One of my students last year, Kelsey Thompson, seeks tips from people who have experience with tweet-ups, which are in-person social events with Twitter groups. She would like to plan a tweet-up in Portland. If you have tweet-up experience, fly by her blog and please leave a comment. You can find her blog here.

As mentioned earlier, I took on a challenge with my class to punctuate a tricky sentence involving Wham! the band. Here is a variation of our sentence:

Tiffany asked, “Have you listened to the CD titled ‘The Best of Wham!’?”

Here are some rules to note:

1. Because Wham! has an exclamation point attached to its name, it is part of the composition title. Thus, the exclamation point gets tucked inside of all of the quotation marks. The question mark is part of the quotation, so it appears inside of the outer quotation marks.

2. When you have quotation marks within quotation marks, the inside quotation marks get downgraded to single quotation marks.

3. There is no comma before the CD title. I often see people incorrectly put commas before quotation marks regardless of the context; however, quotation marks do not go before quotation marks if the quotation marks are used to indicate a composition title.

Correct: I like “The Hall & Oates Collection” CD.

Incorrect: I like, “The Hall & Oates Collection” CD.

If you follow AP style, here is an acronym that my classes use to remember when to use quotation marks with regard to the media. The acronym MR. No quotes means

(M in Mr): Magazines
(R in Mr.): References
(N in No): Newspapers

Magazines, references and newspapers do not get quotation marks.

AP Style

Correct: I read The Oregonian.

Incorrect: I read “The Oregonian.”

Incorrect: I read The Oregonian.

Incorrect: I read The Oregonian.

Google Alerts are useful for discovering when you or your organization’s name is mentioned on the Internet; however, I have noticed a quirk with the software.

As a PR volunteer for the Cameron Siemers Foundation for Hope, I set up a Google Alert for “Cameron Siemers.” However, I continue to receive old stories. Today, I received an alert for his speech at the Ribbon of Hope Awards — from 2005!

I continue to receive articles with his name from years gone by. Has anyone else encountered this issue? Please share.

(Photo from Media Dynamics Inc. via a fan page for Stan Lee)

My fiance directed us to the early Hulk movies, where we also watched an interview with Stan Lee. I was thrilled to identify examples of ways in which Stan Lee built relationships with his fans through Marvel Comics.

What he did when one of his “products” was not as good as the others:

Stan Lee said that an issue of his comics had a story that was “not that good,” but he was stuck with it. He said that on the cover, he wrote a note that went something like, “Hey kids, I’ve got to admit, this isn’t the best story we’ve ever done, but we’ve given you so many good ones before; we think you owe it to us to buy this one also.”

In the interview, he said, “That book sold better than most of the others in that period, and I got a ton of mail saying, ‘You guys are great; nobody else would have written anything like that!’”

How he personalized his relationship with fans:

When Marvel ran letters to the editor, Stan Lee changed letters from “Dear Editor” to “Dear Stan.” In his response, instead of the traditional “Dear Charles,” he would write, “Hey, thanks a lot, Charlie!” Eventually, all the letters he received would say “Hey, Stan” or some other informal greeting. Stan explained that he wanted Marvel to feel friendly and warm. He wanted the letters page to feel like two people talking together.

We are back to my Hulk theme this week! As mentioned in my earlier post, the Hulk movie was great, but the “data is” grammar mistake pulled me out of the movie.

I wonder whether someone on the Hulk team might have intentionally made “data” singular because more people might have been distracted by the correct conjugation (”data are”) than the incorrect conjugation (”data is”).

I have applied to many jobs in which the job titles were incorrectly capitalized in the announcement, and I have seen many students who were faced with the same situation. (For the record, do not capitalize a job title unless it appears immediately before someone’s name without a comma.)

When you know what is correct, but you don’t think your audience knows the correct form, what do you do?

Readers, should applicants mimic job announcement capitalization errors? Also, feel free to share your stories about deciding whether to do what is technically correct or whether to do what your audience thinks is correct.

If you are at least 18 and female, would you help Sean Matthews with his class project for the University of Georgia by completing the survey below?

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=82ccQjVbHyWYfUJZoyDtAA_3d_3d

Sean is an advertising student; he says he especially needs help from people who live outside of Georgia.

I’m interrupting my special hulk-theme week to plead to the powers that be at WordPress: Please, please, please work out the technology, so I can raise money for the causes I cherish through the ChipIn widget. The ChipIn widget only works with hosted WordPress sites.

Not only do I want to use this technology, but I also want to teach my students this technology. Thank you in advance for listening and for considering this appeal.

To see a ChipIn campaign in action and to learn about this viral widget for raising money, see Robert French’s post here. And if you feel moved by his cause, I invite you to make a contribution. Every little bit helps.

(Yes, I know, it should be “smashes,” but the title is a comic book tribute.)

My fiance and I enjoy superhero movies, so we went to see The Incredible Hulk on the big screen. I recommend the movie — it captivated my attention. However, a repeated grammar error kept pulling me out of the movie. In academic terms, I experienced “communication noise” because it interfered with what I wanted to hear (in this case, what Bruce Banner was saying).

I wanted to follow what was happening in the lab scene, but all I could think was, “Data is? Data is? I can’t believe the scientist keeps saying ‘data is.’”

“Data,” like “media,” is a plural word. The error tore me out of the movie, and it took serious mental effort to shut down my inner dialog.

It’s funny too because I think back to teaching “data are” in my Public Relations Writing class at Maryland, and my students would jovially tease me about this finer point and playfully challenge me to come up with a sentence in which I would use a verb after the word “data.” Well, here it is on the big screen!

Sneak peak: Next week (not next post because I actually have two more Hulk public relations topics), I’ll tell you about the punctuation challenge I took on with my Advanced Public Relations Writing class here in Oregon. It involves Wham!, the band.

Readers, what examples of communication noise have you experienced? Here is another one that I experienced recently. I went to a restaurant, and the server, probably 10 years younger than I, called me “sweetie.” I heard nothing else she said.

My post about a blogger publicizing his pitch policy made Karen Russell’s list of the best blog posts this week.

For some great discussions — from preparing for phone interviews to understanding the controversy between the Associated Press and bloggers, see Karen’s list here. Thank you, Karen!

I wish I could tag everyone through WordPress like I can in Facebook!
Back row: Bryan, Sarah, James, Ben
Middle row: Pat, Ali, Olga, Stephanie L.
Front row: Jean, Liz, Stacey

Class, I enjoyed working with you and getting to know you during our spring term together.

Ben, your work and professionalism are at the graduate level. Thank you for your outstanding work. You also have excellent interpersonal skills.

Sarah, your ambition and enthusiasm for public relations is exceptional. You did an excellent job of tackling challenges and exceeding class requirements.

Beth, with your writing skills and passion for social media, I am excited to see the novel ways you incorporate social media into your projects in China.

Pat, you have immense talent with creative writing. Reading your feature article was a treat!

Ali, with your writing skills and critical thinking, you are going to be a great magazine writer.

Liz, I admire the down-to-earth, human voice in your writing. I think it is one reason why your blog attracted so many comments.

Jean, you are a hard worker, and your PAWS presentation moved me. I appreciate your diligence in class and your commitment to animal issues.

Stephanie L., I was thrilled to see you set up a social networking site for people who love horses. Setting up this site shows your initiative and leadership.

James, I appreciate your professionalism and your follow-through on your work. It reflects that you are committed to your projects.

Stephanie M., your appetite for social media knowledge, combined with your writing skills, makes you an attractive hire.

Stacey, I admire your courage and openness. Your questioning of social media — like twitter — advanced our discussions.

Bryan, I am thrilled to see that you are continuing to blog. Reading your blog brings me up-to-date on the latest technology, such as Digg. Thanks for teaching the teacher!

Olga, I was impressed to hear that you organized a study group for my quizzes. Your performance in class illustrates your hard work, and I also appreciate your strong interpersonal skills and professionalism.

Summer and Fall Plans

Here are some class updates about your upcoming adventures. I didn’t get an e-mail back from everyone, so feel free to send me an e-mail with your update, and I’ll add it to this post. You’re also welcome to post your plans in the comment area.

Ben Benson will be taking summer classes here for four weeks. Then he is returning to Bend to work as a public relations intern at The Mandala Agency. The internship will last 10 weeks, and then he will be back here in Eugene to finish his last year of college.

Beth Evans will be working this summer at T Art Center in Beijing, a start-up organization under the umbrella of 798 Space. She will be copy-editing English materials and helping English-speaking customers. It’s a three-month temp-to-permanent position, so she hopes to continue working there in the fall.

Ali Grise will finish her final courses at UO to complete her women’s studies minor this summer. She is looking forward to being here for the Oregon Country Fair and the Olympic Trials. She will finish her classes in mid-July and return home to Connecticut for about two weeks to visit with her family and visit her good friend, Lin, in New York City, where she is doing an internship with Real Simple magazine. Ali will return to Eugene for August and begin looking for apartments in Portland. In September, she will make the move up to Portland and start to look for jobs after returning from a trip to Paris with her mom to visit her aunt, uncle and cousins. She is eager to start another amazing journey in her life!

Jean Kim will be interning for PAWS in San Francisco. You can see a PAWS video below:

Stephanie McCulley will be doing social media work as an Ant Hill Marketing intern in Portland, Ore.

Stacey Rogers will be in Eugene working and enjoying her last summer as a student. In the fall, she will be taking J454 — her last PR class — and living up senior year at Autzen stadium!

Olga Walsh will be interning this summer for Bend Living magazine in Bend, Ore., and working at Crosswater golf course. Next fall, she will return to UO to finish her last two terms. She will also be the liaison for the 2008/2009 PRSSA E-Board.

Class, please keep in touch with me and let me know if I can help you down the road. Enjoy the summer!