AP Style: Professional Writing

Kevin M. Brett

J452

April 9, 2013

Mistakes: Part of Our Culture

• “All Politics is Local”

• “Who Are You?”

• “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction”

• “Near Miss”

• “Untimely Death”

PR Buzzwords

• Brand• Cloud• Corporate Social Responsibility• Organic• Sustainable• Solutions • Thinking Out of the Box• Thought Leadership

Wisdom from the General

“If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn`t thinking.” General George S. Patton

The Mother of All Run-On Sentences

“Today we are thinking out of the box in leveraging a portfolio of organic, sustainable cloud computing solutions that enhance your company brand, while demonstrating thought leadership and exemplifying your dedication to corporate social responsibility.”

Made to Stick: Simple?

• Family Wage Jobs?• Career Path Jobs?

• Amortization of Intangibles (Goodwill)• Paying for an acquired company’s reputation

and brand over time?

Simple: Hard to Achieve

• “Positively, Absolutely Overnight• “The Ultimate Driving Machine”• “The Low-Cost Airline”• “The System-on-a-Chip Company”• “Communications, Computer, Consumer”

Why AP Style?

• Accepted Writing Style:• Corporate• Agency • Government• Academia

Why Bother?

• Writing Tests

• PR Portfolios

• Writing Samples

• Professionalism

• Seat at the Table?

Common Mistake #1

• Over the fence• Five is more than four• Over the goal line• More than 9,000 attended• Over the last four years or…• During the last four years…

Common Mistake #2

• Numbers, Numbers, Numbers• One, two, three, four…• 10-11-12-13-14…• $1 million • Ten-thousand dollars…*• 1-9: Numerals• 10 or above: Digits

* Beginning of sentence…

Common Mistake #3

• Wrong• 10 a.m. in the morning• 2 p.m. in the afternoon • $10,000 dollars• Right• $4.3 billion• $714 million• $9.4 billion

Common Mistakes #4

• Who or Whom?• Complement; Compliment• Complementary• Complimentary• There• Their• They’re• Percent• %

Common Mistakes #5

• Capital• Capitol• Affect (Influence)• Effect (Cause)• Between• Either…or• Neither…nor• Among

Common Mistakes #6

• “A” modifies consonant sounds• “A one-year term (won-sound)• “A united stand (you-sound)

• “An” modifies vowel sounds• “An energy crisis (en-sound)• “An honorable man (“h” is silent)

Colonoscopies?

• The following played quarterback at Oregon in the last decade: Harrington, Fife, Clemens, Dixon, Masoli, Thomas and Mariota.

• Mariota and De’Anthony Thomas played well in his first bowl game; the offense scored four touchdowns against Kansas State.

General Rules

• Sweat the Details• Spelling• Grammar• Style• Flush Left• Paragraphs• Capitalization• Reader(s)?