For Immediate Release
Today in class we listened to a podcast by Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson at Forimmediaterelease.biz. I learned about the importance of the AP style book. This book is said to be the “bible” of the journalism and public relations world. It surprised me when I learned there is more than one type of stylebook out there. The AP stylebook is a very popular version, however others do exist. Depending on what a person’s job is, or where their writing focus is, different stylebooks are used. Neville Hobson brought up another really interesting point on the use of stylebooks. He said to not focus on certain styles so much, but be more concerned about how you are connecting with an audience. Use the most effective language or most effective writing style that fits with the group of people you are trying to communicate to. I thought this was a really interesting view. Sometimes you don’t always have to follow a stylebook exactly. Shel Holtz said that even among journalists, there’s disagreement on how closely to follow a stylebook. This is something I would like to learn more about. Is it really necessary to follow a stylebook, when the general public does not even know the difference if you make a style error or not?
Noelle Cottom 