Good press releases must adhere to the rules of any other writing.  You write so the reader will read.  Laziness in writing is settling for overused verbs that are easy but totally boring.  Active verbs add sparkle to your writing, in any form.  The verb “to be” is overused ‘ad nauseam.’  i.e.  “I am, he is, you are, they are, we are.”  Search around for quicker and slicker verbs such as:

Instead of:  “He is happy” Use:  “He glows”

Instead of:  “They are fishing” Use:  “They throw lines”

Instead of:  “He ran fast” Use:  “He hustled”

Instead of:  “The board was creaking” Use:  “The board creaked”

The above are simple examples of how you can choose sparkling verbs to pepper your sentences, adding texture and spice.  Here’s how you can you do it yourself.

Ten Easy Ways to Find Zestier Verbs

1.  Read, read, and read!  The Sunday paper fairly blooms with succinct verbs because of all the human-interest stories and special features.

2.  Skim your daily papers for feature stories; they usually frame better verbs in their picture stories.

3.  Save and scan your Magazines!  Articles frequently fill space with active verbs and the old issues are as good as the new for this purpose.

4.  Read such literary masters as Feodor Dostoevsky, Charles Dickens, Henry James and William Shakespeare.  Just skimming some of the works of these gifted writers may produce some priceless pearls of language, particularly verbs.

5.  Read poetry.  Such wordsmiths as Dylan Thomas, Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allan Poe and Elizabeth Barrett Browning rose above the mundane in their use of verbs.  Most poetry, for that matter, affords a view of unique word usage.

6.  Check your thesaurus and dictionary for new ideas.  A newly published book called “The Oxford English Dictionary for Writers” is a good, new source.

7.  Cover the advertisements in newspapers and magazines; they always contain some catchy verbs.

8.  Pay attention to conversations around you, on television and in films.  Carry a small notebook so you can notate unusual verbs you hear.

9.  Do crossword puzzles and other word games such as scrabble, acrostics and charades.

10.  Check Internet ads for appealing verbs.

Lately, it seems everybody is breaking all kinds of rules and getting away with it.  Fact is, no matter what you write, rules still apply.  Grammar guidelines, such as the use of commas, have relaxed as well as have the use of newly coined words and phrases that have not made it to the dictionary yet.

Case in point, an entire vocabulary has arisen out of the technology world. Some examples of that are I ‘e-mailed’ my mother, visit our ‘Website,’ he ‘downloaded’ the files, to name a few.  Cyberspace, ezines, and urls are other new word examples from the electronic age.

Current slang expressions have also born brand new word babies that veer away from their traditional meanings.  Examples of that are it ‘sucks,’(it stinks); ‘hello!’  (what a dumb idea); he has ‘issues,’ (personal problems.)  You can think up plenty of your own.  Just listen around the water cooler or in the chat rooms.  Or tune into the latest soap.

All that aside, rules of grammar still rule, especially with the media types who will be most likely to receive your press releases such as editors and writers.  These people have rules to abide by in their publications and they surely don’t need to spend their time cleaning up yours.  In most cases, they won’t.

So what rules are most important if you’re writing your own press releases?  Spelling goes without saying.  That’s simple; just spellcheck it (another computer-generated word.)  The trouble with spellcheck is that sometimes the same spelled word has different meanings and the computer will not pick up on it.  For example, ‘love’ can be a verb or a noun or a score in tennis.  The computer, while checking spelling, would not pick up the nuances of meaning.  Another example is the word ‘cut.’  It could be a verb (cut a flower,) a noun (a good cut referring to a hairdo,) or ‘cut’ a rug, (a verb meaning to dance.)  The subtleties of meaning in the English language make it almost imperative to have some understanding while using spellcheck.

Subject-verb agreement is another important element of the rules of grammar.  Everyone does rather than everyone do; each of Mary and Harry’s children ‘does’ well in school, not ‘do’ well.  The board of directors ‘was’ meeting, not ‘were’ meeting.  Board is a singular unit of members who are all doing the same thing-’meeting.’

Tense agreement must always follow the rule.  He went to the store.  He is buying a gift.  That’s wrong.  Switching tenses is a sign of the amateur.  Whichever tense you choose, be consistent.  If you choose the past tense, ‘he went to the store,’ stick with it and say he ‘bought’ a gift.  If you choose the present tense, ‘he goes to the store,’ follow up with the same tense:  ‘he buys a gift.’

A rule of thumb for press releases, though not an absolute rule of grammar, is to use the active rather than the passive voice.  For example, “I remember my first date,” rather than “my first date will be remembered.”  The first is far more vigorous than the second.  “I sign my name on the document,” rather than “my name is signed on the document.”  You see the difference.

Basically, rules of grammar were written to make writing clear and concise, not to complicate your life.  The cleaner and simpler the words and format are, the easier it is to understand the writing.  This is vitally important in a press release because nobody has to read it; reading your release is a choice.

Follow these basic rules and your press release will ring with clarity and authority.  More importantly, the information will be understandable.

The next time you write a press release, keep basic rules of grammar and style high on your priority list.

Active verbs breathe life into an otherwise dead press release. Strong verbs dance on the page and leap off the computer screen. Although there are times when passive verbs are unavoidable, shun them at all costs.

Let’s start at the basics. A sentence is essentially a subject – something performing the action, followed by a verb – which is the action, and usually there is an object – something that receives the action. For example, “She twirls batons.” She is the subject, twirls is the verb, and batons is the object.

Sentences written in passive voice lack the basic subject-verb-object pattern, rendering the sentences a jumbled mess of boring confusion. Take the example sentence, “She twirls batons.” Now let’s muddle up the sentence by making it passive, “The baton was twirled by her,” or even worse, “The baton was twirled.”

Yuk! We don’t even know who did the alleged twirling in the last example. The subject is conspicuously missing. And as for the other one, it’s probably best described as clunky. Of course, we all know that press releases can’t live on simple sentences alone, but for the purposes of this lesson, let’s just stick to the basics.

Passive voice is the opposite of active voice, which uses action verbs. Passive voice uses “be” verbs such as am, is, was, were, be, being, and been. On the other hand, action verbs spin, skip, and plunge do something other than just exist on the page. Active voice basically means that the subject is first and does the action. “He sang a song,” not, “The song was sung by him.”

Passive voice is wordy. Why? Well, it takes two or three words to say what one action verb can communicate in a single bound. For instance, compare these two sentences:
“The tall building has been leapt by the man,” versus “The man leapt over the tall building.”

How can you go about eliminating the dreaded passive voice from your press releases? Start by going through your draft and highlighting all the “be” verbs. After rooting out the sneaky little critters, dig in and find a way to eliminate at least half of them. Make the conversion from passive voice to active voice by finding the subject of the sentence and putting it first. Don’t be afraid to mix it up a bit. Combine sentences, rewrite dull sentences, execute those that are only dragging your press release down into the muck.

Don’t become a passive voice maniac by eliminating all the “be” verbs. They do serve a valuable purpose and are definitely necessary. However, we all lean on “be” verbs like a worn out crutch. Remember, there’s a world of full of sparkling actions verbs that will shoot off the page. Take the time to find them.