The CIPR regional group that I work with is currently reading a range of material written by students and Public Relations professionals. Unfortunately, from what we have seen, the requirement for PR people to have basic written skills seems to have ‘left the building’.
We are rather concerned that the “grocers’ apostrophe”, once berated by our elders and betters in the PR world, is now seen as nothing to worry about. Surely good punctuation and grammar is an essential element of being able to communicate effectively? Hopefully this particular skill isn’t as dead as Elvis.
If you want to improve your basic writing skills, an excellent place to start is the CIPR’s Skills Guide and a great book I’d recommend is John Foster’s ‘Effective Writing Skills for Public Relations’.
