I, Before E, the Bad Grammar of PR Professionals

As a current student in the NYU Public Relations and Corporate Communications Masters program I’m proud to sit among other future communicators striving to develop the voice for businesses around the world. So far it’s met my expectations as I’m introduced to new social media tools which continue to challenge previous thinking and in the process learn the foundations of what makes a great PR professional. What I wasn’t expecting was the usage of my fellow student’s bad grammar and my own mishaps. A reality check showed the derailment of a writing career before it could begin based on the inability to write properly. If anything has been honed into our brains by the professors since the semester started it’s the repeated mantra of, grammar, grammar, and grammar.  I can still hear all the unified educator voices in my head. “Learn to write well” Personally I felt the warning to be over-saturated but after taking a PR course where we are required to edit fellow students work, I became a believer in the dire foretelling our professors warned. Houston we not only have a problem but we have many uncompleted and misconstrued sentences.

Of course I would need to be perfect in my own writing skills to bring up such an important issue, but I will freely admit I’m not. Yet the bulk of my writing experience comes from composing blogs, research reports and even letters. From this advantage point writing well is a tool I’ve developed, recognizing I’m publishing material for public consumption. Another convenience I had growing up was not having access to today’s technology. I admit I’m not from the millennial generation so the short cut technology of platforms like Facebook and Twitter wasn’t a strong part of my toolkit. There was no such thing as ‘LOL’ or ‘Bcuz’ as we had to write out the entirety of our thoughts on paper. Yes I said paper!

Unfortunately the using of social media made us lose the valuable skill of grammar and sentence/paragraph structure as I discovered among my fellow mates. Upon reviewing a colleague’s paper I was inundated with fragmented sentences and confusing word choices. The biggest infraction is the overuse of commas. You’d think they were giving them away based on the freely placed symbols blanketing each sentence. Another common issue witnessed is the insertion of copy and paste material. One such fellow student’s PR media kit had 85% copy and paste material and 15% original.  And worse, the copy and paste submission didn’t have the not proper citations. Plagiarism much?

Grammar is not as difficult as it seems but if I could offer some advice I would say:

• Read until your eyes fall into your lap. Facebook timelines don’t count like other printed such as newspapers; books and magazines are a great source of reading material. This helped expose me to words I could introduce into my vernacular. In addition my writing is now more relevant based on my awareness of current events.
• Edits are your friend and not your enemy. In this age of wanting to be the first to report, many don’t take the time to “READ ALOUD” what they just wrote. If so done they would immediately recognize how their writing is not clear. You would have to be frickin’ geniuses to produce non-error writing in one take. Step back and then go back has always been my motto.
• When it comes to edits, don’t take it personal when others point out your mistakes. I know a classmate who doesn’t let others edit her paper as she was disturbed by all the red correction marks she got back. She felt they were trying to rewrite her paper. I wanted to say to her, he/she who wields their red pen aggressively is a good friend. Even with my own experience I had to tell myself it’s a good reflection on me as a writer to go through the process of putting out a well written paper.
• The past is the past so let it go. This is my biggest stumbling block, turning off my passive voice and shifting to one which is active. I blame the many years of blogging and writing plays. Writing for business whether its press releases or articles requires the here and the now. So words like, ‘was’ ‘will’ and ‘has’ should become eliminated from any writings set in the present tense.
• Administer the pertinent pronouncement unadulterated. The following line deciphered in real people talk means, ‘keep it simple’. I’m not a big fan of unnecessary words. I rarely observe moments when I’m saying, “Wow this writer is so smart”. Instead I’m more like “Why don’t they just say what they need to say”. I think the only people who are impressed by big words are your parents as they see all the money spent on your education paid off. Me-not so much.
• Microsoft Word is not always your BFF. I’m sorry to shatter any relationship with the big blue W but honestly depending on Microsoft to catch all your writing errors is like expecting Justin Bieber to sing opera. It’s just not going to happen and Microsoft will let you down repeatedly if your litmus test is the red squiggled line under your misspelled word. Nothing beats correcting your work like a good set of eyes, preferably not your own.
• Lastly-what are you trying to say? I think one of the evils attending college is the fear we’re not reaching the word count. To achieve this we add a lot of fluff and make our sentence lines double space to fill out the paper. In actuality you’ve just filled your paragraphs with meaningless information and have nothing to say. Having a good idea of what you want to write is a good start and for myself I actually begin with the ending. By knowing how I want to finish I can focus on supporting my argument. The key is to know when to stop and recognize you said all which needed to be said. Just like using big words, unnecessary long reports will not make you an enduring person.

So as I pursue my own education I disclose this blog entry you’re reading has been read and reread by me and several other people. But I know I’m going to see episodes where I’m not going to catch all the mistakes. As long as I sharpen my tools of grammar I feel confident as a public relations professional I will learn the ability to communicate strongly and effectively…..without all the fluff!