7 Common Errors All PR Pros Should Know

“The committee is composed of nine people” or “The committee is comprised of nine people”? “The letter was sent to: associates, managers and vice presidents” or “The letter was sent to associates, managers and vice presidents”? And “Norma met with account executive Betty Schaefer” or “Norma met with Account Executive Betty Schaefer”?

Are you able to pick the right ones? The correct selections above include “composed of,” “sent to” (no colon) and “account executive Betty Schaefer.”

In my role as writer and editor over the past 15 years, I continue to come across the same grammar and style errors specific to PR writing. To help PR pros be on guard against these, I’ve put together a boot camp and distilled seven of the most common mistakes in the quiz below.

Each error is in the form of an example in the sentences below. To test if your writing skills are in shape, read each sentence, try to find the mistake, and check your answer against the explanations. All answers are based on the 2015 issue of the Associated Press Stylebook, although in one explanation I include commentary to provide guidance on a rule that is particularly confusing.

Let me know how you do. Good luck.

Sentences

1. Sabrina works in sales & marketing.

2. The media kit is comprised of news releases and fact sheets.

3. Company XYZ, Inc. is a provider of financial solutions.

4. David’s media outreach is targeted to: news sites, trade publications and blogs.

5. The product provides five benefits:

   • Faster processing

   • Offers single point of access

   • Lower cost

   • Integrates legacy systems.

6. Company ABC’s annual growth rate fell 1 percent, from 10 percent to 9 percent.

7. Norma met with Account Executive Betty Schaefer.

Explanations

1. Don’t use an ampersand unless it’s part of an official name (e.g., Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble). Many PR pros subconsciously use this symbol as a shortcut whenever “and” comes between two related terms (e.g., research & development, sales & marketing). Don’t.

2. “Comprise” means “to contain or embrace,” so nothing is ever “comprised of” something. The phrase that people usually mean to say when they write this is “composed of.” The whole comprises the parts; the parts compose the whole, or the whole is composed of the parts: “The jury comprises 12 members. The zoo is composed of 42 animal exhibits.” If “composed of” sounds stilted, “consists of” and “made up of” are also options.

3. The corporate identifier “Inc.” is no longer separated by commas in a company name, but the problem is that many people put a comma before “Inc.” and not one after. “Inc.” not separated by commas or separated by two commas is OK, but to use one comma before it and not after is an error.

4. Colons shouldn’t be used between a verb and its object (“The tour was scheduled to cover: Atlanta, Memphis and New Orleans”) or a preposition and its object (“The campaign was directed at: newspapers, magazines and TV outlets”). In these examples, no colon is needed.

5. Be careful to maintain parallel structure in bulleted lists. If the first item is a noun, the following items should be. If the first item starts with a verb, the following items should as well. If the first item is a complete sentence, the following items should, too, and so on.

6. It’s easy to get tripped up on differences between percentages, because the difference is usually one of percentage points, not percents. In the example above, the growth rate fell one percentage point (from 10 to 9) but fell 10 percent (one is one-tenth of 10). For this reason, be careful in stating differences between percentages.

7. Whew, bear with me a little on this one, because it’s a little tricky. In this sentence, “Account Executive” would be properly lowercased in AP style, but logically capitalized in a number of PR documents. Let me explain. According to AP style, a title shouldn’t be capitalized unless it’s used directly before a name and, importantly, unless it’s a formal title. This is a title indicating a scope of authority or professional activity, such as president, queen, doctor, colonel, bishop or professor. It’s different from a job description, such as waiter, reporter or sales representative, which would not be capitalized, even directly before a name. However, after years of trying to clarify these nuances, I’ve concluded that this style rule is the single most confusing one in PR, and that it contradicts a basic aim in PR – to accord status to organizational leaders. Consequently, in the interest of simplicity, here’s what I recommend. If your document is intended for reproduction in the media, try to follow AP style and only capitalize a formal title used before a name. But for documents intended for corporate, marketing or internal communications – such as websites, brochures and intranets – go ahead and capitalize titles before and after names.