It’s time for a rant. It’s been building for a while.

What has happened to our ability to spell, punctuate and grammatically construct even the simplest of sentences? It never ceases to amaze me the number of written missives I am on the receiving end of that are littered with spelling and grammar errors. I’m not talking about words which might be hard to spell, but simple words, like ‘simple’. I’m talking about incorrect use of their/there or your/you’re. I’m talking about entire paragraphs not threatened with a single punctuation mark. The basic stuff, the really basic stuff.

The saddest bit? I work in an industry where writing skills are considered a prerequisite. It’s genuinely disheartening! Don’t even get me started on CVs which haven’t had even the most rudimentary proof. I remember long afternoons at school filled with spelling tests and grammar lessons, it was important and we were taught that it was important. That emphasis on getting the basics right seems to have disappeared. I’ve heard people boasting of their inability to spell like it is something funny or to be proud of; or chuckling over the fact they don’t know what an apostrophe is.

I’m not saying I’m an expert by any stretch; I make mistakes, I have to check things, I use a dictionary, I check APs style guide and I am somewhat over judicious with my use of the semi colon. That’s the point though, I check. If I ever spot a typo on something I have sent or distributed I am aghast! At my current agency, we have a practice of making sure written documents are proofed before being sent externally, be it to a client or journalist. It is a good practice, often in PR things are written in haste because that’s the nature of the beast; mistakes are easily made and a second pair of eyes can often spot them quickly. It also means you learn and get into the habit of proofing as you go, because let’s be honest, no one likes to be picked up on a silly mistake.

It’s that pride in your work and the desire to get things right the first time that seems to be missing from many people’s writing. You don’t need to be able to write like Oscar Wilde but being able to put together something like a CV which reads well and has good spelling and grammar shouldn’t be out of the bounds of expectation. First impressions count, and if you can’t be bothered to get your CV right, you’re not going to get on the good side of any employer.

Another corporate comms post from elsewhere…

I’m back to being an infrequent blogger, at least, for my own purposes I am. For work however, I’m a lot more on it!

I posted earlier this week on our work blog about Hyundai’s recent ill-advised advertising campaign, featuring possibly the worst idea in the history of bad ideas, a suicide joke.

You can check it out here: When ‘shock advertising’ goes too far http://sparkcomms.co.uk/wp/index.php/2013/04/when-shock-advertising-goes-too-far/

A couple of posts from elsewhere…

Some recent posts I wrote for the work blog (@Sparkcomms), both on corporate comms.

The first takes a look at BlackBerry’s evident lack of media training. There’s really no excuse in this day and age…

Why media training matters: BlackBerry has (another) bad day at the office

And the second examines Tesco’s recent ingenious crisis comms. Sonnets of sorrow, whatever next eh?

Crisis communications and saying sorry: not just when, but how

World’s worst blogger.

Well, it’s been a while. I blame my very busy work schedule and the fact I’ve moved cities four times in the past 12 months. Now here I am back in my home town of Manchester and can be regularly spotted on the Pendlino to Euston travelling between my London and home office.

No longer am I a PR newcomer but am three-ish years into my PR career, currently working as an account manager for a London based b2b tech agency. I have clients in all areas of tech; and also in telco, life sciences and engineering.

I can safely say that one of the things I love best about my job is how much I learn on a daily basis. I can talk at length about software licensing, OTTs impact on 4G networks, oil and gas exploration, application performance management and medicinal chemistry. All of which means I might be exceptionally boring but at least I’m good in a pub quiz.

I do solemnly swear that I will now blog more often.

The changing of the guard

Amongst the thousands of articles written about the superinjunction/Ryan Giggs debacle, one woefully out of touch article from The Guardian stood out. Written by Richard Hillgrove, who is described as a ‘business and political public relations consultant’, the article seems only to emphasise the divide between the old and new guard.

Many of the below the line commenter’s make the point that regulating what people write on a social network is nigh on impossible. Indeed, a couple liken the article’s point to the Royal Mail being sued for something they have written in a letter to a friend, or the fact the Twitter is somewhat analogous to a phone network.

Twitter is primarily a medium of communication, as is Facebook and numerous other social networks, people use them to chat to friends, make new friends, and sure, gossip now and then. No different really to a conversation I may have with a colleague around the watercooler surely.

Except the key difference is the potential for it to be heard; I may say something on Twitter which may get re-tweeted, replied to, discussed, even trending. Now, I may be somewhat overstating my Twitter reach here, but you get the point. It’s the same theory as when something goes ‘viral’; it might start off as a conversation between two people, but end up as it has in Ryan Giggs’s case, as one between millions of people.

And I suppose that’s the beauty and the terror of social media in a nutshell. Whatever the musings about whether social media is here to stay or not, the question of how it can be regulated is ultimately academic in my opinion, unless we really want to experience even more of a big brother society.

Current libel and privacy laws are not compatible with modern forms of communication, which seems simplistic to say, but changing the law is more feasible than fact-checking the trillions of status updates and tweets made on Twitter and Facebook. Which are just two of the ever growing number of social networks.

Twitter is not in and of itself a media outlet, it’s a conduit for words to be spread, between individuals, corporations, businesses, governments, and myriad other organisations. There is a fine line between free speech and libel, and walking that line becomes more perilous as our social and digital networks grow, but ‘reeling it in’? It’s not only an impractical suggestion, but a very naive one.

And if Richard Hillgrove needed proof in the power of Twitter, he now has his very own parody Twitter profile …

Free speech? Evelyn Beatrice Hall had it right

I love Louis Theroux, and have religiously watched all of his documentaries, and I certainly wasn’t disappointed with his latest examination of ‘America’s most hated family’. Theroux first visited the Phelps of Kansas, who founded and run the utterly abhorrent Westboro Baptist Church in 2007; this documentary (BBC2, Sunday, 9pm) is their second meeting.

With unprecedented levels of bile and vitriol, the Phelps have made it their mission to tell the world just how angry and vengeful God is,  and just how much he hates gay people, anyone of another faith, or of another race. I can’t even begin to explain their absurd and offensive views, and quite how one is able to conjure up so much hatred toward another person is beyond me.

It does however, raise the interesting question of free speech and that famous quote from Evelyn Beatrice Hall, ‘’I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.’’ These words resonate especially when watching the Phelps, and their ilk, waving offensive placards and chanting shocking insults on small-town street corners, and the funerals of military personnel.

The legal question of free speech has become somewhat entwined with the moral question, as the Phelps experienced in a protracted Supreme Court battle with the family of a soldier killed in Iraq, over whether their demonstration at his funeral constitutes an expression of free speech (Snyder Vs Phelps).

As much as I hate these people, and what they stand for, you cannot mandate what someone puts on a sign, what words they speak or indeed what thoughts are in their mind. The minefield of what is offensive to some and isn’t to others is a never-ending discussion. The Supreme Court found 8-1 in the Phelps favour; an unprecedented level of consensus amongst the Supreme Court bench’s ideologues.

I am not for a second suggesting that their demonstration is right, decent, or acceptable; it is deplorable to me and the vast majority of observers.  But our society, and that of America, is a society founded on individual freedoms, and one where we fight to protect these rights both at home and internationally. So as galling as it may seem, the Phelps do have a right to express their opinions.

What one would hope for is that general human decency and sensibility would inspire some modicum of self-restraint in their behaviour. There is a time and place for expression of views, and the funeral of a young man isn’t one of them. I may hold views which are offensive to some, in fact I’m sure we all do; it’s the nature of the human race, we are all different, but most of know exactly when to bite our tongue.

Unfortunately the Phelps being the people they are, they haven’t quite mastered that subtle art of simple human decency. So although the legal outcome may sit at odds with our moral opinion, the fact of the Phelps existence is absolute. And while I certainly couldn’t bring myself to defend their rights, I leave that to the minds of the Supreme Court and Beatrice Hall, the best I can hope for is to laugh at them.

The Good, the Bad, and the Fees.

Tuition fees are just one of the current victims of our much vaunted ‘swingeing cuts’;and are sure to ignite impassioned discussion amongst varied groups. I’ll be honest and say that I’m not quite sure exactly where I stand on the subject. Sure, my blood boils when I see the current crop of privately educated, wealthy politicians who enjoyed generous grants inflicting vast amounts of debt on the current generation of students; but at the same time I recognise that higher education, whether subsidised or otherwise, is not a right, but is a privilege.

I’ve had the privilege to attend university for undergraduate and postgraduate study, and I certainly have the debts to accompany it. I would advocate university to anyone; I had some of my best and most valuable experiences during my time at university. But I appreciate how daunting debts running into the tens of thousands must appear to prospective students.

I’ll also be honest and say that I don’t fully understand the numbers (I didn’t study maths at university for a reason). But as it has been explained to me, universities are in the main charging the maximum, or as close to the maximum £9000 limit as possible for two crucial reasons; the actual reduction in government funding, and the predicted drop in student numbers. Combined, this leaves little other way for universities to cover the cost of delivering a degree.

The ‘bad’ I am referring to in this post’s title is the negative publicity problem this has created for universities. Leeds Metropolitan University, where I took my Masters degree, this week announced their intention to charge fees of £8500 per year. Leeds Met has built a strong reputation on widening participation and of traditionally charging lower fees. As the first of the ‘newer’ universities to announce this news, they’ve taken a good amount of flak as a result and face something of a battle to justify the cost. The below the line comments on this Times Higher Education article are scathing to say the very least.

The ‘good’ I am referring to, is the devilishly good PR move executed by the coalition government. By leaving little other option than to raise fees, the government has effectively managed to deflect blame to individual institutions, and shift the focus away from themselves. Forcing the hand of universities this way, means we tend to blame the announcing institution and it is the institution that becomes the object of our ire.

So, as much as I hate to congratulate David Cameron and co, they seem to have their PR machine pretty well oiled this time.

<!–[endif]–><!–[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <![endif]–><!–[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]–> <!–[endif]–><!–[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]–><!–[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]–> 

So, you think you’ve had a bad day…?

We’ve all been there, you think you’ve had one of the worst days ever and things couldn’t get much worse. I had one of those days today in fact; everything that could go wrong, inevitably went wrong. And, coupled with a few pieces of personal bad news, I was feeling thoroughly sorry for myself by the time I got home from work.

But all this pales into significance when I think about what one of my closest friends is battling through at the moment. My very lovely friend and her family, who I met at university in Leeds, is currently experiencing something so awful, and yet with a grace and wit I cannot comprehend.

Rochelle Bugg, her sisters, and their mother, sadly lost their father and husband to illness at a young age; and earlier this year received the devastating news that her mother is suffering from an incurable brain tumour. The Bugg family are blogging about their experiences – http://thisisabuggslife.wordpress.com/ - and whilst it is oftentimes a heartbreaking read, it just about re-affirms your belief in humanity.

These three beautiful, intelligent and strong women, along with their incredible mother, are sharing their thoughts and experiences on their blog; and reminding us all that those small trials and tribulations that irk us on a daily basis, are things that are often not worth our time and effort worrying about.

I urge you to visit the Bugg family blog, and to send your positive thoughts and prayers their way. The Bugg family themselves are big advocates of positive thinking, and I’m certainly with them on that.

That old chestnut: in praise of the BBC

I’ve always had a soft spot for the BBC, I can’t help it. Despite the fact it has occasionally churned out some tosh (‘My Family’, ugh), and that recent Christmas programming seemed to have been entirely predicated on five hour long ‘Eastenders’ specials, the Beeb has been on a good run of form recently.

And thankfully, there are no adverts, which means hour-long shows are actually 60 minutes of broadcasting, not one hour of the actual show, and one hour of adverts, see ITV’s ‘Dancing on Ice’ Sunday night advertising marathon for proof…

Firstly, there have been some excellent documentaries over the past few weeks; including the return of the excellent Louis Theroux to the BBC, his expose of Ultra-Zionists in Israel made for jaw-dropping watching.

Andrew Neil’s investigation into the old boys club populated almost exclusively by public school alumni at the centre of British politics was pretty eye-opening too. And our public school kids got even more of a battering in a second documentary by Richard Bilton. ‘Who Gets the Best Jobs?’ was informative and stirring in equal measure. It seems what we all already suspected is true; that if you’re parents are rich, you went to a fee-paying school, and you can afford to work glamorous internships for nothing, you’re a shoe-in for a top job overseeing the great unwashed. Anyway, rant over, back to the programming.

I have to give a little thumbs up for Silent Witness too. Although occasionally requiring the suspension of disbelief, this series has been largely excellent, well acted and entertaining.

And finally, The Human Planet…brilliant, awe-inspiring stuff, the kind of thing the BBC does so well. This week’s episode featured jungle and rainforest dwelling tribes; and if you watched this show, you’ll know exactly what I mean when I say that was the most amazing tree house I have ever seen. I’ve been recommending this show to everyone I know.

And interestingly, I’ve been able to recommend The Human Planet online, through the much improved and much

The new BBC iPlayer layout

more social BBC iPlayer. The iPlayer’s facelift is very successful, its far easier to navigate, you can integrate your Twitter and Facebook accounts simply, can share and recommend what you’re watching or listening to, and more importantly, you can see what your friends are watching. It may have taken the BBC a while to catch on to what many of us already know, that we as individuals are far more likely to watch, listen, like or buy something that our friends are recommending to us, but they got there in the end.

My only niggle is that most of this good stuff seems to have been squirreled away on BBC2, but beggar’s can’t be choosers. So, a big well done to our favourite Auntie, I’m not even complaining about my licence fee this month!

Serious Work

I haven’t been ignoring my blog, I’ve just been busy doing a few guest posts and articles recently! In the spirit of portfolio building and community involvement/engagement – I’ve written about my local area for The Guardian Leeds, and an article about student retention for The Leeds Guide.

Here are the links to the articles:

‘Why Students Stay’ – The Leeds Guide 04.10.1o – http://bit.ly/9lPbuO

‘A Whirlwind Tour of Wonderful Holbeck’ – The Guardian Leeds 29.09.10 – http://bit.ly/9ppUcR