While film was amusing, pulled all right strings and made teeny-boppers cheer on, its title is a case of bad grammar.

Yup, saying, "I can't hardly wait" is bad grammar.

Why?

Because it's a double negative.

Consider this sentence: "I don't want no sympathy from you."

Now, let's assume that person who said above statement really doesn't want any sympathy. But sentence implies that what person doesn't want is no sympathy -- which means, he or she wants sympathy. However which way you look at sentence, it is grammatically incorrect.

If person doesn't want any sympathy, he/she should say it either:

I don't want sympathy from you.

OR

I want no sympathy from you.

* The subtle double negatives

Writers and speakers who always strive to write or speak correct English have less problem on double negatives. However, some words used in a negative sense are not recognized as negatives right away. They are sometimes combined with another negative and form a subtle double negative.

Here is a list of these subtle negatives:

seldom but (used as "only"> just merely barely hardly except only scarcely neither ever rarely nothing nowhere

This article contains a checklist to writing a press release. And it includes single most important ingredient of a press release, that will dramatically improve your chances of getting your news published.

=> Introduction

Firstly, let me say straight away that I am *not* an expert at writing press releases. Over years, I have read and studied many articles on how to write a press release; I have then submitted my press release only to see them fail to get noticed by editors.

That's not to say that articles I read were poor - all offered good advice, but not in format I wanted: a simple checklist.

So I created my own checklist to help me write a press release. A do-able step-by-step guide to writing a press release that makes writing news release a straight-forward process.

And I was ready to write this article nine months ago, but something was missing from my press releases at time - a vital ingredient - and so my press releases were still not getting published.

I am only writing this article NOW simply because my last press release WAS published, in several UK computer magazines. I am only writing this article NOW because I now know what missing ingredient is to a successful press release (that gets published). It's simple, really, *and* obvious! (Read on!)

Note: I'm still not an expert when it comes to writing a press release - you'll find links to experts at bottom of this article - but I am much more confident that my press releases will get published now. And you can be confident too...

=> Press Release Checklist

o Step 1 - What's Your Story? o Step 2 - Think Like A Journalist o Step 3 - Mechanics Of Writing A Press Release o Step 4 - Example Layout Of A Press Release o Step 5 - Is Your Press Release Ready?

o The missing ingredient - K-I-S-S

o Appendix: Expert press release resources

So, what follows is advice distilled from many sources, organised in a way that allows you to follow basic steps of writing a press release. (And you can always find out more detailed information, should you need it, in Appendix!)

What also follows is vital ingredient missing from many how-to articles, that improve your chances of getting your news published...

=> Step 1 - What's Your Story?

1.1) Find your story, and develop it!

1.2) Position yourself as being different

1.3) Develop different angles

- holiday and event tie-in articles - tips, articles, advice - politically and socially important editorial tie-in articles - new, unique products, Internet innovations and developments - human interest angles - interpersonal relationships on difficult issues - unusual events, unique personal accomplishments, unusual creative ideas - humor and wisdom, fun and tragedy

Some suitable news-sources to aid your research: - http://news.bbc.co.uk - http://www.zdnet.com - http://www.backwash.com - http://www.moreover.com

=> Step 2 - Think Like A Journalist

2.1) What reasons would an editor want to publish your news (what benefits are there for them?) - is it relevant? - is it mildly interesting? - is it newsworthy?

2.2) Make main benefit headline - only purpose of your headline is to get attention of editor, to get him/her to read your release - write headlines from prospects point of view (use words YOU, NEW and/or How To in headline)

2.3) Remember subtext

2.4) Remember K-I-S-S (keep it simple stupid!) - write for scannability; write short, punchy paragraphs

2.5) Remember to answer: "Who? Why? What? Where? When? & How?"

2.6) Write press release so it can be put into a magazine, with just a few simple edits