How to enthral rather than enrage

If there’s one thing guaranteed to make a journalist react, it’s a poorly written piece of copy. That could be from a writer they’ve commissioned, something they’ve read in another publication or in a press release.

Far be it from me to ever call out something littered with grammatical errors or full of cliches and inaccuracies, because ‘there but for the grace of God’… In fact, many years ago at The Independent I spelled high jinks as high jinx in big letters on the front page of the newspaper. I got quite the reaction then, mainly from a furious editor.

But it does demonstrate a certain amount of thoughtlessness, or lack of rigour, to get a release which has key details wrong, misses them out or, as was the case for one I opened this morning that was pitching a new drink, the grammar meanders all over the place making it hard to follow. 

I find myself wondering if the person who wrote it read it back before sending or, more crucially, as we always are supposed to do with editorial, got “fresh eyes” to look it over. It’s amazing how even the most attentive author can miss something on a piece they’ve worked on, often just because they’ve looked at it too much.

So to spare your blushes and to enthral rather than enrage your audience, please check, check and check again.