Articles

Workshop Provides Tips to Energize and Edit Writing

On Oct. 21, PRSA Rochester hosted a half-day workshop in partnership with St. John Fisher focused on writing skills. 

The presenters included:

• Mary-jo Popovici, a recently retired professor of communications/public relations and former internship coordinator for the Visual and Performing Arts (VaPA) Department at Monroe Community College in Rochester, NY. She currently teaches public relations at the college while maintaining her public relations consulting business MJP Associates. 
• Suzette Norris, a skilled writer who’s worked with Xerox, Fidelity Investments, Corning and other Fortune 500 businesses as a content editor, ghostwriter, communications strategist and public relations consultant.
• Ruth E. Thaler-Carter, an award-winning freelance writer, editor, proofreader, webmaster and speaker who started out in journalism.

 
Each session was educational and inspiring, and the audience learned a lot from the presenters’ expertise. Some of the key takeaways include:

• Be clear, concrete, correct, concise, and colorful.
• Use simple, action words that tap into emotion.
• Weigh each word, and cut anything that’s unnecessary.
• Always read your writing aloud.
• Your writing must relate to the real world. If it’s not read, it’s worthless.
• No matter who your audience is, don’t forget they are still human and easily distracted.
• Lead with the most important information always.
• Think like the reader and what they want/need to know.