About Media, Content, and Communicating

Improve your writing

I find it interesting that of late, I've repeatedly read two similar comments regarding public relations. One is that writing is one of the, if not the, most important skill for a young PR practitioner. And that it is the skill in which more and more practitioners of PR show weakness.

And speaking from experience, I have seen the same thing in aspiring journalists.

On one hand, writing is indeed a talent. I'm not sure if you can improve the "talent" side of things, but I do believe writing is a skill, and skills can be improved.

So the big question is how do you improve your writing? I'll give addressing this a shot over various postings during the next few weeks.

In his great book On Writing, Stephen King makes the comment that to be a good writer you must do two things, read a lot and write a lot.

Let's focus on reading for now.

I read constantly. When I'm really on a roll, I can knock out two or three books, along with some magazines and newspapers, in a week. Now, I've not been on that kind of roll lately, but I still read a lot - and pretty much everything.

Often I feel guilty. I'll be at a friend's house and pick up something - some piece of direct mail, a correspondence or letter, or something else. The point is, whatever the item may be, it is none of my business. However, I'm not concerned with the subject matter, but rather I'm interested in how it is written. I find myself asking questions such as:

• What types of verbs are used?
• What is the sentence structure and the paragraph structure?
• How well organized is the content?
• Does the piece stay focused on its message?
• Is it effective? What role does the language play in the effectiveness of the piece, or lack thereof?

My newspaper teams used to laugh at me. Even though it has been a decade since the responsibility of deciding which press releases run and which don't fell to me, I still read press releases all the time. The reason is that I'm always intrigued by the differences in approach, tone, style, skill and other similar factors.

It is important to read the good and the bad. You can learn plenty about what works and what does not from both.

So get your hands on some writing and read away. Everything you can read is fair game - ad copy, press releases, newspaper articles, magazine articles, brochures, sales letters, collection letters. As you read give thought to the effectiveness of the copy and why the copy does or does not work.

At the same time, and I hate to say this, I think it is important to read on the craft of writing. I do not mean those cheesy "How to Make a Million Bucks Writing a Novel in 30 Days" type books but rather, books that actually help the craft of writing.

I'll close with some recommendations. And please note that I don't choose any book that addresses a specific type of writing. I believe that if you improve your general writing skills, you can then become better at writing specific things, such as press releases, articles, seo content, or whatever. But the basic foundations come first.

On Writing, by Stephen King

The AP Stylebook and Libel Manual - Lots of good stuff on word usage.

The Elements of Style - It is a classic on the subject of English usage, and so much of it still applies today.

The Grammar Bible - Come on! Grammar is a basic tool of writing and you are a professional writer. Stop whining and deal with it.

Fowler's Modern English Usage - Another great book on usage. One of my favorites.

Jumping in on the action

Even great writers forget the importance of verbs. I know I do and I know I'm not alone, so this is more of a reminder than anything.

One of Ernest Hemingway's rules for writing simply states "use vigorous English." One interpretation, or mine anyway, is to use action verbs.

An action verb describes, well, action...something that is happening. It adds strength and description to a story while often helping to control the word count. Brevity counts, particularly in online writing, so action verbs are just as important to writing for the web and for social media as for traditional media.

The best, simplest example I can give of action verbs are simply this.

I went to the store. Or I drove to the store. I walked to the store. I biked to the store. In each case, drove, walked and biked is a stronger verb than went. It relays more information - by telling you exactly how I went to the store - without using one word more than the weaker sentence.

For me, action verbs are deliberately included in my writing process, which goes something like this:

• Write a rough draft as fast as I can.
• Rewrite number 1 is for story continuity and to clean up the loose ends.
• Rewrite number 2 focuses on action verbs and the elimination of most adverbs.
• Rewrite number 3 deals primarily with general grammar and spelling.

When rewriting and revising, yes, I'm on the hunt for grammatical errors and spelling errors, but at the same time, I'm very specifically looking for passive verbs and rewriting sentences in the active voice.

Of course, it is easy to get out of hand when using the active voice. Stephen King, in his book "On Writing" has one of the best examples. He points out that if you take any noun and put it with any verb, you have a legitimate sentence. But they don't always make sense, as in his example "Plums deify." 

Like many skills, becoming a strong, active voice writer simply takes time, practice and study. And as much as I hate to say it, one of the best places to start is your old high school grammar book. Like it or not, it will improve your writing.