Recipe for a ‘Pitchwich’: Variations on a theme by William Strunk Jr.

Select the ideal ingredients, and discard all the verbal gristle

In 1918, William Strunk Jr. wrote in The Elements of Style, “A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts.” Let’s take this quote a step further:

“A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences…and a pitch should contain no unnecessary words, sentences or paragraphs.”

As public relations professionals, we pitch on a daily basis, constantly tweaking and perfecting our writing to be more precise, simple and informative. When it comes to the elements of a good pitch, we sometimes forget we can simply go back to the basics. Ashley Halberstadt put together a presentation recently where she outlined the most basic elements of the pitch and called it the “The Pitchwich.” (She thinks of it as a turkey sandwich, but it’s really up to you.) Let’s break it down:

1. Bread slice = Greeting/relevant tie-in (problem)

An e-mail greeting might sound simple, but that’s not always the case. Kathleen Fasanella from Fashion-Incubator highlighted some good greetings she’d received from PR pitches: