Being a public relations chameleon

While I have always though speech writing is easy, it can be hard when you have to hide your true colours and write as if you were someone else. This is what I experienced at my placement with the Department for Communities when I wrote a speech for the Minister for Seniors, Robyn McSweeney.

I was to provide the Minister with a speech to officially open Have-a-Go Day (29th October) during Seniors Week. As a special addition to her speech, the Minister was also required to launch Living Histories Volume Two.

I reminded myself that a speech needed to be written in a conversational style. But what happened was that I was writing in my own conversational style! I found it quite a challenge to write in a way that fit the Minister’s personal style, especially since her character is so different to mine. I had to change a lot of the flowery language in my draft to suit the Minister’s more straight forward tone.

I found it interesting that as a public relations practitioner you are expected to write a speech for someone, when surely it would sound more natural if the Minister wrote the speech herself. But in the end I guess the Minister best serves as a public face of the Department, leaving room for public relations practitioners to also do what they do best – writing in a way that makes sure key messages are getting through to the public. If this requires us to be chameleons in the process then I guess the ability to shift writing personalities is a new public relations skill worth learning.

Thanks for reading my post.

Alana
-Curtin University, Bentley

(Note to blog authors: Please excuse this late blog submission as I am still recovering from being sick and have had problems with accessing my account).