[NEohioPAL]Re: Whilst on the subject of grammar, usage, etc.

Wed Aug 29 14:08:59 PDT 2007

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Hallelujah and amen, Tony!!! As an editor for 20 years, I have seen it 
all and I am TIRED. Please spend five minutes looking at our 
publication and then another five minutes checking your work before 
hitting the Send button.

Thank you very much,
Brooke

[Mr.] Brooke Willis
Managing Editor, Northern Ohio Live magazine
2026 Murray Hill Rd, Cleveland OH 44106
216.721.7853   bwillis at rightupmedia.com
Enter an event at http://www.northernohiolive.com/livetimes
      (deadline is September 1st for October events)
Enter a benefit at: 
http://northernohiolive.com/events/charitableForm.htm
Everyone has a story idea - please be patient

On Aug 29, 2007, at 4:50 PM, TONY BROWN wrote:

Some of you might find this useful. It is not intended to be a 
criticism of anyone in particular, just a note that might serve you 
well, especially if you're looking for publicity out of the Plain 
Dealer or other major newspapers in the area.

In casual e-mails, I agree, matters of style, spelling and grammar are 
not that important (unless the subject you're writing about might one 
day end up being published somewhere in a unflattering story or used in 
court against you, and your grammar would compound your troubles with 
embarrassment). E-mail is a dangerous thing, and the wisest would use 
it with caution.

But if you're actually WANTING a paper to use something you're writing, 
you should be aware that we're short-handed due to increasing economic 
pressures and it would behoove you to get us the information in a form 
that doesn't require massive reworking.

Spell-check your items. Give contact information, both for publication 
(we cannot publish items without a contact number) and for reporters to 
contact you with further questions. Give a ticket price spread (low to 
high), for we will not publish items without such information. Be 
concise (example: it's redundant to say evening performances are at 8 
p.m., so skip the evening performances part, just say 8 p.m.; it's also 
redundant to say matinees are at 2 p.m. because if it's at 2 p.m. it's 
obviously a matinee; it's doubly redundant to say afternoon matinees 
are at 2 p.m.; it's triply redundant to say weekend afternoon matinees 
are at 2 p.m. Saturday; I hope you're getting the drift). On the other 
hand, don't be cryptic.

If you really want to help yourselves get information in correctly and 
assuredly, look at the paper, and figure out how we do things. Such as: 
Never abbreviating the day of the week (Monday, not Mon.); always 
abbreviating the name of the month when used with a date (Sept. 12, not 
September 12), except for the months with five letters or fewer (April 
12, not Apr. 12); never abbreviate the month when not used with a date 
(September, not Sept.); do not add unneeded zeroes to times and prices 
($12 and 8 p.m., not $12.00 and 8:00 p.m.); note the style on a.m. and 
p.m. (NOT A.M. and P.M. or am and pm or AM and PM); note that we always 
put the time before the day and the day before the date, and the date 
before the venue, and the venue before the address, and the address 
before the city, because it's shorter and clearer (8 p.m. Tuesday, 
Sept. 12, at Barrel Full O' Monkeys Theatre, 345 Whoopee Blvd., 
Parma.); note that we include area codes with phone numbers, that we 
separate the numbers with hyphens, not parentheses, that we never use 
those clever spelt-out numbers, and we use the "1" or any other prefix 
unless it's an 800 or 888 number or an overseas number (330-897-0946, 
1-800-666-6666, 011-44-87-29-46).

This is minutiae, true, and it's part of my job (and others who work 
here) to make sure this stuff is right; but you stand a far better 
chance with overworked journalist types if we don't have to fix every 
single detail of what you send.

I could go on, but all you have to do is just look at the paper and see 
how we do things. Almost all major dailies have their quirks of style 
(we have our own stylebook at the PD), but they all pretty much hew to 
the AP Stylebook, which can be had online for $17.95 and at college 
bookstores for $10.95. Another useful volume, if you want to get an 
even better grip on how to write a press release (or a novel, or just a 
sentence you can be proud of having written), is Strunk and White's 
Elements of Style, which can be had in its fourth (and latest) edition 
for $9.95, or in its original edition for $3.95, both at amazon.com, or 
at any bookstore worth patronizing.

On a technical note, you would do yourself a favor if you sent ONLY 
Microsoft Word document-attachments (word.docs for the 
computer-literate) or text-only document-attachments (XXX.txt) that can 
be generated on almost any computer using simple programs that often 
have names such as Notepad or Editpad or Notebook. Furthermore, never 
put anything in such documents other than text; no crazy formatting, no 
logo from your theater, no photos (those are done entirely through 
another process), just words and numbers. No spreadsheets, no pdf's, 
none of that crap. If all else fails, just put the information in the 
body of the e-mail itself.

Finally, you will do yourself and us an immense service if you don't 
title your document-attachments "PRESS RELEASE." I mean, really. Think 
about if for a minute and just try to imagine how many press releases a 
journalist or clerk at the PD receives in a single day. If you want me 
to be able to recognize who the hell yours comes from or to what it 
pertains, do not call it "PRESS RELEASE." Call it "TAKE ME OUT" or 
something that will give me some clue as to what it contains. I already 
know it's a press release.

Or, just ignore this entirely and take your chances.

Tony

--Apple-Mail-13--338857699
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Type: text/enriched;
	charset=US-ASCII

Hallelujah and amen, Tony!!! As an editor for 20 years, I have seen it
all and I am TIRED. Please spend five minutes looking at our
publication and then another five minutes checking your work before
hitting the Send button.

Thank you very much,

Brooke

<bold>[Mr.]</bold> Brooke Willis

Managing Editor, <bold><italic>Northern Ohio
Live</italic></bold><italic> </italic>magazine<italic>

</italic>2026 Murray Hill Rd, Cleveland OH 44106

216.721.7853   bwillis at rightupmedia.com 

Enter an event at http://www.northernohiolive.com/livetimes 

     (deadline is September <bold>1st</bold> for October events)

Enter a benefit at:
http://northernohiolive.com/events/charitableForm.htm 

Everyone has a story idea - please be patient

On Aug 29, 2007, at 4:50 PM, TONY BROWN wrote:

Some of you might find this useful. It is not intended to be a
criticism of anyone in particular, just a note that might serve you
well, especially if you're looking for publicity out of the Plain
Dealer or other major newspapers in the area.

In casual e-mails, I agree, matters of style, spelling and grammar are
not that important (unless the subject you're writing about might one
day end up being published somewhere in a unflattering story or used
in court against you, and your grammar would compound your troubles
with embarrassment). E-mail is a dangerous thing, and the wisest would
use it with caution.

But if you're actually WANTING a paper to use something you're
writing, you should be aware that we're short-handed due to increasing
economic pressures and it would behoove you to get us the information
in a form that doesn't require massive reworking.

Spell-check your items. Give contact information, both for publication
(we cannot publish items without a contact number) and for reporters
to contact you with further questions. Give a ticket price spread (low
to high), for we will not publish items without such information. Be
concise (example: it's redundant to say evening performances are at 8
p.m., so skip the evening performances part, just say 8 p.m.; it's
also redundant to say matinees are at 2 p.m. because if it's at 2 p.m.
it's obviously a matinee; it's doubly redundant to say afternoon
matinees are at 2 p.m.; it's triply redundant to say weekend afternoon
matinees are at 2 p.m. Saturday; I hope you're getting the drift). On
the other hand, don't be cryptic.

If you really want to help yourselves get information in correctly and
assuredly, look at the paper, and figure out how we do things. Such
as: Never abbreviating the day of the week (Monday, not Mon.); always
abbreviating the name of the month when used with a date (Sept. 12,
not September 12), except for the months with five letters or fewer
(April 12, not Apr. 12); never abbreviate the month when not used with
a date (September, not Sept.); do not add unneeded zeroes to times and
prices ($12 and 8 p.m., not $12.00 and 8:00 p.m.); note the style on
a.m. and p.m. (NOT A.M. and P.M. or am and pm or AM and PM); note that
we always put the time before the day and the day before the date, and
the date before the venue, and the venue before the address, and the
address before the city, because it's shorter and clearer (8 p.m.
Tuesday, Sept. 12, at Barrel Full O' Monkeys Theatre, 345 Whoopee
Blvd., Parma.); note that we include area codes with phone numbers,
that we separate the numbers with hyphens, not parentheses, that we
never use those clever spelt-out numbers, and we use the "1" or any
other prefix unless it's an 800 or 888 number or an overseas number
(330-897-0946, 1-800-666-6666, 011-44-87-29-46).

This is minutiae, true, and it's part of my job (and others who work
here) to make sure this stuff is right; but you stand a far better
chance with overworked journalist types if we don't have to fix every
single detail of what you send.

I could go on, but all you have to do is just look at the paper and
see how we do things. Almost all major dailies have their quirks of
style (we have our own stylebook at the PD), but they all pretty much
hew to the AP Stylebook, which can be had online for $17.95 and at
college bookstores for $10.95. Another useful volume, if you want to
get an even better grip on how to write a press release (or a novel,
or just a sentence you can be proud of having written), is Strunk and
White's Elements of Style, which can be had in its fourth (and latest)
edition for $9.95, or in its original edition for $3.95, both at
amazon.com, or at any bookstore worth patronizing.

On a technical note, you would do yourself a favor if you sent ONLY
Microsoft Word document-attachments (word.docs for the
computer-literate) or text-only document-attachments (XXX.txt) that
can be generated on almost any computer using simple programs that
often have names such as Notepad or Editpad or Notebook. Furthermore,
never put anything in such documents other than text; no crazy
formatting, no logo from your theater, no photos (those are done
entirely through another process), just words and numbers. No
spreadsheets, no pdf's, none of that crap. If all else fails, just put
the information in the body of the e-mail itself.

Finally, you will do yourself and us an immense service if you don't
title your document-attachments "PRESS RELEASE." I mean, really. Think
about if for a minute and just try to imagine how many press releases
a journalist or clerk at the PD receives in a single day. If you want
me to be able to recognize who the hell yours comes from or to what it
pertains, do not call it "PRESS RELEASE." Call it "TAKE ME OUT" or
something that will give me some clue as to what it contains. I
already know it's a press release.

Or, just ignore this entirely and take your chances.

Tony   

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