A journalist’s guide to PR lingo

As I embrace the world of public relations, I’m learning a whole new language. I’m trying to adopt many of the terms that come with the territory, some of which actually convey exactly what point we’re trying to get across.

That said, there are some terms that I just can’t manage to swallow, let alone bring myself to use. I cringe every time they come up.

Whenever one of these PR-specific words appears, I write it down in the back of my notebook to look up later. Here are some real gems:

Planful: My best guess is that this term is a mutation between “planning” and “thoughtful.” I’ve heard it used in the context of “we need to be planful about this.” I would suggest the alternative word “smart” or “strategic,” because they are both in the dictionary and everyone knows what they mean.

Learnings: Going back to my editor days, I have to point out that this is not a real word. Somehow the phrase “what did you learn” is now “what are your learnings,” which bugs me because “learn” is a verb while the made-up “learnings” is a noun. It just befuddles the mind. My suggestion would be to stick to “lessons.”