PUBLIC RELATIONS TIPS — TIP NO. 77:

Pop Quiz:

Which of the two examples below is the most correct (from a public relations perspective)?

1. Riley spent over $300 on a new outfit.
2. Riley spent more than $300 on a new outfit.

The correct answer, boys and girls, is No. 2.

The word over is typically used to describe a relationship between one object or person with another, such as

• She held her fist high over her head, or
• He used his victory to lord over him.

In the first instance, the fist is being held above the head. In the second instance, the victory is used to create or establish dominance.

Conversely, the term more than is used to convey the thought that one thing is larger, greater or bigger than something else.

Ergo, the PR Rule of Thumb is this:

In PR writing, the term more than should be used 99 percent of the time when you need to describe something that is larger, greater or bigger than another thing.

Conversely,

The word over should be used to describe a relationship between one object or person with another.

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THE EXECPTION TO THE RULE:

For better or worse, however, people use the word over all the time in their day-to-day speech to describe something that is larger, greater or bigger than something else.

So . . . the one place where we allow this exception is within someone’s quote, such as

“We made over $2 million in profit last year,” Smith said.