Simon Wakeman - marketing, public relations and digital communications

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@jangles - that said, it outputs as <ul> or <ol> so that wouldn't work as you need a dropdown. i'll think again!

Bad writing - an eighth type

Thursday, September 21st, 2006 at 7:27 pm

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Matthew Stibbe at the Bad Language blog has a great post about seven types of bad writing that many of will see every day.

As I read through the bad habits Matthew identifies I could think of examples I’ve seen in my professional life of each one. Indeed early in my career I can think of a few that I was responsible for.

At university you’re taught to write (or at least encouraged to write) in a certain way. Moving into marketing, and then subsequently public relations I had to learn to write in a completely different way - using words sparingly and carefully, and constructing concise sentences to communicate ideas and arguments.

I’d add an eighth type of bad writing to Matthew’s seven:

UOA (use of acronyms)

Every organisation has shorthand codes for many phrases used regularly. It’s bad enough when these are used internally to an audience who generally understand them - how many times have you had to explain to a new recruit what his or her new colleagues are actually saying?

But the real problem is when these acronyms stray into external use. It’s all too easy for them to slip through to an audience for whom they are completely meaningless. It’s a surefire way to limit the effectiveness of your communications activity.

Tags: Marketing, public+relations

Comments on “Bad writing - an eighth type”

Matthew Stibbe (Bad Language)
Friday, September 22nd, 2006 at 5:56 pm
Could agree more. A perfect addition to the list.

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Simon Wakeman

I've been on the web since 2001 and have been blogging about marketing and public relations since January 2006.

I'm currently Head of Marketing at Medway Council as well as a freelance marketing and PR consultant.

The content and opinions expressed on this website are not endorsed by nor reflect the views of any company or organisation I work with.

Simon’s core strengths were around being insight led, marketing and experience planning, and successful delivery. Simon led the ‘paperless credit card agreement’ strategy and agreed a solution which met the needs of all the stakeholders…the 1st solution of it’s kind at the time in the UK market and widely adopted by the industry since. Mike Beddington, Egg

I have used Simon for the last three years on a number of projects. Not only is he knowledgeable and professional, but he has a full grasp of a customers needs and can deliver the right creative and business results for a customer. Ian Lockyer, BMEA

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