Foster J. Effective Writing Skills for Public Relations

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John Foster spent several years in journalism with weekly trade papers,

finally as assistant editor of a leading printing industry magazine and as

editor of a quarterly journal on platemaking for print production.

He subsequently held public relations posts with Pira International, the

technology centre for the printing, paper, packaging and publishing

industries, and with the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA), the

industry body for UK advertising, media and marketing communications

agencies.

He has written, edited and produced a variety of printwork, from

house journals and books to posters, brochures and leaflets plus writing

news releases, speeches, film scripts, slide presentations and exhibition

panels. As a specialist freelance journalist, he has written on management

and technical issues in the printing industry. He has also undertaken

public relations projects in the field of healthcare.

A keen advocate of good, consistent style in the written and spoken

word, John Foster contributes to the ‘Last Word’ column in the CIPR

maga zine Profile. He is a Fellow of the CIPR and holds the CAM Diploma

in Public Relations. A member of the Institute since 1954, he has served on

the Council, Board of Management and Membership Committee, and was

Programme Director 1979–81. He is an honorary member of the IPA, a

member of the CAM Education Foundation, a Fellow of the Royal Society

of Arts and an Associate member of the Foreign Press Association.

About the author

In July 2003, John Foster was awarded the Stephen Tallents Medal by

the then President of the CIPR, John Aspery, for ‘his contribution and

commitment to the effective use of the written word’. The Tallents Medal,

presented annually, recognises exceptional achievement in, and contribu-

tion to, the development of public relations practice by a member of the

Institute.

John Foster welcomes comments on matters of style and communica-

tion, particularly those relating to the written and spoken word. He may

be contacted by email on jonf@dircon.co.uk.

About the author

xii

Writing good English must be one of the most difficult jobs in the world.

The tracking of a developing language that is rich, diverse and constantly

evolving in use and meaning is not an easy task. Today’s rules and uses

quickly become outdated, but this book captures English as it should be

used now.

There have always been books on grammar and most of us, if we are

honest, have to sneak the occasional look to check whether an apostrophe

is in the right place or where a quote mark goes.

This book by John Foster gives invaluable advice, not only on the rules

of English grammar, but on how to make the language come alive. How

do you make people excited by your writing style and keep them reading

on? How do you delight and surprise them, even if the topic is essentially

dull?

Of course there’s writing and there’s writing. Writing for the press is

very different from writing for the office. John takes us through the basics

of style for all occasions, right down to pronunciation.

Also included in this fourth edition are four useful appendices: defini-

tions of grammar with good practical examples, similar pairs of words

that are often confused, a short glossary of everyday terms in IT and pub -

lishing, and some tips for when you are lost for words. Particular atten-

tion has been given in this edition to internet-related subjects, for example

what makes a good website and the writing skills needed in a digital age.

xiii

Foreword

The book is written in a lively, imaginative style and is suited not only

for the new practitioner who is eager to improve his or her mastery of the

English language, but for the more experienced practitioner who needs a

quick checklist of the essentials of grammar and some hints on how to pep

up their writing style.

Effective Writing Skills for Public Relations is intended to be a no-

nonsense guide for busy practitioners. It avoids the traps of being so

comprehensive and detailed that it confuses, or so superficial as to be of

no use at all. It covers all the major grammatical constructions that we use

day-to-day with the one objective in mind: writing good, readable

English. Every PR practitioner should have one. Its potential readership

extends to the wider reaches of the communications industry – in fact to

anyone interested in words and their usage.

Professor Anne Gregory

Series Editor

xiv

Foreword

I wish to thank the many friends and colleagues who have helped in the

preparation of this and earlier editions, including Pat Bowman, former

head of PR at Lloyds Bank; Philip Spink, head of information services at

the Advertising Association; Roy Topp, creative services consultant; and

Feona McEwan, communications director at WPP Group plc.

For this new edition, I would particularly like to thank Peter Prowse,

principal consultant, Waylines Consulting and Richard Bowler of Lang -

bourn Communications for their contributions to the finance chapter. My

gratitude also goes to Philip Circus, legal affairs director of the Institute of

Sales Promotion and regulatory affairs adviser to the Internet Advertising

Bureau, for his guidance and help with the law chapter. This first

appeared in the third edition.

Special thanks must go to Robert Harland, former vice-president and

director, International Public Affairs, the Coca-Cola Company; to Steve

Sawyer, senior business consultant, Computer Software Group (CSG)

Integra; to Diana Thompson of PlusPoint PR; and to Catherine ‘Cat’ Ham,

business analyst, for their help with the chapter on writing for the web.

I also with to thank Brenda Scott, administrative officer of the British

Association of Communicators in Business for providing examples of

winning entries in their 2007 awards. The Mail Made Easy leaflet in

Acknowledgements

were provided by Computer Industry Almanac (www.c-i-a.com/pr0904.

htm) and the International Ad vertis ing Bureau (www.iabuk). For the

illustration 18.1, Diabetes UK is the copyright holder for the website and

image. Chinese artist Feng Feng provided oriental influence for WPP’s

2006 annual report and accounts, and followed through in AGM staging.

Grateful acknowledgement must go to Professor Anne Gregory,

Director, Centre for PR Studies, Leeds Metropolitan University and

President of the CIPR in 2004, the first editor of this series of textbooks for

the Institute, for her constant support and encouragement.

I also wish to thank most sincerely Amanda Foran, editor of Profile and

series co-editor, and Annie Knight, commissioning editor at Kogan Page,

who has dealt so efficiently with my constant stream of enquiries

throughout the production of this edition.

Several reference books published by the Oxford University Press are

mentioned, including Fowler’s Modern English Usage, the Oxford A-Z of

English Usage, the Oxford Style Manual and the Oxford Dictionary of

Grammar, and I would particularly like to thank Kate Farquhar-Thomson

and Juliet Evans for their help in checking details and providing illustra-

tions. Acknowledgement is also given to Headline Book Publishing for

permission to quote examples from Debrett’s Correct Form.

Acknowledgements

xvi

Style is the crucial ingredient for everything we say and do: in writing, it

is the way sentences are structured, the choice of words and the way they

are used, plus punctuation. If the style is outmoded and all over the place,

the reader will soon lose interest and might not even get beyond the first

few lines. Style calls for clarity, brevity coupled with the use of plain

language, and the avoidance of clichés and jargon. It means making sure

spellings are correct and that words are not misused. Above all it means

consistency.

This book has been designed for students and others entering the

communications industry, in particular for those intending to follow a

career in public relations. It will also be helpful for those already

employed in the public relations profession either in consultancies or as

in-house practitioners – in fact for all those earning their living by their

writing skills.

The advice in these pages is based on the authority of established style

guides, in particular the Oxford A–Z of English Usage and the Oxford Style

Manual, which embraces the Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors and

the Oxford Guide to Style, itself replacing the classic reference source, Hart’s

Rules for Compositors and Readers (now published by OUP as New Hart’s

Rules), and also on personal experience. This has covered many years of

close involvement in writing, editing and producing publications of

several kinds; from technical and scientific material to professional and

Introduction

trade journals, news releases, and general printwork including booklets,

brochures, manuals and leaflets.

Effective Writing Skills deals not only with the printed but also the

spoken word: for messages to be properly communicated and under-

stood, clarity of speech is essential and a chapter is included for those

giving audio-visual presentations and taking on public-speaking assign-

ments.

While readers will benefit from reading this book from cover to cover,

some will doubtless wish to dip into individual chapters as needs dictate.

If some sections, such as the positioning of apostrophes, appear to be

elementary, there will always be someone not far away who is getting it

wrong!

This is not a book of grammar, but does serve as a reminder of some of

the basic principles. The emphasis throughout is on those style points

which are frequent causes of argument and disagreement: for example

when and where to put capitals, how to deal with figures and abbrevia-

tions, plus the skills of hyphenating, punctuating and paragraphing. A

chapter on editing skills discusses what editors and subeditors look for

and why they change your hard-crafted copy. The fewer corrections they

make, the better for you, the writer.

The range of subjects to help writers communicate effectively has been

broadened to include tone of voice, the essential ingredient for every

message, annual reports, Americanisms and the legal issues facing all

writers. The reader will find help on designing and writing websites as

well as other internet-related topics including the language of information

technology. The skills needed for successful presentations are outlined,

but the technicalities of presentations, and the equipment needed, are not

covered since these are beyond the scope of this book. The essential

requirements for handling headlines and captions are covered in detail as

are the basics of news releases, and the need for concise language coupled

with the readability of the printed word.

In all, the book provides practitioners with a useful reference source for

their day-to-day work. Most chapters in the earlier editions have been

updated and expanded, with new material added where appropriate.

Every organisation should have a house style, and that very often calls

for a ‘style police officer’ to make sure that the rules are followed by

everyone, from director and manager to all support staff. If that is

achieved, and if as a result there is closer interest in and awareness of

style, then this book will have met its objective.

For this and the previous edition, a number of style changes have been

agreed with the publishers. Chief among these are the adoption of lower

case for internet, web and website as one word, and no hyphen in email

and online. Readers in North America may notice that words with -ize in

Effective writing skills for public relations

them have been changed to -ise since this is the style generally favoured

in the UK both in style guides and in the media. The author hopes that

those readers will appreciate the reasons for adopting this style.

Introduction

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