Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Good writing skills: A prerequisite of Public relations

They say journalism is the only profession where you publish your mistakes for the whole world to read, well i would like to add Public relations to that.In Public relations, i cannot stress enough the importance of possessing good writing skills. Its highly imperative that before one sends out media releases, feature stories and other articles for publication, they should double check and make sure there are no grammar, tenses and spelling mistakes. Spelling errors are embarrassing to say the least and detrimental to the PR industry as a whole as they can turn away potential clients and even strain media relations as they may question your credibility when you try to invite them.

When my supervisor asked me to write a certain article on a newly opened Apple store around campus, the pressure gradually built up like lava on a dormant volcanic hill. I was nerve wrecked at first but knew that practice makes perfect, I brought out the best in me, wrote a draft first, checked for spelling errors and gave it to a friend to check for any mistakes i must have overlooked. The results were amazing and i wrote an exceptionally good article which my boss commended me for.

With that in mind, PR professionals should be able to express themselves clearly in writing and should break down any jargon, whether its financial terms and statements and make it readable and understandable. To my fellow interns in the corporate struggle, take heed of my advice, re-read what you wrote many times, check for mistakes and give someone to check for you. Read more, be in the quest for more knowledge, write more and always strive for perfection and broadening your vocabulary.

2 comments:

baxxtiger said...

the other thing that i have noted about writing for public relations is that it is totally different from the way you would write as a journalist.

PR writing is always promotional, you will find that the name dropping of the organisation is prominent throughout the article.

Being a good writer also calls for you to do this tactically because some publications would not want to give you free advertising space by allowing you shameless name dropping (no pun intended) to run

Bains said...

Yes Mr Bethel I think I will agree with you. Public Relations pratictioners must always be good writters. A weak writing may mean a wortless campaign. However me must note that they are actually different from each other i.e Journalism and PR.

Journalists often write reports on news while PR write more on point of view. However I believe that both quite important for each other.

But please when people write they must be very careful of grammatical and spelling errors.