Presented by the Maine Public Relations Council via Zoom at 9 a.m. on Friday, Feb. 26, speaker Ken O’Quinn will discuss how in a world of short attention spans, the challenge for writers is to induce readers to stay on the page, whether it’s an article, a pitch, a client email, or a social media post. Everyone knows they need to grab attention, yet many stories, releases, posts, and email fail to do that.
This session will offer a glimpse into the finer points of good journalistic writing that all PR professionals can use:
- How to present a direct lead in one sentence containing two key elements
- How to use three techniques to create an indirect lead on a feature story
- How to enliven writing with colorful details
- How to tighten your writing by identifying words that don’t contribute
- How to trim characters from a Twitter post
O’Quinn, principal of Writing with Clarity, is a corporate writing coach who works with communications teams around the world. A former AP writer, he conducts workshops for such clients as Facebook, GE, United Healthcare, TD Bank, Unum, L.L. Bean, and MEMIC. He works with PR clients Burson-Marsteller, Fleishman Hillard, and Text100, and he has presented several times at the PRSA International Conference. He lives in Falmouth.
Price: MPRC member $20, nonmember $30 and Yankee PRSA member $20.
Link to register: https://meprcouncil.org/event-calendar/#!event/2021/2/26/crafting-compelling-pr-communication.