Writing Skills Workshop: Leeds Metropolitan University

Writing Skills Workshop
Chartered Institute of Public Relations
Leeds Metropolitan University

Robert Minton-Taylor
(Associate Senior Lecturer)
Leeds Business School
Friday, 15 February 2008
Tutor: Robert Minton-Taylor FCIPR E-mail: robert@minton-taylor.com Tel: 01535 634 634
The Writing Skills Menu
• 13.30 hrs PR Writing
• 15.00 hrs Tea
• 15.15 hrs PR Writing (contd)
• 16.15 hrs Close
Writing Press Releases
News Stories
News stories fall into 3 categories:

 Breaking news – immediate real time events e.g.
South East Asia tsunami
 Feature stories – articles or broadcast allowing for
greater depth e.g. background on how survivors
are rebuilding their lives following the tsunami
 Commentary – expert analysis providing context to
a news story – e.g. foreign correspondent analysis
of how tsunamis happen
Creating A Press Release
• Press releases are sent direct to the media outlet to
whom you want to tell a story
• They can be lightweight or fun to attract attention to
your organisation's name or product or service
• Or serious e.g. flood warning notice
• Please Note: financial press releases take on the duties of a
legal document i.e. they are recognised by regulators as the
instrument of formal disclosure of investor information, so
great care has to be taken
6 Steps For A Successful
Release
1. Make headline punchy or direct
2. Put the news upfront
3. Give a quote
4. Write so your mother would understand
5. Save additional data for a fact sheet
6. Include wrap-up sentence at the end
Release
1. Make headline punchy or direct
– Your headline summarises the news in a few
words
– It can either state the facts or present the
interesting “news hook” you think will capture the
media's interest
Release
2. Put the news upfront
– You have got to capture the journalist's attention
by the end of the first paragraph
– What you are announcing has to make a
difference
– The first paragraph should encapsulate the whole
story – because, in spite of new technology,
journalists still cut stories from the bottom up
Release
3. Give a quote
– Quote someone in the organisation who is
responsible for the development you are
announcing
– A quote provides perspective and context for the
basic facts
– It can be a platform to communicate key
messages to varied stakeholders
Release
4. Write so your mother would understand
– Your release will have a life of its own once it is
distributed
– So make sure your messages and news are
really understandable by anyone likely to come
across it
– Avoid jargon, buzz words or acronyms at all cost
Release
5. Save additional data for a fact sheet
– Do not litter your releases with every specification
of a new project, or pages of facts and figures
– Remember it is a news story not an essay
– If there are important details you want to include
add a “Notes to Editors”
– Or if longer - a separate fact sheet or a Q&A
document
Release
6. Include wrap-up sentence at the end
– Save your background round-up sentence on the
organisation until the end of the press release
– Do not litter your releases with every specification
of a new project, or pages of facts and figures
– In the USA it’s called a “boilerplate”
Example of a wrap-up
sentence(s)
• Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics (WWL) is a

leading independent provider of global
factory-to-dealer transport solutions for the
automotive, agricultural and construction
equipment industries.
sentence(s)
• WWL employs 3,200 people and uses 55-60
modern eco-friendly car carriers and RoRo vessels,
servicing 20 trade routes to five continents. WWL
transports 3.3 million vehicles annually: 1.7 million
by sea and 1.6 million inland.
• The company has a strong environmental focus and
is an industry leader in developing innovative
solutions to reduce the impact of its operations on
the environment. WWL is owned by Wallenius Lines
of Sweden and Wilh. Wilhelmsen of Norway.
sentence(s)
• The company also specialises in handling complex
project cargoes such as rail cars, power generators,
mining equipment and yachts.
• WWL’s also offers supply chain management
services that integrate its ocean services, inland
distribution, terminal handling and technical services
offerings.
Writing A Press Release
The ‘5’ Ws and

‘How’?
The 5 ‘Ws’ and ‘How’?
• Journalists are taught that there are six
‘Ws’ to every good news story:
1. Who?
2. Why?
3. What?
4. When?
5. Where?
6. How?
• Use these as memory joggers
• Try and incorporate the answers to these questions
in your stories.
The Five ‘Ws’ and ‘How’? Answer:

3. Who are you writing about?
4. Why are you writing about this event?
5. What event are you writing about?
6. When did it happen?
7. Where did it happen?
8. How did it happen?
WHO?
• Answering this question provides more detail about
the who - whether it be an organisation or person.
WHY?
• Answering this question will provide the explanation
of what is happening, and the reasons behind it.
WHAT?
• Answering this question will provide all the
information you need for the news editor to
understand what is happening
WHEN?
• Answering this question will tell the reader, listener
or viewer when something is going to happen
• It is a good idea to ensure that a summary of this
kind of information is in your opening paragraph
• If more explanation is needed, you can provide it
later in the story
WHERE?
• Answering this question will build extra and relevant
facts into your news release about the location
The 5 ‘Ws’ and ‘How’
HOW?
• Answering this question explains how people will be
affected or how an event or act came about
Thus, a newspaper would not write:

• The global shipping industry is responsible for
widespread emissions that could damage the
enviroment says a confidential United Nations
report. The emissions are believed to be almost
three times larger than those previously announced.
Thus, a newspaper would write:

• The true scale of climate change emissions from
shipping is almost three times higher than previously
believed, according to a leaked UN study today.
– Who shipping
– What emissions
– When today
• 10 passengers are believed to have been killed

when an express train bound for London from
Newcastle hit a stationary car which had careered
off the M62 trans Pennine motorway near Selby in
North Yorkshire in the early hours of this morning.
– Who 10 passengers
– Why Don’t know
– What Died
– When This morning
– Where Selby
– How Hit a stationary car
• Ryanair is threatening to sack pilots after being

criticised by air accident investigators over a series
of dangerous approaches to airports – in less than a
year.
– Who Ryanair
– Why Criticised by air accident investigators
– What Dangerous approaches
– When Within the past year
– Where Airports
– How Threatening to sack pilots
• The government was last night investigating possible

links between the discovery of H5N1 avian bird flu at a
Bernard Matthews turkey farm in Suffolk and recent
outbreaks of the disease in Hungary.
– Who The government
– Why Investigating link between H5N1 & Hungary
– What Avian bird flu outbreak
– When Last night
– Where Bernard Matthews turkey farm, Suffolk
– How Birds died
Main clause
• Most news stories begin with the main clause as in
the preceding sample news stories
• Why?: The ‘who’ and the ‘what’ tend to be the most
important.
• The public do not want to wade through dull details,
background or comment before arriving at the main
point
Please remember
Please remember:
• The job of a reporter is to report NEWS
• Your press release must be of topical or current
interest - yesterday’s story is no story
• Journalists love facts and figures
• Keep sentences short and to the point (journalists
write the story, you provide the facts*)
• “Your first sentence has to be the killer.”
*Ron Wain, business editor, Southampton Daily News
And finally
Please remember:
• Confine each thought to a paragraph The first
paragraph - the “intro” is the attention grabber
• The “intro” should précis the whole story
• Each paragraph must be in descending order of
importance - an editor will cut from the bottom
upwards
And really finally
Please remember:
• Include comment, or quotes, from the subject of the
story - it adds flavour and gives perspective to your
story
• Always consider the implications of what you say
But not quite finally
A John Foster* Note
1. Clarity is at stake once there are more than two commas in a
sentence
2. Restrict sentences to 20-25 words
3. Three sentences to a paragraph
4. Keep to plain, un-fussy English
5. Use short words
6. Write tight
7. Don’t make the reader reach for the dictionary
8. Read out what you have written to yourself – and preferably
to others as well
9. If you are stuck for technicalities explain what you mean or
out it in another way
10. Once you see gibberish, rewrite, replace, reconstruct – and
jump the jargon
*Effective Writing Skills for Public Relations
Third edition, John Foster, Price: £16.99
Press Release
Writing Exercise
Writing Features
Writing Features
Features can:
• Inform – from providing coherent and accessible
data to offering analysis
• Help
• Entertain
• Persuade – prompting perhaps a reader to think
differently e.g. about the environment
• Amuse
So What Makes A Good
Feature
Views of 4 feature editors in Yorkshire
3. Be readable and credible
4. Have a grabbing ‘intro’ i.e. introductory sentence
5. Involve the reader
6. Meet the brief – of the article
7. Be accurate – don’t ‘spin’ the information
8. Have substance – to the feature
9. Contain an element of surprise
10. Ensure its crafted well
Writing Features
Features divide into 4 categories:
 Profiles – of individual people, usually based on
interviews
 Product stories – about one product/round-up of
many, described, compared, tested
 Background features - putting the news in
context
• ‘News features’ are hybrids, somewhere between a
straightforward news story and a feature
• ‘Colour’ pieces describe events as they happen e.g.
sporting events
 Opinion pieces - leaders, think pieces, etc
Writing Features
Features
• The sole constraint for a feature is to write in the way
that’s right for the publication
e.g. What may suit Car won’t necessarily suit Classic
Car
• Being so varied, features are hard to define and
harder to write
• Features are liberated from the sparse, functional
prose of a press release
• They require research and often an ability to master
complex subjects – turning chunks of information into
an accessible and digestible form
Feature Guidelines
The guidelines are:

• Think
• Focus
• Have something to say
• Take the reader with you form A to Z
• Choose your words carefully and make them
flow
Tea Break 15 mins
Features Writing Exercise
Business Writing
& Editing Skills
Business Writing
Before you write a report, think about:

• The purpose of the document
• Who it is aimed at
• Who will actually use or read it
• How would you like it to be used
• How is it is likely to be used
• What you want to achieve, how and why
Business Writing
Trevor Bentley, in ‘Report Writing in Business’
maintains that you should only write a report:
• If you need agreement to a course of action
• If you need to explain specific events
• As a basis for discussion
• To inform
Structure of Reports
Structure
• Reports need a beginning, middle and end
• Need an introduction or heading about what the
report is about
• Must include what you want the reader to know and
do
• Put in lots of headings and short paragraphs
• Use bullet points – people do not have the time nor
inclination to read long documents
• Use graphics to make visual point
• Progression and presentation of points and
arguments should be logical
Questions?
Thank you, goodbye and
have a great weekend!
If you need anything - email or call me:
Robert Minton-Taylor
Email robert@minton-taylor.com
Tel 01535 634 634
Mobile 07947 818 816

Writing Skills Workshop: Leeds Metropolitan University

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Writing Skills Workshop: Leeds Metropolitan University

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Copyright:

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Writing Skills Workshop

Chartered Institute of Public Relations

Leeds Metropolitan University

Writing Press Releases

News stories fall into 3 categories:

• Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics (WWL) is a

The ‘5’ Ws and

The Five ‘Ws’ and ‘How’? Answer:

Thus, a newspaper would not write:

Thus, a newspaper would write:

• 10 passengers are believed to have been killed

• Ryanair is threatening to sack pilots after being

• The government was last night investigating possible

*Ron Wain, business editor, Southampton Daily News

The guidelines are:

Tea Break 15 mins

Features Writing Exercise

Before you write a report, think about:

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