I wrote the Publicity Basics page at least six years ago, and last made significant changes to it in 2012. It's intended for organizations and publicists, and it's based on my experiences on the receiving end of an awful lot of publicity email and badly-formatted brochures.
I've just re-organized and updated it. Most of the content is the same, but I sorted all of the tips out into logical categories. Take a look and post any comments or suggested changes!
This all seems like excellent advice. One point, though, might actually cause more distress among your readers than you intend, and that's the recommendation to avoid the passive voice. The thing is, lots and lots of people--people who, b y and large, write clearly--think they know what the passive voice is but don't. This has been a long-standing subject at Language Log (a blog I warmly recommend); here's an entry that sets out the problem.
ReplyDeletehttp://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2922
Seriously? This isn't a subject that needs a 3500 word explanation of every grammatical possibility. I gave up maybe 500 words in, and most casual readers will do the same.
ReplyDeleteI gave up on the article also, but it seems to me that if most people are mistaken on what the passive voice is, then what they need to avoid is what they believe it is, not whatever the linguists say it actually is.
ReplyDelete