Foster J. Effective Writing Skills for Public Relations

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Appendix 3

EBITDA: This stands for: earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and

amortisation. EBITDA is one of a number of ways of measuring a

company’s profits.

FTSE-100 Index: Based on the share prices of the UK’s biggest 100 listed

companies, measured by market capitalisation. Membership of the index

is reviewed every three months. This index is often used as a barometer of

the stock market as a whole, and some investments are linked directly to

it.

Gearing: A measure of a company’s debt: definitions vary, but typically it

is the ratio of a company’s loan capital (its debts) to the value of the ordi-

nary shares (its equity).

Gilts: Fixed rate stocks issued by the UK government.

Hedge fund: An investment fund which uses derivatives and other types of

investment as well as conventional equities. Some also invest in curren-

cies.

Investment trust: A means of investing in a range of companies.

Movements in an investment trust’s share price usually reflect the

fortunes of the companies in which it has invested. Normally considered

safer than an investment in a single listed company.

Market capitalisation: The value of a company’s equity at any given

moment; it is arrived at by multiplying the number of shares in issue by

the current share price.

P/E Ratio: The price (‘P’) of a company’s share divided by the profit (or

earnings, ‘E’) attributed to one share over a 12-month period. The profit

for each share is calculated by dividing the company’s total profit by the

number of shares in issue. The P/E ratio is one of the measures used by

analysts to assess a company’s financial state.

Preference share: A share which entitles the holder to a fixed dividend.

Payment of the dividend takes priority over dividends paid to the holders

of ordinary shares.

Rights issue: When a company wants to raise additional funds it may offer

existing shareholders the first opportunity to invest in more shares. The

number they are offered is based on the size of their existing holding.

Shareholders are usually offered these additional shares at a discount to

the market price.

Scrip issue: New shares which a company gives free of charge to existing

shareholders.

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Appendix 3

Short: Going short is a term used to describe the action of someone who

anticipates a fall in a share price and expects to make a quick profit. They

can effectively ‘sell’ shares which they do not actually own yet, hoping to

buy shares more cheaply later to fulfil the sale.

Yield: The financial return a shareholder can expect based on the current

price of a share, taking gross interest and dividend into account.

Acknowledgements. The author wishes to thank Richard Bowler of

Langbourn Communications for his help in preparing this short glossary

of terms, and to acknowledge Rosemary Burr’s The Share Book (Roster’s,

London) for some of the references.

257

OVERCOMING WRITER'S BLOCK

You can’t get going, your insertion point keeps blinking. If you’ve typed a

few words, they’re rubbish and you delete them. The screen’s blank again,

the trash can is full, the waste bin is brimming with scraps. You’ve got

word freeze. You’re brain dead. What do you do?

Several things. First, don’t panic. Walk around the office, talk to

colleagues, have a drink (but no alcohol), snatch today’s paper. Grab your

firm’s annual report, check your firm’s website for news stories, and look

for salient points. Study recent correspondence or papers on the subject.

Anything to get going.

For the moment, forget the computer keyboard: just jot down in bullet-

point form, as two to three-word headings, the essential thoughts and

ideas you want to get over. Concentrate on facts and figures, the human

angle. Put your thoughts in logical sequence. If it’s a release or article,

think up some possible quotes that can be cleared later. You are halfway to

your first draft.

Now switch on your computer and click on ‘new document’. Even if

you can’t get everything organised the way you want, just get typing.

Appendix 4: When

you’re lost for words

258

Appendix 4

Start with something easy, say the main facts you want to communicate.

After that, subsidiary points will follow naturally. If you’re still unhappy

with your efforts, read out what you have got to a colleague. It may mean

a rewrite, but you’re getting there, albeit slowly. Now’s the time to get the

grammar and style right. Get rid of clichés and verbiage. Polish again.

You’re on the way.

And what should you never do if the words won’t come? If there’s a

chance of doing something else, don’t take it. If all else fails, dictate your

thoughts into a tape recorder. Play back and see what they sound like.

That might help, but you’re probably back to square one.

CONTROLLING YOUR NERVES ON STAGE

An outline of measures to combat nerves at the microphone is given by

speaking coach Roy Topp in Chapter 17. Here are some additional points

for dealing with stress on stage, given by Sarah Dickinson in her Effective

Presentation (Orion Business Books). Release tension with exercises to

relax the body and to develop the voice. ‘Practise your text … tape your-

self speaking at [a slow] pace. You may be surprised at how some of it

sounds perfectly normal.’ It is important, she emphasises, to realise that

what is eaten and drunk before a performance will dramatically affect

how the speaker feels. And the better he or she feels, the better the presen-

tation.

Useful tips on presentations will be found in John Seely’s Oxford Guide

to Effective Writing and Speaking (OUP).

Your nerves will be controlled much more easily if you are relaxed,

confident that the technical arrangements for visual aids, microphone and

sound checks have been made, that you have a copy of your speech in

your pocket and that any props are easy to reach. You should know who’s

in the audience and that the press handouts are ready. And of course you

have rehearsed and rehearsed. You can’t have enough of that.

Then it’s all up to you.

259

Allen, Robert (2004) Pocket Fowler’s Modern English Usage, Oxford

University Press, Oxford.

Amis, Kingsley (1998) The King’s English, A Guide to Modern Usage,

HarperCollins, London.

Bird, D (2002) How to Write Sales Letters that Sell, Kogan Page, London.

Burchfield, RW (2004) Fowler‘s Modern English Usage, Oxford University

Press, Oxford.

Butterfield, Jeremy (ed) (2007) Oxford A–Z of English Usage, Oxford

University Press, Oxford.

Circus, Philip (2002) Sales Promotion and Direct Marketing Law: A practical

guide, Butterworths LexisNexis, London.

Crone, Tom (2005) Law and the Media, Focal Press, London.

Cutts, Martin (2007) Oxford Guide to Plain English, Oxford Univer sity

Press, Oxford.

Dent, Susie (2003–7) The Language Report, Annual update, Oxford

University Press, Oxford.

Economist Style Guide (2005) in association with Profile Books, London.

Further reading

Evans, H (2000) Essential English for Journalists, Editors and Writers, revised

by Crawford Gillan, Pimlico Random House, London.

Gowers, Sir Ernest (1987) The Complete Plain Words, Penguin, London.

Marsh, David and Marshall, Nikki (2007) The Guardian Style Book,

Guardian Newspapers, London.

Montague-Smith, Patrick (2006) Debrett’s Correct Form, Debrett’s, London.

Olausson, Lena and Sangster, Catherine (2006) Oxford BBC Guide to

Pronunciation, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Partridge, Eric (1973) (ed Janet Whitcut 1999) Usage and Abusage, Penguin,

London.

Partridge, Eric (1978) A Dictionary of Clichés, Routledge, London.

Ritter, M (2005) New Hart’s Rules, adapted from the Oxford Guide to Style

by R M Ritter, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Ritter, R M (ed) (2003) Oxford Style Manual, Oxford University Press,

Oxford.

Ritter, R M (ed) (2005) New Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors,

Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Robertson, Geoffrey (2002) Media Law, Penguin Books, London.

Seely, John (2005) Oxford Guide to Effective Writing and Speaking, Oxford

University Press, Oxford.

Smith, Bud E and Bebak, Arthur (2006) Creating Web Pages for Dummies,

Wiley, Sussex.

Society of Authors Quick Guide to Permissions, Society of Authors, London

[online] http://www.societyofauthors.net/publications/ index.html

(accessed 9 November 2004)

Strunk, William and White, E B (1999) The Elements of Style, Allyn and

Bacon, Old Tappan, NJ.

The Times Style and Usage Guide (2003) HarperCollins, London.

Truss, Lynne (2007) Eats, Shoots and Leaves, Profile Books, London.

Waterhouse, Keith (1993) Waterhouse on Newspaper Style, Penguin,

London.

Note: There are very many books and guides available on style, including

several published by newspapers for their own staff, for the reader to

consult. The titles in this bibliography, and others mentioned and

acknowledged, form a selection recommended by the author to be of

special interest and use in day-to-day writing and editing.

261

A Dictionary of Clichés 3

abbreviations 79–82

and ambiguities 80

and ampersands 81

and capitalisation 80

and the definite article 81–82

and full stops 80–81

and job titles 81

and names of organisations 80, 82

and names of publications 81

and overuse 80

Advertising Association 108, 166,

201–02

Advertising Standards Authority

237, 238

aerial comma see apostrophe

Aitchison, James 97, 159

American English 10

and dates 139

idioms and expressions 165–66

in PR 164

in releases and websites 163

-ise v. -ize endings 164

and the media 166–67

pronunciation 171

spelling 165

summary 167

verb inflections 165

vocabulary and usage 164–65

word stress 169

Amis, Kingsley 15, 154, 169

ampersands 81

annual reports 212–27

articles of association 224

the chairman’s statement 216–17

and charities 213

as a communications link 216

and compliance 216

design presentation 223

and electronic communications

224–26

and industry governing bodies 214

international view 215

Operating and Financial Review

(OFR) 214

and PR 226

printed v. online versions 226–27

statutory requirements 213–14

Tesco 217–18, 219, 221, 222

unit costs 223–24

Index

NB: page numbers in italic indicate figures

and unlimited companies 213

WPP 217, 219, 220

apostrophes

greengrocer’s apostrophe 15, 16

inconsistencies 17, 19

main uses 25

names of organizations 17

other uses 16–17

possessives 15–16

Ash Communications 208, 209

Ash, Sue 209

Atchison, Mike 109, 110

Ayto, John 41

Bartram, Peter 101

Bayfield, Catherine 118

BBC 133

online media centre 117, 121

Berkshire Hathaway 217

Billingham, Jo 179, 210

Bird, Drayton 206

Bloomberg UK 115

body language 180

Bokan, Branislav 193

Bowler, Richard 224, 225, 227, 229

Bowman, Pat 111, 134

brackets 23

branding 58

and slogans 73–74

Brazier, Ken 134

British Code of Advertising, Sales

Promotion and Direct Marketing

237

British Printing Industries Federation

60, 106, 238

British Standards Institution 59

broadcast media 101

and press releases 122

and subediting 133–34

Broadcasting House 8

Bryson, Bill 79

Buffet, Warren 217

capitalisation 28–33

and committees 32

and derivatives 32

and events 32

and geographical regions 32

and headings 33

and house style 29

and job titles 30

and names of organisations 31

and new technology 28–29

and political parties 31

and style trends 29

and the Government 31

seasons 31

and trade names 32

upper and lower case 29

captions 125–27

content and style 125

draw-down quotes 126–27

for groups of pictures 127

news value 127

for the press 125

style 126

Cassell’s Guide to Written English 97,

159

catchphrases 35, 36, 39

Chambers Idioms 40

Charity Commission 213

Chartered Institute of Public Relations

(CIPR) 5, 50, 79, 120, 122, 125,

116, 147, 190, 203, 233, 235, 236,

238

Code of Conduct 237

Christie, Pauline 120, 122

Circus, Philip 190, 232, 236, 238

Clark Brown Associates 109

clichés 25, 34, 35–36, 132, 157–58

definition 34

examples 35, 158

Coates, David 50

codes of practice 237

Collins Gem Dictionary of Spelling and

Word Division 54

colon 22–23

columns 44, 50, 51, 71

comma 21–22

and adverbial phrases 22

and dates 22

do’s and don’ts 22

Oxford comma 22

commissioned articles 122–23

agreeing the brief 122

262

Index

article length 122–23

illustrations 123

common errors

clichés 158

foreign words 152

genteelisms 159

in mission statements 160

less v. fewer 156

modal verbs 158–59

negative constructions 156

niceties of style 157

slang 159–60

summary 161

vogue words and phrases 157–58