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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
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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)?