Showing some style
I know the hardest thing for most people to get right, or remember, when writing a press release --- even for some longtime PR people --- is AP style. And I know it's not likely very many readers of this entry will immediately start writing like veteran reporters, if only because most people don't write day after day after day, which is really what it takes to approach style perfection. But since I don't think we offer press release submitters and other contributers to the paper enough guidance, I will highlight a few common mistakes. It couldn't hurt.
One of biggest pains for a copy editor is dealing with a release or column in which the writer has left spaces after each sentence and hit return twice after each paragraph. Very few newspapers if any put those spaces in, and they have to be deleted, which is a bit easier now with global searches but never a picnic. Our search isn't all that reliable. I realize that many people learned to type this way --- who is teaching people this style, anyway, and could they just stop? --- but most newspapers would appreciate it if the practice died a horrible death.
There are many other anti-AP style regulars, but these are a few of the classics:
---- Using postal abbreviations for states, such as VT or NY. The AP style is Vt. or N.Y.
---- Capitalizing everything and anything. This comes from press release writing produced by businesses, governments and colleges, in which every possible title, like Stamp Collector or Gentleman is capitalized. And words like State or Town or or Board or Business all get a capital. These all have to be changed by the editors. Basically, the rules are that only a true title, not a generic one, takes a capital, and titles that come before the name are usually capitalized, but those that come after aren't. As in Chairman John Brown and Jane Brown, chairwoman of the board.
----- Out of the blue abbreviating words like department or route right in the middle of a sentence. It should be Department of Human Services and Route 7.
That's all for now, but when I come across more I'll post them here.
---- Jim Therrien