Jim Parham, PR Chronicle

No, this isn’t about personalities; we’ll leave that to the psychological set.
But on second thought, this is about, well, in a way, personality. The personality of your writing.

Today we are confronted with a massive, insidious disease that is killing off massive amounts of potentially good copy.

That, my friend, is passive language. It is the front end of the press release that gives you the symptoms for an early diagnosis. Take the temperature of the writing and you see this: “The local symphony orchestra is planning on holding a concert on Friday.”

That hurts.

The prescriptive cure is simple and doesn’t involve aspirin. “The local orchestra will play on Friday.” Close.

How about “The orchestra is playing Friday.”

I’m feeling better already.

Now to make this simple. Use direct and action oriented words. Instead of “has been” it should be “is” or at the very least, “will be.”

Passive writing is a serious illness of our language. Make your writing stronger by using the present tense. Don’t make news simply old news by dating your release with passive language.

Take two action verbs and call me in the morning.

A recent blog posting on a public relations site suggested you need to be careful about what you put on your blog…or Twitter…or anywhere online.
No kidding.

The author recounted a public relations professional’s disaster of posting negative comments on Twitter about Fed Ex … who just happened to be a client of his.

Oops.

Somehow it appears to be new, late-breaking news that whatever you say or write may get you into trouble. Or that you need to be careful about what you write online. Well, this is not a new-found truism. In fact, it’s as old as dirt.

Think about what you say, or do. Take the simple “headline test.” On that sentence you wrote online today (and it doesn’t matter where, quite frankly), how will that read in a newspaper tomorrow? Or, in a career-ending move, how are the comments perceived by your boss when she gets a nasty-gram about your dumb posting?

Anonymity may not be good enough to cover your tracks. If you think your comments are secure in cyberspace, think again. There are various ways to determine an author And, if it’s really bad, some online services may be willing to give up the source of the comments through an IP address or registration tracking.

I warn my students about e-mail. They seem surprised when I say the university saves and stores all the millions of bits of information that flows through its servers. Now, does that off-color joke you told to friends seem as funny?

Simple point: Online interaction is no different that hard-copy writing. You need to be careful what you say, how you say it, and think about how it will be interpreted.

Recently I mentioned to a sharp, gifted journalism student that the embattled governor of Illinois should, “exorcise the demons,” from within. They looked puzzled and said, “Why would you ‘exercise’ demons?” I believe they were stumped by the visualization of little devils running on a treadmill or huffing and puffing on an elliptical machine.

OK, so much for using some outdated language that does not resonate with a young person.

Maybe I should have said, “Like, he needs to chill and think about what he’s doing.”

Well, to me, that doesn’t sound nearly as interesting. However, let’s be frank — you must gear your language to the audience so it makes sense.

I have used, ineffectively, Shakespeare, gotten students confused with references to Richard Nixon (like, “I’m not a crook”), and generally realized that pop culture and current word usage is something that I must take into account when writing or speaking.

While I want to blame students, their parents and their high school teachers for limiting my use of Greek mythology, World War II and Tim Leary, I must understand that “The times they are a changing,” to quote another outdated legend.

Peace.