Nobody Writes Day

Did you all know it was Everybody Writes Day at the end of last month? No? Well, it was - on 21^st October. Although don’t feel too bad, it would seem you are not alone.

Everybody Writes Day, as organised by the Department of Education, is an annual celebration of writing in schools. Primary and secondary schools collapse the curriculum for one whole day to celebrate writing in all its forms … or not as the case may be! We asked three children from different schools whether their school had recognised Everybody Writes Day in any way and got the same blank, glazed over stare from all three.

Granted, our research is far from scientific, and we’re not suggesting that everyone should have known it was Everybody Writes Day. Unless you are in a profession concerned with writing or education there is no real reason as to why you should. However for those who are in education, heads and teachers for example, isn’t it their duty to seek out and recognise days such as these?

Is the problem that the Department for Education did not publicise the day adequately, meaning that teachers weren’t aware? Or, perhaps more worryingly, were teachers aware of the day but decided not to recognise it due to there being no benefit as far as league tables and Ofsted were concerned? Did they decide to overlook it because it meant ignoring the curriculum for a day and losing a day towards exams which, ultimately, could affect the children’s results and, more to the point, the school’s results?

We are not criticising the teachers here, it is the system that seems to be flawed. Why must so much importance be placed on results and league tables when, in fact, they mean very little. Merely that the children memorised the correct information.

Everybody Writes Day is supposed to be a day when children are set free to be creative and learn about the English language without the normal classroom pressures which are so often put on children. It is supposed to be a way of showing the next generation that, yes, the English language can be complex and difficult, but it can also be a fantastic expressive tool to communicate, excite and fascinate readers, tapping into opinions and emotions that they never realised they had.

We understand the pressure that teachers and children are under nowadays, but in our opinion it is days like Everybody Writes Day that should serve to relieve some of this pressure whilst still being a productive and valuable exercise that engages the mind.

More information on Everybody Writes Day can be found at: www.everybodywrites.org.uk.

Are you making the most of PR?

Most people think of PR as some kind of highly expensive black art that usually involves high-priced agencies, beautiful people and champagne. Of course some of it does, but in most cases PR works at a much more prosaic level. The job is simple - to get stories published in the press for free.

Stories appear in magazines, newspapers and on the Internet because people put them there. It requires a little effort but, if you do it right, the rewards can be much greater than simple advertising. 

Subjects for stories can include: New personnel, new facilities, new contracts, new ideas, letters to editors, technical stories, customer advice, charitable events, and much more.  Virtually anything new that happens at a company could be turned into a press story. However, it is important to remember that a press release should be a genuine news story, not an advertisement. Stories that are too self congratulatory or are really just a sales pitch will end up in the editor’s bin. If you give editors what they want, they will use it; if you don’t, you’re wasting your time.

The trick is to make the editor’s job as easy as possible. Give them a story that is interesting to their readers, not too long, with a good photo and presented in a form that they can ‘cut and paste’ into their magazines and websites. The harder you make it, the less chance you have of seeing your story in print. 

The editor wants you to use as few words as possible to answer the following questions: What happened? when did it happen? why did it happen? how did it happen? who was involved? – and what is the message for everyone else?  Preferably all that should be included in paragraph one with the story expanding as it progresses.

Make sure quotes are believable and actually sound like someone has said them. Make it too long or unbelievable and the editor won’t use it.

Use simple, straightforward language. Don’t write your press release in industry jargon. Keep it simple so that those not familiar with your industry will still be able to understand it.

The photo is often as important as the story itself so don’t send out your PR stories without a good quality, relevant photo with a caption to say what’s going on. Pictures should always be sent as JPG or TIFF images and never embedded in a Word or PDF document. 

Making the editor’s life easy is easy.  Just send a concise, relevant story, written in Word, to his e-mail address and attach a good quality, high resolution JPG photo that helps illustrate the story. Do this and you will have the best chance of getting your stories published and allowing your PR programme to work effectively as part of your company’s communication mix.