Navigating through the AP Stylebook

Sarah Lichterman

The Associated Press Stylebook is the bible of rules for writing news. My sophomore year of college, I took an entire classes dedicated to learning the ins and outs of this book. Back then, I had no idea how useful this training would be. Even though I have memorized many of the rules in the book, I still refer to it pretty much every time I write a news release to double-check a rule. Sometimes, I kick myself for having to look up a rule I should know one more time. But, I have come to realize that it is better to be safe than sorry. 

I have decided that instead of continually reading the AP Stylebook (a task similar to memorizing a dictionary), my familiarity with knowing what word or phrase has a rule and knowing how to quickly find a rule is sufficient. 

Knowing that a word or phrase has a rule is helpful, even though I may not know what the rule is. I find that this is my area of expertise. Because of my college days of memorizing rules, I am at least aware of what needs to be looked up, even if I do not know what the rule is off the top of my head. Because of this, I am regularly referring to my copy of the AP Stylebook. Nevertheless, navigating through the book can have its difficulties.

I am a book person. Even though the Stylebook is available online with a registered login, I prefer to use my hard copy. However, this can sometimes be difficult because the book is set up to not repeat rules often, even if it seems applicable. For example, if you are looking for the rule to see if a city can stand alone in a dateline, the first place you would naturally tend to look is under “C” for “cities.” However, you will only find the rule for “city” which is to “capitalize city if part of a proper name, an integral part of an official name, or a regularly used nickname: Kansas City, New York City, Windy City, City of Light, Fun City. Lowercase elsewhere…” This will not help answer your question. The correct answer can be found under “datelines.”

Here are a few examples of other rules that are frequently used and are not as easy to find as they should be.

• Academic degrees. The rule for properly mentioning a degree to establish someone’s credentials or use in a biography. My first instinct is to always look under “D” for “degrees” instead of under “A.” The rule for “academic degree” gives a thorough explanation for all types of degrees and how you reference them. You can also look up specific degrees for a brief explanation of how to write them under the entry for “Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor or Science” and “Master of Arts, Master of Science, Master of Business Administration.” 
• Dates. The rule for correctly writing a date. You would think that looking for “date” would give you the answer. However, this entry only gives you the rule to use Arabic figures, and does not mention how you should write the months of year. The complete rule for dates is located with the rule for “months” and referenced under “years.”
• Numbers. The rule for how to reference numbers. However, there is no “numbers” entry in the book. There is a “numerals” entry that gives a brief explanation for how to use numbers for pretty much any situation including addresses, ages, vehicle names, dimensions, ratios, chapters, recipes, temperatures and more. Each of these topics has an in-depth explanation in their own entry.  

The Stylebook also has different sections with rules for specific topics. These sections are designed to make it easier to search for rules pertaining to these topics (as long as you know the section exists).

• Punctuation. This section is dedicated to how to use punctuation marks. It lists all the rules for punctuation by symbol, rather than how the symbol is used. For instance, if you are looking for the rule for using a possessive noun or pronoun, you would look under “apostrophe” instead of under “possessive noun.”
• Sports. This section explains rules for words and phrases pertaining to variety of sports such as scores, titles and names. It also contains definitions for commonly used sports jargon, as well as conferences, divisions and tournament information.
• Food. This section shows common culinary conversions and writing guidelines for recipes. It also contains a complete list of food items and cooking techniques that explains the definition of the word and how to capitalize these items.
• Fashion. This section contains the definition and writing rule for fashion and fabric terms, such as “A-line,” “epaulet,” “haute couture” and “pleat.” It also lists famous and commonly known fashion designers and gives a brief background on the designers.

These are just a few of the many tips and tricks to navigate through the AP Stylebook in order for you to efficiently and quickly finish your writing piece. I also suggest using Post-it notes to mark your frequently used rules. One day, I hope to know all the AP rules off hand, but I know that will come with time. For now, I will stick with my knowledge of what words need a rule and how to find them. If you know any other tips, please feel free to share in the comment section!

Three PR-Real World Parallels You’ve Probably Never Thought Of

Kerri Guyton

PR is on my brain almost all the time, even when I’m not at work. I think about applying aspects of PR planning to different situations in my personal life (see my post about my holiday family PR plan), and I think about different scenarios and symbols that well-represent good PR principles (see my post about If PR were an animal, it would be a…). In this post, I want to continue my PR-real world parallels with three specific ones related to PR services and everyday items or occurrences. Have you ever thought of these?

Media Relations and Marriage

I’ve been married for 15 years now. I married my college sweetheart during my senior year of college, so we’ve actually been together for 18 years.  I wouldn’t say I’m a marriage expert, but I’ve certainly been analyzing our relationship/marriage – and how to make it work for the benefit of both of us – for nearly two decades. And, while it’s no secret that communication is the key to success in any relationship, knowing how to communicate in a marriage is particularly important, especially when you are married to someone who works a lot and has limited time to communicate with you. I’ve learned that similar rules apply to media relations, as reporters and editors are similarly busy and often lack time for us “PR people.” 

In communicating with my husband, I know that there is a certain way to deliver messages to him. I have to speak his language, use as few words as possible and make sure those words capture his attention in the short time I usually have with him. I also know that there are good and bad times to engage him in conversation, and because he is so busy, most of the time that means only bringing up topics that really matter to him. I take a similar approach to media relations by knowing the best time to contact reporters with a story idea or news item, as well as keeping my pitch clear, concise and targeted to what their audiences will care about.

Additionally, ongoing relationship building is valuable in both marriage and media relations. In either one, it shouldn’t be about what I can get from them but what value I can bring to the relationship so that it’s mutually beneficial.

Crisis Communications and Cutting the Grass

Yes, they are related. Let me show you how. For starters, a well-maintained yard comes from regular upkeep. Keeping the grass at an acceptable level prevents you from being the shame of the neighborhood and the target of homeowner association penalties. Not to mention that when you let too much time go in between trims, it can start getting out of control, resulting in a little more effort and a lot more trimmings to clean up. And, you certainly don’t want to wait until you can no longer see your sidewalks and landscaping, as that may require additional tools and much more time and work on your hands.

Just as you don’t wait to pull out the lawnmower until the grass is out of control, you should never wait until a crisis happens to have a crisis communication plan. Crisis communication planning is ongoing and should deal with the maintenance of processes within a company that could potentially lead to a crisis. A well-prepared crisis communication plan should also ensure that you have the right “tools in the shed” should a crisis occur. If the potential “weeds” within a company are toxic employees, include ongoing training programs in your crisis communications plan and develop an immediate plan of action for appropriate discipline or termination should an employee situation turn to crisis mode.   

Social Media Strategy and an Ice Cream Sundae

The staples of a good ice cream sundae usually include vanilla ice cream, chocolate or caramel syrup, whipped cream and sprinkles. Consider that the definition of a standard social media strategy – one that if you ate it every day, might get a little old. Now, think about a great ice cream sundae, which may include a couple of different ice cream flavors and select toppings to complement each scoop. For example, a chocolate scoop might be covered in banana bites; a strawberry scoop could be topped with chocolate chips; and a butter pecan scoop is drizzled with caramel. Let’s complete the vision with a dollop of whipped cream and a cherry on each scoop. Now, that’s one interesting and delicious frozen experience. 

In my opinion, a great social media strategy utilizes a select collection of platforms to speak to a brand’s various audiences, and for each platform, a complementary strategy should be put in place that is specific to that audience. It’s important to use variety in your content to keep audiences engaged – not just the same posts over and over. I think it’s also important to note that you don’t have to have a presence on every social media platform, especially if your audience isn’t on that platform. Choosing the right platforms and content strategy can make the difference between your audiences eating and enjoying your sundae or letting it sit and melt.

How to avoid your own version of March Madness

Loren Dean

Basketball season is coming to a close, which means NCAA March Madness has finally arrived! I always love this time of year because of all of the competitiveness with brackets and contests everywhere you go.  Plus, I love cheering on the Memphis Tigers! 

And although they are fun, the March Madness festivities can get a little hectic, especially when it comes to keeping up with all of the games. For the next few weeks, the tournament will be going almost non-stop, and brackets and ranks will be changing constantly. It can be a lot to keep up with, and this time of year in public relations is the same way – especially here at Obsidian.

Courtesy of Reporting Sports on Flickr

 

Our office is entering into a time of gaining new clients, adding to our team, keeping up with existing clients and much more. It can seem overwhelming at times, especially from my perspective as an intern, and it’s sometimes difficult for me to keep up with our own “brackets” of clients and tasks. It seems like before we know it, the office could enter into a “madness” of its own. However, that hasn’t happened here at Obsidian, and I’m sure in part due to several habits we keep in our office. 

• We are constant and open communicators. 

Our inbox is always full of “Me” emails from each team member sharing schedules and updates throughout each day. Doing this allows us to keep up with one another, as well as create awareness about everyone’s availability or lack thereof. 

Our staff emails also add a little humor to our days from time to time, which is always a necessary commodity in keeping stress levels down! 

• We have consistent calendar reminders.

Now this one may seem a little elementary, but I can attest firsthand to the benefits of these little daily pop-up reminders. So many times, I have found myself with my head so buried in my computer that the notebook planner I carry in my bag stays in my bag until well into the afternoon. My sense of time sometimes goes right out the front windows while I’m working on a project, and the last thing I’m thinking about is checking my planner. Thankfully, we have reminders set up for every meeting we’re supposed to be attending. These remind us where we’re supposed to be (sometimes 15 minutes in advance!). I haven’t been at Obsidian very long, but those reminders have definitely saved me a time or two…or four.

• We’re encouraged to take our lunch break and use it to its full potential. 

When things get busy around here, it’s easy to lose track of time and even easier to forget to take breaks. At Obsidian, I’ve noticed our allotted hour lunch break tends to take many forms. Some people use their break for lunch with friends, trips to the gym and a bite to eat on the way in, errands that have to happen in the middle of the day and even a stroll to our coffee shop next door. Taking a break during the middle of a work day should be a priority. Re-energizing and coming back to work after an hour away from the computer is key to keeping yourself from feeling completely stressed and worn out by the end of the day, as well as keeping your work quality up to par.

• We work as a team.

Each person on staff is involved with multiple accounts broadly ranging in topic. Although certain account executives are responsible for particular clients, everyone does their best to see that an account succeeds. We give major client updates during staff meetings, as well hold brainstorm sessions for clients, as needed, with our entire Memphis staff including the Dallas office from time to time. The creativity and productivity that come out of these sessions is highly valued and useful each time we put our heads together. 

These are just a few inside peeks to how we keep our office from entering into chaos, and they are practical ways you can relieve some of your stress in your life, too. 

Here’s a quick recap: Be an open communicator and always aware of the time of those around you. Leave yourself little reminders about important meetings or tasks. From electronic pop-ups to sticky notes, where there’s a will to remember your schedule, there’s a way! Remember to allow yourself some time to breathe. Don’t be afraid to step away from your desk for a few minutes or attend a quick yoga class at the gym. Everyone needs time to de-stress, and that paperwork or research project won’t go anywhere while you’re taking a few minutes for yourself. Last but not least, be resourceful with the people around you. It’s OK if you aren’t expert on something, but with a team concept working to your benefit, find out if someone around you is!  

Wake up call for work: How to spring ahead without losing sleep

Tiffany Cunningham

In the wonderful/crazy world of public relations, the spring forward a couple of weekends ago has really thrown me for a loop. I’m not able to go to bed until after midnight; the sun’s not rising until 7:40 a.m. doesn’t help with my morning schedule before work; and I’m exhausted by 5 p.m. every day, so far. 

The real issue isn’t daylight saving time; the issue is my sleep habits. In fact, up to 40 percent of Americans don’t have healthy sleep habits, which cause some symptoms of insomnia – not being able to fall asleep easily, or daytime drowsiness. For me, daylight saving time makes my poor sleep even worse, and I want to share a few sleeping tips I read recently on Medical Daily online to help smooth the transition for any others out there who are still feeling the effect.

Soak up the sun during waking hours: 

One of the best ways to reset your internal clock is to soak up the sun during the day. Next week, I’ll be making small outings at lunch to help suppress my sleep-inducing hormone known as melatonin.

Take a low dose of melatonin:
I don’t have an issue falling asleep when I hit the pillow, but on nights that I feel extra energized, taking less than 0.3 milligrams of melatonin in the late afternoons on the weekends will aid in falling asleep faster or staying asleep longer. The National Sleep Foundation says that it’s inactive during the day, but it is “turned on” by the supra-chiasmatic nucleus at night.

Exercise in the sunlight before 5 p.m. – daily:
Luckily, one of the benefits of daylight saving time is that the sun is out when I get home from work. A lot of my workouts have been on nearby trails or walking my dog around the neighborhood when the sun is still shining. Sunlight and exercise can boost serotonin production, and its release in the brain, which can offset the effects of daylight saving time.

Avoid caffeine after noon and avoid alcohol consumption after dinner:
Although this week I’ve felt like grabbing something caffeinated several times in the afternoon I keep sticking to the water to help push me through the day. A study by the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine found that 400 milligrams of caffeine consumption even six hours before bedtime can disrupt your sleep cycle. It takes one hour per drink to process alcohol and is recommended that if you want to drink, you should do it one hour before sleeping.

Follow a consistent bedtime schedule, even on the weekends: 

This is impossible for me, but I will try to make my sleeping hours as consistent as possible to help get over the hurdle of sleep deprivation I’m causing myself. An interesting fact I learned was that our internal body clocks adjust to time and schedule changes slowly. At least there’s one excuse for being a little slower this week. 

It’s important to take care of your health, even when the weather is perfect and the sun is out until 8 p.m. – just remember sleep is important and vital for productivity in the work place. 

Facebook Hashtags: A Day Late and a Dollar Short

Ali Glemser

In an effort to ride the wave of Twitter’s hashtag craze, Facebook added the ability to use hashtags in status posts last June. How has that worked out for them? Well, how often do you use hashtags in your Facebook posts, or more importantly, how often do you click on hashtags you see used in other Facebook posts? If you answered never or hardly ever, then you would be among the majority of Facebook users.

That’s right. Hashtags have basically been a flop for the social media giant. In fact, certain research has shown that including hashtags in your posts decreases their viral reach. 

Brands are constantly updating content and starting conversations on both platforms, so why are users not interacting with hashtags on Facebook like they do on Twitter? The answer lies in how consumers interact with each platform.

Although Facebook may have millions of conversations taking place at any one moment like Twitter, the platform is designed so those conversations are compartmentalized between friends and fans, whereas a Twitter feed is one long stream of comments, ideas and opinions for any followers to see. For this reason, Twitter users, especially brands, use hashtags to stand out. The more clever or outrageous they are, the better. 

Also, Facebook was founded as a “personal” form of social media, encouraging users to post personal content, like pictures and status updates. Facebook users are less likely to start a conversation with a brand when they visited the platform to see pictures of their infant daughter-in-law or brother who is studying abroad. Brand conversations are easier to digest and participate in on Twitter’s platform because the feed moves faster and includes less personal information.

Needless to say, hashtags lend themselves to Twitter’s fast-paced conversation turnover, more so than Facebook’s feed of family’s photo albums and friends’ status updates. My prediction is we’ll see them fizzle out completely within the next year. So, skip creating witty hashtags for your brand’s Facebook page; instead, spend more time posting content like interesting photos and useful news for your fans to engage with and share.

How Adobe Photoshop Can Benefit a Public Relations Professional

Jenn Taylor

While there are many tools out in the world that benefit the public relations profession, there is a specific tool that I believe can be beneficial with many different types of projects, especially visual projects. I am currently learning more and more about Adobe Photoshop in my visual media class, and what I have already learned in just a few classes is absolutely intriguing. 

There are three basic elements of Adobe Photoshop that can help improve your photo editing skills. They are image sizing, proper selection and the concept of image resolution. Here is a summarized view of how these tools function.  

IMAGE SIZING

Often people think of image sizing as just cropping a picture to the desired size or just stretching it out to appear larger. Instead of improving the desired size of the photo, it will actually distort the photo and decrease the sharpness, which consequently makes the photo look unprofessional. The best way to change a photo’s size is by using the actual tab made specifically for image sizing. In Photoshop, the image size tab can be reached by going to the image menu and selecting the ”image size” tab. Once you view the dialog box, the main thing you want to focus on is the top part, which is the pixel dimension. This will alter the physical appearance and dimensions of the actual photo. This is where you can change either the width or height of the photo. Once you are finished, click OK, and then Photoshop will resize your image to the new dimensions.

PROPER SELECTION

In class, I have heard my professor, Dr. Jin Yang, explain over and over that, when working with a new photo, make sure you are using the proper tool. This is where proper selection comes into play. This is useful in several different scenarios with many projects. For example, if a public relations professional was trying to create an infographic for a particular client they normally would have the company’s logo or a particular photo on it. In order to edit this picture to the professional’s discretion, there are several different tools needed to do that. There is the polygonal tool which makes it easy to draw outlines along straight-sided polygonal shapes. Let’s take the Visa logo shown to the right as an example. I have learned that you would not want to use other tools like the magic wand selection tool or the rectangular polygonal tool mainly because those are used to outline more complex shapes which in the end might not catch every nook and cranny of a photo. So in all, make sure to analyze your picture’s shape carefully before selecting a tool. 

THE CONCEPT OF IMAGE RESOLUTION 

The concept of image resolution is best described as the number of pixels per inch, better known as ppi. Another way to think of this is considering that the complete number of pixels – or actual pixels in the image – is more important and determines the quality of the image. It is beneficial to learn about resolution because everyone wants to work with a high-quality photo. When the resolution is low in a photo, the picture seems fuzzy and distorted. On the flip side, when the resolution is too high, it will make the image appear too big and it can break the page layout. 

Becoming knowledgeable of these three elements of Photoshop – image sizing, proper selection, and image resolution – will help in editing future photos. So, whether you are cropping a photo, or trying to outline a particular photo, use these tips to keep your photos looking precise.

Online Reviews: A Love-Hate Relationship

Kelli Eason Brignac

Last winter, my family and I were in Orange Beach, Ala., for a quick vacation after Christmas. After a day of shopping at the Foley outlet mall (which is FANTASTIC the week after Christmas!), my mom and I were charged with picking up dinner. We’d been to most of the touristy places along the beach, so we checked out Yelp on our way back in to find something different. What we found was Tacky Jack’s, a place that would have been overrun with tourists had it been along Perdido Beach Boulevard. The place lived up to its name. While we waited for the food we’d ordered to go, a local who spent every evening at the bar bought us a few drinks. The patio was fantastic. The bartender’s recommendations were spot on. (The food wasn’t too bad either, and I LOVED the bloody mary.) 

When we got back, Dad asked how we found the place. He laughed when I told him the reviews were good on Yelp, because he thinks online reviews are no way to judge a business. I’m willing to look beyond the total star rating and find the most valid of the positives and negatives to decide for myself whether I should try something. 

In our business, we often monitor what people are saying about us or about our clients. While some people treat online reviews as gospel and others don’t believe anything they read online, I think it’s fair to say everyone who owns a business has a love-hate relationship with reviews. You love them when they’re positive, and you hate them when they’re negative. 

It now seems like online reviews are everywhere. Users can submit reviews to Yelp, Google, Angie’s List or Facebook. There are even more specialized review platforms, like HealthGrades for doctors. But not all users are rational. Sometimes they have 49 good experiences and one bad one – and they write a terrible review and forget everything they like about a business. Sometimes people use reviews to ask for help, when they should be sending an email or message instead. 

So how do you handle reviews? Here are a couple of best practices:

• Never discuss it online. Other users don’t need to see you airing your dirty laundry on Yelp or Facebook. A bad review, whether it’s warranted or not, just needs a response. For example, a restaurant that gets a bad review can respond and say something like “So sorry to hear about your bad experience. Please call us at 555-5555 so we can help address the issue.” That way, other users know that you’re paying attention to what they say and addressing issues when they come up. 
• Invite people to review your business to encourage a variety of reviews. People tend to write reviews when they’re on one extreme end of the spectrum or the other. Either they loved your business SO MUCH they reach out to tell others, or you upset them, so they write to tell people to avoid your business. Rarely do people write about every business they interact with. Encourage your regular customers to write reviews, as they know you best! 
• Monitor your reviews. Business pages exist on several platforms. In the event an inflammatory review can be traced back to a disgruntled former employee or states an obvious inaccuracy, it is also possible to contact the platform to discuss removing it. Consider that on a case-by-case basis. 

There is certainly a place for online reviews. They allow consumers to share experiences and provide third-party, unsolicited endorsements for your business. And here’s a quick helpful hint – Facebook doesn’t allow businesses to publicly respond to reviews the way other sites do, so just remove them altogether if your fan page has an issue with people misusing the review function. All you have to do is disable the maps feature on your fan page. 

Got any other anecdotes or helpful hints for managing online reviews? Leave them in the comments! 

Back To the Future

Thomas Whitehead

If you were a child of the ‘80s, I have a television show recommendation that has grown on me since it debuted last fall – ABC’s The Goldbergs. It is a show that pays homage to growing up in the 1980s with all the pop culture references that would make the recent AutoZone Super Bowl spot jealous. 

The interesting element of the show is that it takes place in “1980-something…” In other words, it is not a linear storyline, which includes the chronological order of pop culture events. I mean, Ghostbusters and Batman were five years apart, not out at the same time. Once you can accept this, it makes the viewing experience more enjoyable. 

One recent episode that brought back a ton of memories from my childhood centered on the local video store experience. It is hard to believe that there was an era where you had to drive to the video store, hope they had the movie you wanted, and if they didn’t, you had to accept it and find something else based on what was available in the store at that time. AND, you had to return it within 48 hours. If you didn’t, then you had to pay late fees. 

This episode really got me thinking how everything we do, professionally and personally, has changed. Everything is quicker - so much so that you always hear people saying, “What did we do before (insert modern technology here)?” 

It does make you pause. There is so much discussion about how much more we work today compared to 15 or 20 years ago and how much quicker communication and productivity is now. The discussion is that we are working in a 24/7 world. 

I agree that we now are producing and creating faster than ever, thanks to the technology we now have. But, I would like to think that even before the era of digital communication work was being done around the clock. I don’t think the notion of working 24/7 just started in the last decade. 

Rather the way we used to work has changed. This doesn’t suggest that we didn’t work as hard back then. Instead, that extra time working was spent on researching, reading industry information, studying media information, and yes, even stuffing and addressing envelopes for news releases and event invitations to be mailed. On top of this, discussions about future plans, trends, professional observations and other topics were always done around the clock, even if they were limited to the phone, the pub or the office. 

And that is the rub – Are we now doing more and more without the luxury of pausing for preparation, strategy and big-picture development? Is our business world utilizing the extra time that comes from instant and digital communication simply to spend more time on short-term tasks and communication? Or, are we still putting time aside to read, examine and discuss what is happening in the long term for our companies, brands, industries and world in general? 

We can spend 23 hours a day filled with responding to emails, texts and even the next thing down the road very easily. But, it is just as important to devote regular time to planning for the future.