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RMT Newsletters: Tips for Text

Submitted by janine on Tue, 13/01/2009 - 19:43

Write a strong lead sentence, especially on your main article. Information most important to the reader should come first.
Make your articles lively and interesting. Have a sense of humour.
A sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop. There should then be a space before the next sentence starts.
Names of people, places, days of the week, months and the word I start with capital letters. Other words should not. Do not start a word with a capital letter just because you think it is Really Important.
Quotes should be put in quotation marks eg. Jo Patel, your local RMT rep, said, “Come to the branch meeting – you might enjoy it!”
NEVER TYPE YOUR TEXT IN BLOCK CAPITALS (LIKE THIS). FOR THE READER, IT IS THE EQUIVALENT OF BEING SHOUTED AT.
Emphasise particularly important facts, words or arguments by using bold, italic or underlining. But don’t overdo it.
Put your apostrophes in the right place! An apostrophe indicates either missing letters or belonging. So:
- don’t = do not;
- driver’s = belonging to one driver
- drivers’ = belonging to more than one driver or drivers in general.
Plurals do not have apostrophes: the plural of CSA is CSAs, not CSA’s.
Always refer to workers in the first person - we/us, not they/them.
Always use the active not the passive – Managers are bullying workers, rather than Workers are being bullied by managers.
Use short paragraphs (about six lines maximum).
Your newsletter shouldn’t read like a sales brochure. Workers know when they are being sold PR; readers prefer information and argument.
Avoid clichés. If you have often seen a particular phrase in print, don’t use it; think of another phrase or imagery that will make the same point in a more fresh way.
Will readers know what acronyms mean? If in doubt, list the acronym out the first time you use it eg. DVA (digital voice announcer). Similarly, do not assume that your readers are familiar with union jargon, or with the identities of particular union officials, managers or other characters. Explain the name or term in brackets eg. Boris Johnson (Mayor of London).