If You Confuse, You Lose
For the record, I am a huge music fan. Thus, in the summers I am always reading about music festivals and concerts. The other day I was reading about the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival and came across a well written piece of PR literature. It was the Bonnaroo “2006 Info Guide.”
The info guide is virtually just a handbook of what is permitted into the festival, and it answers frequently asked questions. It wasn’t great because of its AP style, but because of its clarity. Without clarity it would have done more harm than good. It would have left me and others asking, “what did that just say?” If someone has to ask that after reading a piece of PR literature, then I think the author has failed in one aspect of his job.
Most people know that the role of a PR professional is to relay a message of an organization to the organization’s publics. But something that is necessary in relaying the message is relaying it with clarity.
It is the responsibility of a PR person to put technical jargon and complicated matters into layman terms for the benefit of the publics and the organization. It is not always an easy thing to do because often PR people may not be experts on the subject themselves. But, that is no excuse not to find out about the topic and make the message clear.
I feel that it is necessary to write clearly to be successful in the PR industry. Most young PR people (including myself) aren’t very clear writers. I would assume that we all want to succeed, and part of the success is being able to write clearly. So does anyone have any tips or exercises that will make it easier to write more clearly?