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Curing PR News Releases of Being Overly Thrilled, Excited and Lame

Ann Wylie, veteran communications and writing consultant, recently posted a fun piece on “I’m so excited – Executives are in a tizzy over their announcements.”

Ann wrote: “Have you noticed how excited corporate spokespeople are these days? And if not excited, how pleased, proud and delighted they are? Some are even thrilled.”

She conducted research on Business Wire releases issued during one 30-day period and found 1,284 releases using “pleased,” 1,007 releases using “excited,” 782 releases using “proud,” 401 releases using “thrilled,” and 378 releases using “delighted.”

She goes beyond the data to provide recommendations on solving the problems. Check here for details and useful ideas.

http://freewritingtips.wyliecomm.com/

The sad thing is that the trends to being overly excited and writing Lame Ass Quotes (LAQs) aren’t new.  We’ve been tracking the trend for decades, blogged about it, written about it and spoken about it at various PRSA conferences.

Here are links to a few earlier posts and stories, with examples you might find helpful in honing your writing and advising clients when their levels of excitement might be beyond the pale.

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