It astounds me how often rudeness prevails in business today. And that includes the business of writing press releases. Some people think etiquette gets thrown to the wind in writing. It doesn’t. It counts even more because it can be a permanent record of bad taste (read ill manners).

Remember when your mother used to tell you not to brag. She said it was boastful to show off and flaunt yourself in front of others. She also told you to ‘mind your manners’ when you were out. Some of us even had to mind our manners when we were ‘in.’ Whatever your background, heed the moral of the story.

Exaggerating your product’s value with overblown words like flowery adjectives and hyped up adverbs is in bad taste. Media people hate it. Use clear language and concise descriptions and drop the adjectives. Use adverbs sparingly as they don’t take the place of a single good active verb.

Likewise, boldface should be saved for specific impact; it’s a bit like flaunting your stuff. Use it only for the “right stuff.” Heed the old saying, ‘if you’ve got it, flaunt it.’ Just make sure you’ve really got it. Otherwise it’s shameful.

Underlining falls into the same category—too much and it shrieks. But for occasional emphasis, it works. Don’t confuse italics with underlining. Italics play a special role and that is to identify a title or proper noun such as the title of a book or play and NOT to emphasize a point. Before the computer, we used underlines to signify italics but that is no longer the case. (Unless of course you are still using a typewriter—you know that little black machine with letters on the keys and a carriage you had to push back and forth?---Oh, ask your mother!)

Which brings up the subject of exclamation points. Absolutely no exclamation points is the rule for press releases. If you must use exclamation points, save them for informal correspondence or office memos. Exclamation points scream out amateur! It also means you couldn’t excite the reader with your words.

All caps are rude, LIKE SHOUTING IN SOMEONE’S EAR. Occasional a shout is appropriate if it’s for a real winner. But too many capitalized words do not a winner make. They just cause deafness.

Lots- of... dots- and... dashes- are like... spitting... in- someone’s- face- when- you- speak. It’s also not pleasing to the eye as it chops up definition. Again, a dash or two for particular emphasis is okay. You can be forgiven for an occasional spray to make an important point.

The same goes for “too” “many” “quote” “marks.” They distract from the main message. A couple of good quotes from experts are good to establish credibility but beyond that, quotes get monotonous. And remember, if your quote happens to go into a second paragraph (which I don’t recommend in a one-page press release) for goodness sake, use quotes in the right place. You put the quote marks at the beginning of the quote, but not at the end of that paragraph. You start the second paragraph with quotes and end it with quotes. I know, it doesn’t look right but there’s a reason for it. It reminds the reader that it’s still a quote and not the writer’s own words. Sometimes these rules get a bit inflated too.

So the next time you write a press release, ‘mind your manners.’

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