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 :)
