The biggest lesson I have learned so far during my placement is the importance of mastering your writing skills.
Or as my supervisor Luke says, “to hone your craft”.
Let me tell you the story of how this saying became the number one way Luke has ended almost all of our one-on-one meetings.
On my first day on the job he pulled me into the office and handed me a bunch of documents with hypothetical situations.
You guessed it. Practice media releases.
Hello! This wasn’t meant to be another university assignment, I thought I was meant to be doing real client work.
But that’s where I was wrong.
I sat at my desk filled with nerves and began working frantically on the tasks I had been given - not to mention Luke had given me a time limit hanging over my shoulders.
Every hour or so we would sit and go over my writing pieces and he would point out parts I needed to work on.
Feedback is always #scary! Especially when it comes from a mentor in the industry you want to work for but I found that he was pointing out mistakes I had been making my entire degree and just hadn’t fixed.
Slowly and surely I began to write more succinct, interesting and read-worthy pieces that he seemed to proud of with side notes of course.
We all know writing is massive part of public relations but the lesson I learned is you need to master this skill in the industry because it’s only the bottom layer of the cake (another life lesson of Luke’s that I’ll explain in another post).
Good writing engages people from the moment they pick up your work - whether it be a media release, a blog, an email or a proposal.
And then come the bigger jobs.
I’m still mastering my craft and I’m sure most of you feel a similar way.
As almost graduates I feel there are nerves that come from a lack of confidence in real life experience - at least for me anyway.
On that note, I’ve created my own saying “your writing is never wrong it can just be improved upon”.
Let me know what you guys have learned so far!
Cassey :)
4 comments:
Its really amazing that your getting such hands on help with your media releases something we have been doing since our first unit in Public Relations. What sort of things has he commented on or pointed out to improve upon as I am sure there are great differences in writing a media release for publication and writing one for an assignment. As much as we try to emulate and perfect our media releases to make them punchy with snappy titles, direct quotes followed by indirect quotes and fact and figures the feedback you are getting in your internship is probably very helpful and insightful. It's great your supervisor is taking such an interest in preparing you for your future career.
Hi Cassandra,
A fair bit of my internship has involved either editing someone else's media release or writing my own, and I'm finding that while it's an enjoyable task it can be rather challenging. It's crazy how you have to scrutinize every word, and coming up with an interesting heading is something that challenges me most of all.
I think having the assistance of your supervisor will be really helpful for you. I find when I get quality releases sent to me from our Eastern states team to email to local Journalists, I value comparing what they say to what I would have said. I'm hoping soon enough it comes as easy for me as it seems to for them to write easy and informative releases.
Good luck, Jolene.
Hi cassandra
It must be nerve wracking to throw you in the deep end like this on your first day!! But at the same time, that's how you learn right? He must of been a very good supervisor and leader to prepare you for the real world and provide you with valuable feedbacks on everything.
Comparing to you, mine seemed not as intense. I spent my first day just observing everything and meeting all my new colleagues. But I did get to meet some of the new clients and observe the way they do things in a meeting, so that was quite rewarding.
I hope you enjoyed your experience and best of luck!!
Xx Hannah
Hi Cassandra,
It's so fantastic that someone with experience within the industry has made the time to sit down with you and go over your work to help you refine your skills!
I find that sometimes working within a consultancy you need to write media releases in different ways for different clients and so feedback is always helpful in understanding the differences!
I do agree with you though, feedback as great as it is can also be incredibly scary! One thing that I have had to just keep telling myself is that people are only giving you feedback because they care about your future. And at the end of the day it's going to make me a better PR professional if I keep practicing. I love your saying! It will be another piece of advice that I tell myself whilst working within the Industry!
Thank you for sharing your insights!
Dennielle
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