week 8

This weeks readings are based upon

Sallot, M. & Johnson, A. (2006). To contact … or not?: Investigating journalists’ assessments of public relations subsidies and contact preferences. Public Relations Review. 32(1) 83-86.

and the two Media Release readings:

Article 1 The Importance of Writing Skills by Kurt Wise in Public Relations Quarterly; Summer 2005; 50, 2; ABI/INFORM Global. pg. 37

Article 2 - <>How To...Ten Steps to Press Release PerfectionPR News. Potomac: Mar 20, 2006. Vol. 62, Iss. 12; pg. 1

I think the key points to remember from this weeks readings are:

• Informative and persuasive writing are among the skills necessary to enter the field
• Writing is one of the foundations of a successful public relations practitioner and the ability to communicate messages clearly and concisely is one of their differentiating skills
• Grammar, run on sentences and paragraph structure are the main concerns and downfalls of entry level practitioners
• When writing for the web one’s writing style must change to become shorter, more concise, more conversational and more enticing as opposed to when your writing a press release and you have more space. The way people read information on the web is different to the way people read information in a newspaper or magazine.

The press release 10steps to ensure text & message are ‘laser-focused”
1. Info has genuine worth
2. Avoid blatant commercialism
3. Craft for target audience
4. Short and succinct
5. Make heading relevant
6. Be careful and clever with quotes
7. Include all information reporter may need for a story
8. Keep boilerplate to a minimum
9. Give a tag team of contacts
10. Double check everything

The articles made me think about public relation in that
a key skill that all good PR practitioners need is versatility – being able to write a basic news release, a feature story, a by-line article etc in current times jobs are beginning across lines and a wide ranges of skills is now compulsary. I think that in the future one degree will not be enoght but instead students will need to do a combined degree in order to have a greater range of skills and more of a chance of being employed. Good writers can change their writing style for the audience – “outstanding writers can shift gears”, writing skills is vital and instead of taking the attitude that a i just want to pass assignments i now will look upon them with a different approach as to aim for no spelling mistakes as in the end it may not me a huge deal at uni but may keep you unemployed in the workforce.
I also had not heard of the term boilerplate before reading one of the texts so i learnt new terminology and will use it from now on.