Tag Archives: proofreading

Capital or capitol? (And do you capitalize it?)

This is the latest in Beyond PR’s monthly series Catching up with Editorial, where a member of PR Newswire’s Editorial department shares tips and tools you can use to catch typos in your own content.

In last month’s post (Mind Your S and Ds), we highlighted a catch made by Senior Editor Diana Dravis in our Washington D.C. bureau.   Although that particular catch (Eastern Standard Time should be Eastern Daylight Time) is a mistake that can occur in a variety of news releases, Diana and our other editors in Washington, D.C. have to keep their eyes open for some unique client error catches that don’t typically occur in other copy.

Across the world, PR Newswire’s editors work on all sorts of news – financial, fun, international, lifestyle – even in different languages as our Latin America and International departments can attest!

However, our Editorial bureau in Washington, D.C. is where the majority of PR Newswire’s government and public interest press releases are processed.  Because of this, they have to watch for typos that are more common to these topics.

If you find that you write content about nonprofit, government, advocacy or other public interest issues, read on for a few tips from our D.C. Editors on what to look out for.

One of the most common misspellings in the English language is capitol vs. capital.  You may remember being warned against this misspelling in grade school, and for our public interest editors, they watch for it every day!

When referring to the building in Washington, D.C. used by the United States Congress, it should be spelled “Capitol” (with an “o” and a capitalized “C”).  When referring to a building occupied by a state legislature, lowercased “capitol” (still with an “o”) is by definition the correct use (though some style guidelines may make an exception to the lowercase rule).

On the other hand, “Capital” with an “a” has many different meanings. For public interest news, the most common usage is when referring to the city or town that is the official seat of government in a country or state.  For instance, Washington, D.C. is the nation’s capital.

Other mistakes commonly caught by our Washington, D.C. editors in public interest news:

• insure versus ensure
• incorrect names of legislation (e.g., American Disabilities Act should be Americans with Disabilities Act)
• Wallstreet and Mainstreet should be Wall Street and Main Street
• misspelled acronyms for major organization names, legislation, and policy initiatives
• misspellings in names of high profile political figures
• incorrect positions or titles (e.g., Secretary of Education should be Secretary of Health and Human Services)

Diana shared that editors spend a lot of time reading and discussing politically-oriented news and if necessary turn to news outlets to check on legislation and titles.  Another reason for their familiarity is that if they are seeing one release on a particular piece of legislation, they’re usually seeing four or five more.

An advantage of having public interest releases handled by editors who live and work in D.C. is that they are surrounded by the news and legislation that your release might address!

That is exactly what happened when senior editor Wendy Minter was reviewing a recent news release and noticed that “Constituents” had been incorrectly spelled.

Last month, our editors found a total of 10,681 errors; year-to-date (as of June 1st), they have found 55,407.  In our Washington, D.C. bureau alone, editors caught 2,296 errors and mistakes last month.  Our catch rate (an internal metric that tracks the ratio of mistakes caught in press releases) is 661 catches per 1,000 releases.

Image courtesy of Flickr user keithreifsnyder.

This is the latest in Beyond PR’s monthly series Catching up with Editorial, where a member of PR Newswire’s Editorial department shares tips and tools you can use to catch typos in your own content.

When announcing an event, it helps to identify the time zone for any times you have listed. This is especially true if you want to reach a broad audience.

For instance, if your event is taking place in Chicago, but you are hosting a webcast of the event that will be readily available online, you may want to specify the event starts at 2pm Central Time. This way, potential audience members in New York know to tune in at 3pm Eastern Time.

If you do decide to include the time zone, be careful. There are a couple mistakes waiting to happen that you can easily prevent:

Convert between time zones correctly

On occasion you may need to include the time of an event in multiple time zones. For instance, your sentence could read: “Our chairman and chief executive officer will be presenting at the conference on May 17, 2011 at 12:45 p.m. ET / 2:45 p.m. PT.”

Did your eagle eyes notice the mistake in this sentence?  There were two.  First, there is a 3 – not 2 – hour difference between Pacific Time and Eastern Time.  Additionally, when converting Eastern to Pacific Time, the hours count backward not forward.

With these catches, the sentence should have read: “Our chairman and chief executive officer will be presenting at the conference on May 17, 2011 at 12:45 p.m. ET / 9:45 a.m. PT.”

Although these are both easy mistakes to make, they are also easy to prevent.  I always recommend using an online Time Zone Converter or World Clock, especially if you need to verify time zones in different countries.

Daylight Saving vs. Standard Time

When including time zones, many writers in theUnited Statesprefer to specify whether it is Daylight Saving or Standard Time (abbreviated EDT and EST, respectively, for the Eastern time zone).

Daylight Saving Time, which refers to when we “spring ahead” by one hour, begins in the U.S. in late Winter.  In 2011, for instance, we changed to Daylight Saving Time on March 13.

On November 6, 2011, we will switch to Standard Time when we “fall back” one hour.

When we spring ahead and fall back, it’s important to not just remember to change your clocks, but also keep an eye out for the correct usage of EDT and EST in your news releases.

A month after we changed over to Daylight Saving Time, Diana Dravis, an eagle-eyed editor in our Washington,D.C. bureau, was reading through a press release and noticed the client had used the EST abbreviation instead of EDT. After confirming the change with the client, Diana corrected the timing throughout the news release.

Although this mistake most commonly occurs around the months we make the switch, the rare EST vs. EDT typo does crop up on occasion throughout the year.

One way that this can happen is when someone copies the template of a press release they used earlier in the year.  If you do this, always doublecheck that you’ve updated any timing references — as well as years, months, dates and days of week – with the correct information.  Some individuals also shorten the abbreviation to ET to avoid any confusion.

Although Daylight Saving and Standard Time are common references in the United States, not all countries use it or they recognize it at different times of the year.  If you plan on targeting your announcement to a specific international audience, World Clocks can provide you with the correct local times if you want to include them in your announcement.

When promoting an event, it’s essential to provide accurate timing information to your potential attendees.  And by keeping global considerations in mind, your guests will know when to arrive on time – no matter where they’re coming from.

***

In April 2011, PR Newswire Editors like Diana caught 10,895 errors; year-to-date, our bureaus in DC, Cleveland and Albuquerque have made 44,726 “catches.”  Our April “catch rate” (an internal metric we track which measures the ratio of mistakes caught in press releases) was 667 catches per 1000 releases.

Author Amanda Hicken is a senior editor in PR Newswire’s Cleveland bureau.  In her free time, she pens the Clue Into Cleveland blog.

Image courtesy of Flickr user futureatlas.com