The Public Relations Writer provides quick tips for communications professionals.
Current Issue
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The Public Relations Writer
The Guide for Writing Communications
brought to you every other Thursday by Kelle Campbell
http://www.kcwriter.com
kelle@kcwriter.com
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Editor’s Note: The Institute for Public Relations is now
accepting entries for its annual Jack Felton Golden Ruler
Award. The award recognizes excellent examples of PR
research, measurement and evaluation. The deadline is
August 13, and you can find the entry form and fee at http://www.instituteforpr.org/awards/golden_ruler.
Enjoy the issue.
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In This Issue
1. Creating Sentence Variety, Part II
2. Extra Writing Tip: Using Articles for Countries in Datelines
3. Links of Interest
************************* Creating Sentence Variety, Part II
Last issue, we started looking at ways to vary the type and
form of sentences in order to keep your copy from being
monotonous or choppy. We covered using different sentence
structures and lengths, and now we’ll examine three other
methods.
Vary Sentence Beginnings
A common instinct is to begin sentences with the subject.
However, all subject-first beginnings are a sure path to
monotonous writing. Alternative beginnings include the
following:
* An adverb or an adverb clause (dependent clause that
modifies the sentence’s verb, e.g. When she was growing up,
Sally practiced the piano every day).
* A connective such as a coordinating conjunction such as
“and,” “but,” “so,” “yet,” “or,” “nor.”
* A conjunctive adverb (an adverb that indicates the
relationship in meaning between two independent clauses)
such as “however” “therefore” or “consequently.”
* A transitional expression (which shows how the meaning of
one sentence is related to the preceding sentence) such as
“however,” “but” and “subsequently” (as you can see,
there’s some overlap with the previous item).
* An apposition (a noun or noun phrase placed next or very
near to another noun or noun phrase as an explanation or
modification of the first) such as “Widgets ‘R Us, the leader
in children’s widgets.”
* An absolute phrase (a group of words that modifies an
independent clause as a whole)
* An introductory series (e.g. “Patience, diplomacy,
persuasiveness – these all enhance the chances of success”)
Vary Sentence Type
Although most of the sentences we write are of the
straightforward declarative type, it’s a good idea to mix
things up with alternatives such as a question, exclamation,
or command. For example, a question can be especially
useful at the beginning of a paragraph when you want to
quickly summarize the preceding text and provide a
launching pad for subsequent text.
Also, a command or exclamation infuses energy into copy
and grabs readers’ attention. Plus, individuals tend to
respond to being told what to do (which is why calls to
action are so effective).
Vary Subject-Verb Sequence
Your English teachers probably told you to keep the subject
and verb of your sentences together, but another (and
grammatically correct) way to vary the rhythm of your piece
is to separate the subject and verb with words or a phrase.
Example: WidgetPro, located northeast of Raleigh, N.C., is
the largest employer in the area.
According to The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr.
and E. B. White, an interposed phrase is also a good way to
create suspense.
The purpose of all the techniques described above and in the
last issue is to keep your copy lively. Copywriting
assignments also allow for the use of sentence fragments
(phrases or dependent clauses) to add energy or dramatic
impact.
No matter what type of piece you’re working on, check
whether you’ve used a series of repetitive sentence
structures, lengths or word arrangements.
Until next time, happy writing!
************************* Extra Writing Tip: Using Articles for Countries in Datelines
The only country that takes an article in the dateline of a
press release is El Salvador. For all other countries, just use
the country name, e.g. “Netherlands,” not “The
Netherlands.”