Hey Writer ... Why Do Think Your Words Are So Special Anyway?

As mind boggling as it seems, we will be exposed to more than a million words today. No, we won't see all of them, but they are there — framing webpages, breaking up social media updates, decorating walls, accompanying us to work on the horizon, and tucking us in when we go to bed.

Even those who didn't pick up a book this year — their lives are overflowing with words. In fact, this overwhelming volume of messages might even explain why the number of book readers has dipped in recent years. With as much content as people consume, voluntarily and involuntarily, it becomes increasingly difficult to fathom why anyone might want to add a few thousand more.

If you write, it ought to make you think too. What makes your words so special?

It doesn't even matter what kind of writer you might be. Literary writers have the seemingly impossible task of targeting voluntary readers to add more words to their lives, which is precisely why most authors never break more than $10,000 per published novel. Content marketers and copywriters have a seemingly impossible task too.

They target otherwise involuntary readers, using interruption, distraction, and attraction as tools of the trade. But even if they are very good at it, even great at it, most of them know that the number of times a reader has to be exposed to a message before it sticks has increased from three times in the 1960s to somewhere around 300 times today.

Even if it does stick, awareness is fragile. One typpppo, intentional or not, and even the best written message suddenly evaporates as our minds are attracted more to mistakes than best intentions.

Sure, some people argue that typos have become okay. They really aren't so okay when you realize they tend to attract more attention than the message.

Sure, we can all appreciate that the quantity of communication (how much we write) and the speed of communication (how fast we are asked to write it) has certainly contributed to the diminishing rate of quality — so much so that forgiveness is given much more readily than it once was. But does that make it right?

It depends, I suppose, on our expectation of outcome. Do we want people to remember our message or our mistake? If you want them to remember your message, then the error acceptance rate is zero.

If you want people to take the time to read your work, then take more time to write it.

In a few weeks, I'll be teaching Editing & Proofreading Your Work at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. There are several takeaways from the class, including a better measure of how much time — from research to layout revisions — writing projects require (even if very few have such luxury).

It also includes some fundamentals on proofreading (the final polish) the work, start to finish:

1. Read the content out loud, slowly, with special attention paid to alliteration
2. Break up the content with a ruler, allowing you to see a line instead of a page
3. Start from the bottom up and backwards, seeing each word to check spelling
4. Print the content and, if you cannot print it, then change the font size and style
5. Set the work aside for a few hours or a day between writing, editing and proofreading

If you noticed that each of these techniques is tied to tricking your brain to see the content differently, you are right. The phenomenon that makes other people's writing errors stand out is the same phenomenon that makes ours so hard to spot. It's likely related to the Troxler effect, an optical illusion where unchanging stimulus away from a fixation point will fade and disappear.

Becoming a better proofreader of our own work often means changing the stimulus so our brain doesn't fill in details that don't exist after we've fixated on the work. Conversely, readers tend to spot errors much more quickly because the error disrupts the unchanging flow of content and our brains are programmed to see disruption. Never mind that our perception of authorship is the only change.

This isn't the only area where perception affects our writing. The value we place on it is based largely on perception too, unless we invest the time it takes to elevate the reader instead of merely informing them. Why bother? An article of 750 words is .00075 percent of the words someone will see today.

Educators See PR Trends From A Different Perspective

When the Public Relations Certification Program at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) began experiencing a decline in enrollment several years ago, most people pointed to the economy as an explanation. I didn't see it that way. The decline in enrollment was the symptom of an ailing industry.

As the old business model for journalism in the digital age began to fail, so did public relations. Sure, some people might call me out with claims that public relations firms are booming. Maybe some firms are, but most aren't relying on public relations as much as content marketing anymore.

Forbes recently called it the devolution of public relations. And while Christopher Penn pointed out that public relations is not doomed, even he couched his assessment in the observation that the media landscape is more diverse than ever before and public relations is adapting to the media landscape. I think he is right, except that it seems public relations firms aren't adapting to the market as much as they are adopting more marketing.

You can see it in enrollment. In prioritizing their educational investment, students and working professionals are more inclined to take classes that seem better suited to integrated marketing communication (which includes content marketing) than public relations. In fact, it was for that reason I asked the university to develop an Integrated Marketing Communication Certificate instead, and include public relations under a new umbrella. UNLV met me halfway with two certificate programs.

Pubic Relations and Integrated Marketing Communication Certificate programs.

Although the complementing certificate programs are still in their infancy and without the marketing support that I hoped for, the concept has merit. The idea is to offer two programs with up to five concentrated core courses while the balance of the curriculum consists of transferrable elective courses.

These are the four classes that I have signed on to teach this fall. Although the descriptions for two of the courses were inherited, three of the four classes are being built from the ground up. The fourth, Editing & Proofreading Your Work, is my long-running class offered three times a year and always refreshed between offerings. Course descriptions follow:

Fundamentals of Public Relations - 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., Thursdays, starting Sept. 8

Explore the history, principles, procedures, and ethics guiding those who work in the field of public relations. You will also learn concepts, definitions, and techniques related to enhancing an organizational presence, elevating an organizational identity, and reinforcing an organizational brand by serving both the organization and public interest. The class is held Thursdays from Sept. 8 to Oct. 27 (with no class on Sept. 22 and Oct. 20). Course: 163PR6101

Editing & Proofreading Your Work - 9 a.m. to noon, Saturday, Sept. 10

Make a positive impression with clear, concise, and grammatically-correct personal or business correspondence. This half-day program will focus on essentials such as content, flow, mechanics, spelling and punctuation. You will leave the workshop with several editing exercises you may use to self-test and practice the skills you have learned. This class is an intensive 3-hour refresher for all writers, literary and commercial. Course: 163WR1150

Content Marketing - 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., Thursdays, starting Sept. 26

Gain the insights, knowledge and skills you need to design, develop, promote, and manage digital, mobile, and social content as part of a successful marketing campaign. In this skills-driven class, you will learn some of the newest trends in the creation of compelling and engaging content that not only supports marketing but solidifies customer loyalty in marking them (and the media) as an important part of the campaign. The class is held Mondays from Sept. 26 to Dec. 3 (with no class on Oct. 17, Oct. 31, or Nov. 7). Course: 163MK2120

Crisis Communication - 6:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., Thursdays, starting Nov. 11

Weather a natural disaster, accident, product recall, or other organizational crisis with a skillfully executed crisis communication plan. The class will take you through the process of developing a plan while minimizing legal liability, executing the media response, and managing key messages. The final project is to participate in an on-camera interview about your assigned crisis. The class is held Thursdays from Nov. 10 to Dec. 8 (with no class Nov. 24). Course: 163PR6103

Will the new curriculum work? I don't know. While public relations remains a critical component of any integrated marketing communication background and an important skill set, its overemphasis on media relations (for decades) has diminished its attractiveness as a standalone program. So, we'll see.

All of these classes also follow a traditional classroom model so you must be in Las Vegas to attend. In the future, there may be room to develop similar classes as an online alternative or, perhaps, private one-on-one instruction. Considering the direction of education today, it seems inevitable.

Never Mind The Cliche If Its Omission Is A Crime

Every now and again someone complies a list of words that need to be kicked to the curb because the list builder claims such words are overused, overblown, and otherwise tired. Sometimes they're right.

And other times? They aren't so right, at least not so right for everyone. Some people truly deserve the words that others dismiss as overused or in need of being avoided. Maybe you deserve some too. 

The real crime seldom has to do with a word being cliche, but rather the author or orator using a phrase or opinion that betrays a lack of original thought — power word and omit lists, inclusive. 

"The difficulty of literature is not to write, but to write what you mean." — Robert Louis Stevenson

The problem faced by many authors or orators isn't the word they choose but the way they go about choosing it. Instead of investing time to find the right word, they rely on tips and tricks that follow the pendulum swings between popularity and platitude. So rather than ever finding the right words to describe themselves, all they ever do is describe the trends that surround them. 

What they ought to think about instead is writing straight, honest prose that lends clarity to their meaning. A serial entrepreneur is something who has incubated a string of successful startups. A strategist is someone who envisions something new or at least reframes it in an unconventional way. Some of them might even be called innovative or collaborative, depending on their approach. 

The same can be said for any of the nineteen words called out for being hyperbolic. If they apply to you, continue to stand your ground and use them. But if you only grabbed onto to them because they looked good as part of someone else's message, then heed the warning and take the lesson to heart.

Skip manipulations, cognitive distortions, and pretend qualities that you or your company might profess and focus in on those qualities you really do have. That's all anybody really wants nowadays. They want the truth (or as close as you can come to it) with neither exaggeration nor omission.