All one has to do to find notable examples of poor news release writing is go to Canada Newsire on any day. Organizations pay good money to release this news but they don’t bother to.

If you are like me, every time you receive your cell bills, you cry out in frustration: “Those bastards, how dare they? It’s just airtime!”
So when my good friend Rasool Verjee showed me his new Blackberry application, BerryMiser, I jumped at the chance to help promote it and use it myself. Rasool and Bruce Croxon [...]

Thinking about launching a social media campaign for your business?

Prepared with the assistance of Humber PR grad student Heather Smith…
As the ever changing landscape of public relations continues to evolve, social media has become a central focus. From blogs to Twitter to Facebook, social media is being used like never before.

Lower cost alternatives like…public relations!
“Madison Avenue is fastening its seat belt as the cascading effects of the financial crisis begin to hit the advertising economy,” wrote Stuart Elliott in the New York Times this week (it was also reprinted in the National Post). “As consumers suddenly cut back spending on everything from cars to clothing [...]

This is another in the continuing series of randomly checking Canada Newswire to comment on writing and style. There were many instructive lessons in the copy below.
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF CANADA NEWSWIRE—Oct. 31
Attention Business Editors:
James Goodfellow joins the Board of Directors of Discovery Air
Original version:
LONDON, ON, Oct. 31 /CNW/ – Gil Bennett, [...]

Item in the Toronto Globe and Mail, August 22, 2008:
“Microsoft Corp. will try to transform its dry and humorless public image by employing the popularity and charisma of Jerry Seinfeld. The world’s biggest software company has signed the comedian to spearhead a major $300-million (U.S.) branding campaign that will be launched next month.”
As any [...]

Democratic Convention Opens Tonight!
Win or lose come November, Sen. Barack Obama has forever changed America’s political landscape Campaigning will never be the same as the rules are being rewritten daily. Courting notoriously apathetic youth voters is no easy task but the Democratic nominee strategically employed social networking (Facebook, Twitter, MyBo), online videos (YouTube), email campaigns [...]

Rain on the Chinese Parade?
Amidst the pomp and pageantry of Beijing 2008’s opening week, one may be excused for an inherent reluctance to prematurely rain on the Chinese parade. This is, of course, a historic event years in the making, with lofty expectations on many fronts – human rights, the environment and press freedoms, [...]

SOCIAL MEDIA IS HERE TO STAY
News flash: communications will never be the same. The social media revolution has altered the landscape of public relations. It is not apparent to most practitioners yet but it has happened. My students at Humber College know it and they are eager to embrace it if someone could just explain [...]

BEFORE PR WRITER
It’s a new era for G.I.T. Doors and Windows Ltd.
SAINT-LEONARD, QC, May 14/CNW Telbec/ – The executive management team of G.I.T. Doors and Windows Ltd.is proud to announce the acquisition of Vitrerie Brière and its integration to G.I.T. Doors and Windows Ltd.
This association will allow the company to offer a wide range of top-of-the-line [...]

After we posted our first 10 Tips to Better Writing, we received a number of requests for the second installment in the series.  Following on the idea that all writing mistakes are a collection of commonly made errors, here is the new chapter. Some of the suggestions are for better writing; others cover grammatical errors [...]

Dear Friends,
On this, the dreaded 40th anniversary of the assassination of the remarkable The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., it is vitally important to remember what Dr. King stood for and what he accomplished. For me, Dr. King’s passing will always be inextricably linked with the death of my personal hero, Sen. Robert F. [...]

As an aid to generating better PR writing, the PR Writer Extraordinaire blog will occasionally examine the good and bad at Canada Newswire.  The first release contains numerous missed editing opportunities.
(Name removed at request of company) reaches milestone during Canada’s Fraud Prevention Month
MISSISSAUGA, ON, March 26 /CNW/ – (Name removed) reports that as part of it’s [...]

ANYONE CAN IMPROVE THEIR WRITING

After editing other people’s writing for a lifetime, I am firmly convinced that most writing flaws are based on mistakes that individuals make repeatedly. As a service to the world of writing and mankind in general, I hereby offer PRWriterExtraordinaire’s 10 Top Tips to Better Writing: (for Tips 11-20, e-mail us [...]

This is a time of the desecration of the written word. E-mail, texting, the decline of reading and the video age have all conspired to create a new and less precise language. It used to be difficult to send a letter. You had to take pen and paper and write something. You could tell if [...]

We’ve been up to some unusual and demanding work recently and here are some notable examples of our activities. Started two blogs: this one of course and also The Separated Man, which recaps my experiences with recent separation and divorce. It garnered 1,000 readers in January; a book is also underway based on the ideas [...]

I want to make a world in which there is better writing everywhere. To communicate better is like saying cleanliness is next to godliness. With good communications, there is better understanding and more effective execution of organizational goals and messages.