From Strunk and White’s famous The Elements of Style comes Rule #7:
Do not overstate.
“When you overstate, readers will be instantly on guard, and everything that has preceded your overstatement as well as everything that follows it will be suspect in their minds because they have lost confidence in your judgment or your poise. Overstatement is one of the common faults. A single overstatement, wherever or however it occurs, diminishes the whole, and a single carefree superlative has the power to destroy, for readers, the object of your enthusiasm.”
The classic reference manual for writers of English, The Elements of Style combines usage and style guidance to inform any type of subject matter. Rule #7 falls under the umbrella of ‘An Approach to Style’ and offers a succinct reminder that proves particularly meaningful for healthcare PR — whether through a news release, a presentation or an interview, credibility is more readily earned when you do not overstate ‘the object of your enthusiasm,’ but rather speak genuinely about that which you believe to be true.
