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● Introduction & Index ● What is PR ● Job Expectations ● Types of Media ● Building Relationships ● Media, Hams & FCC Rules ● The Basic News Release ● Interviews and Live ● Making your own show ● Easy P.R. ● Public Service Events ● Piggy-back to Events ● Pictures NOW! ● P.R. Research Aids ● Making Friends ● ARES® PIO ● Final Exam Information Next Page

As the release develops, we cannot assume the reader knows anything about Amateur Radio. We must keep from using technical talk, also known as “ham speak”. It is one thing to converse with fellow amateurs at a meeting and use the terms we take for granted, but the general public has no idea what a trapped dipole is or does - and could care less. Sometimes, the terms we take for granted are easily confused by the public-and that includes reporters. If we write about “handling traffic”, the public could easily get the image of hams directing cars at an accident scene. Using the term “health and welfare messages” is a much clearer example. If you think about it, you will be able to cross many examples of “ham speak” from your news release vocabulary. Before You Hit Send Now that all the parts have been crafted into a concise, well-written piece, we are still a few steps away from sending the release to the paper, radio or television station. How you proceed in the next minutes will make the difference between getting a call from a reporter or someone on the other end hitting the delete button on your e-mail. What you have just written is a draft. This is not to knock all the work you put into it and all the mental anguish trying to get it just right, but facts are that if you take a few minutes away from the keyboard and come back later with a “fresh” set of eyes, you may find some passages that could be a little better and some that may not be needed. If you are using Microsoft Word®, the first step is to go to the tool bar and open the tab marked “Tools”. Select “Options” and look for the Spelling and Grammar tab. Go into the grammar setting and check all the boxes in the grammar section and look carefully at the options under style, checking the boxes where you may need guidance or reassurance. After you get everything ready, click the “OK” box and run the spell and grammar check on the document. If you make any changes to your draft after you run the check, run the checker again to make sure your subject/verb agreement is correct, any possessive terms are phrased correctly and that spelling and capitalization is right. This is where you stop the to, too and two mistakes. You know the difference, but sometimes when typing they tend to creep in. Misspelled words and bad grammar will get a released bounced faster than anything else. Now that we have it spell checked and everything seems to be right, it is time to do a little quality control work. Print out your work and look at it closely. Are the margins even, did the capital letters come out right on the header, did your pages break as they appeared on screen? If not, now is the time to go back in and start changing your draft into a finished piece.