Thursday, August 7, 2008

Terrible writing, or the worst writing I’ve ever seen?

August 7

Seriously, alliteration is not good writing. In fact, it often makes a perfectly readable sentence hokey.
And big words don’t make you seem smart.
My comments are bracketed below. I added the boldface.

Dear Bret ,

We at
[a consulting company that does not respect the English language] facilitate public relations practitioners [read: help publicists] to reach the right contact and pitch their relevant stories. Most of our persistent PR professionals are continually keen on getting your current details on outlets/publications you are associated with, current job title, the latest topics you cover and essentially your preferred mode of communication. Hence [hence?] I request to [read: please] send the above mentioned information to [e-mail, fax and mailing address withheld for obvious reasons].
If the said information is available on the Web, feel free to simply send us the link.

[I was thinking of suggesting Google].


The message was signed by the senior vice president for projects, and that left me speechless.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Journalists make their living by using words. We get offended when they are used badly.

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