10 minus 2 Report Writing Pitfalls

Pitfall 1: Ignoring your Audience - As I discussed in my proposal, identifying my audience is a major section of my PR plan. My primary audience will be football ticket holder. They are the main group that I am trying to influence. The secondary audience will be Tim Match and IPTAY Board members who will be able to influence the primary audience. Last, the tertiary audience, such as clubs, organizations, etc. who can endorse iTiger.

Pitfall 2: Writing to Impress - Tim Match does not have time to decipher words and phrases in the PR plan. Using unnecessary trivia would do less to impress and more to confuse. Like we have been reading all semester, the writing should be short and concise.

Pitfall 3: Having More then One Aim - My single aim: I will provide IPTAY with recommendations for implementation and communication tactics to reach football season ticket holders.

Pitfall 4: Being Inconsistent - Inconsistency leads to misunderstandings in your writing as well as time wasted for the reader. I will use Clemson's style guide to reduce this confusion and provide a consistent report.

Pitfall 7: Misintroducing - My letter of transmittal, executive summary and introduction should be not only be concise, but also thorough. They should not read like a table of contents, and they should contain the what, how and why of the subject.

Pitfall 8: Dazzling with Data - I should only include information that is relevant to the problem. Some information is

Pitfall 9: Not Highlighting - Some parts of the plan are more important than others. Audience analysis and objectives, strategies, and communication tactics are the most important sections of the PR plan. This should not take away from the other sections, but not highlighting these important aspects would take away from the effectiveness of the plan.

Pitfall 10: Not Rewriting - Revise and then rewrite. This is simple enough; we cannot expect our first draft to become our final report without any rework. You wouldn't expect an actor to step in front of an audience without first rehearsing his lines.