Re: Press release - here we go again!

From: Stephen Satchell (satch@fluent-access.com)
Date: Fri Sep 01 2000 - 23:57:26 EDT

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    At 04:15 PM 9/1/00 -0700, you wrote:
    >And if got lost. That should tell you something. Perhaps something like
    >" *Advanced interface support for USB, FireWire, and AGP!"
    >
    >Then place any expostulatory text indented under that as complete sentences.
    >This treates the bulleted items as "titles". Your target audience dispises
    >incomplete sentences and clunky grammar. (And do rest assured that folks
    >like Jerry Pournelle have posted some REAL clunkers, worse than anything
    >you did) on BIX for our chuckles.)

    Interesting juxtaposition, Dow. Your suggestion includes a bang
    (exclamation mark) and then you mention the most vicious bang-hater I've
    ever run into, Jerry Pournelle, in the next paragraph. Whatever will you
    do next, Oh Emoticon Person? :)

    (This is a VERY serious thing -- one sign of an amateur press release is
    The! Excessive! Use! of! the! Ballbat! Character! -- I know columnists who
    stop reading and start scanning for exclamation marks when they encounter
    the first one. Because all too many poof-piece writers place the bang in
    the headline, that means the entire release is ignored. I remember when I
    was including some C code in an article I was writing for a magazine; the
    editor said to take out all of those bangs! It took 10 minutes with a copy
    of K&R to show him that the exclamation marks were operators, not
    emphasis. <sigh>)

    Satch

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