I can’t stress this enough: if you are going to be successful in PR you MUST learn how to write.

I’m not saying that I never make mistakes. No doubt you will find typos in my work from time to time (and since I’m nagging you about it you’ll probably spot one here). But a true PR pro has got to be able to crank out well-written, meaningful stuff on a moment’s notice.

I went to college at Auburn and I love that school dearly, it had a HUGE part in giving me the historical knowledge, passion for the work, and people, interviewing, and tech skills I needed… but when I graduated as a Mass Comm major I had no writing stills to speak of.

None.

That meant I arrived at my first gig drastically unprepared to do good work. I had to teach myself how to write a press release, a skill I should have mastered (and others did master) at AU (sigh).

Thankfully, writing is a skill that can be learned and perfected with practice. Ex: I got my first bit of practice writing an angry letter to Auburn for letting me graduate without the writing skills I needed for my career.

Anyway, I’m constantly trying to improve my writing skills, which is why I was happy to see these writing resources from the Bad Pitch Blog:

1) Word of the Day | Daily Writing TipsThe odds of referencing a pyrrhic victory in a pitch is slim at best. But the more words you know the more options you have. And sometimes a story calls for a 50-cent word.

2) Skip the 5Ws and Pitch Heroes | Bulldog ReporterThe Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s Dave Lieber reinforces the importance of storytelling. Pay attention to tip 3 and 4.

3) Write like a blogger | Seth GodinSome great tips from Seth Godin on how to make your content more readable and, as a result, increase the odds of retention.

4) What if your writing sucks? | Blogging for BusinessTips for folks with no prior training, but they still apply to all of us.

5) Present Good-Looking Data with Chart Chooser | AdLab
Visuals help make your writing easier to read ??? especially when serving up facts and figures. Make sure your data looks its best with Chart Chooser.