Since I've started my internship with the Department of Local Governments and Communities, I've learnt that it's not even just about being able to write promotional materials such as media releases and social media content. In the last two weeks, two of the things I've had to draft were a letter to be sent to a number of stakeholders, and a memo to request funding.
These were two things that I haven't had a lot of experience with before - other than writing cover letters when applying for jobs and this internship I don't think I've ever written a letter to someone. I kind of just assumed that everyone used email now. As for the memo, I was lucky enough to be given a template to work off of, which made things a lot easier.
The other big thing I've learnt about needing to write well is how there is a very particular way that you have to word things when you're writing them on behalf of your organisation, especially in government. Obviously it has to be professional, but there is a style that it has to be written in, and this changes slightly when writing things that will only be seen internally within the department and things that are to be sent out externally. I can't even describe what the style is, but it's definitely there.
As for picking up on how things are expected to be worded in government? I'm starting to get my head around it, but it's definitely all very different to uni. Hopefully by the end of this internship I'll be able to write up anything that's asked of me without having to reread it 20 times to make sure I've done it correctly.
That's all for now!
Zoe
1 comment:
Hi Zoe
I know exactly how you feel! I never thought that writing something as simple as an email would have me double guessing my ability to write coherently, or at all for that matter.
Email isn’t something that our generation uses very often in day-to-day communications with peers; there’s the occasional message to a tutor, boss or even parent but emailing as part of work communications with other colleagues or clients takes it to the next level in terms of permanence and it becomes a whole lot more stressful. You referred to a style that the emailed message has to be written in I completely understand; it’s a mix between professional yet familiar, formal but not too formal. For example I had to email publishers of a particular genre of magazine and despite not knowing the individual or even having much interest in the topic of the magazine, I had to refer to the person by their first name and act in an appropriately enthused manner about the topic but in a suitably professional tone of course. I guess that these are some of the everyday workplace that things they don’t teach you at university but I’m sure that over time we will ace the ability to capture the right style and tone.
Bella
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