing. The Wasteline Test...
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Why corporate writing is crap
Big companies worry about communications. They want everything they issue to stay on message and to protect or promote brands. This means a lot of writing leaving corporations is unreadable. Many...
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Editorial style: Google as a verb
Earlier today I wrote the following phrase using the noun Google as a verb: people are far less likely to Google adjectives than nouns. There’s no problem with using a noun as a verb in this way,...
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