Writing for Communication - 10/29/15

Hey everyone, happy Friday! During last night's class we spent more time working on writing for PR. We also welcomed NBC reporter and anchor, David Culver. Homework for next class is at the bottom of this post.

Here are some things we talked about during class about getting better at writing for PR:

• Be careful when using psychic distance, don't over use things like "our" and "I will miss Homer"
• Stress positive news
• Always make sure to get names and proper nouns 100% correct
• Make sure to use AP Style - if you're not sure about something, look it up
• Numbers 10 and up use numerals
• Use present tense because it's immediate
• Don't switch tenses unless you're telling backstory (and therefore need to use past tense)
• Make sure headlines are capitalized except prepositions (ex: Homer Dead at Sixteen)

We discussed what to expect for the final. We will be given two stories to write: print story and broadcast story. For the print story, be sure to use past tense. For the broadcast story, be sure to use present tense. 

We were then given approximately 45 minutes to complete another press release about Glamour, Inc. In order to get better at writing for PR, keep practicing! 

David Culver, reporter with News4's Northern Virginia Bureau and anchor of the Saturday edition of News4 Today, joined us for the second half of our class. 

Culver talked to us about what it's like to be a reporter and his journey to where he is today. Local to the Northern Virginia area, Culver attended the College of William and Mary. He spent years interning and working odd positions to get where he is today. He was given a huge opportunity while in college with a reporter at NBC and even spent time working as a web editor his senior year. 

One thing Culver stressed during his discussion with us was that the initiative is on you! Nobody is going to hand you anything, you're going to have to work your way up. The industry is hard and competitive. During Culver's internship at NBC, he tried his best to take the time to meet with every single person at NBC to learn their job and gain relationships. It's all about networking and making relationships with people, he told us. 

He then took time to answer questions and get to know us better. Culver told us to watch the Amy Cuddy TED Talk. The link to view the video is here: https://www.ted.com/talks/amy_cuddy_your_body_language_shapes_who_you_are?language=en

Homework for next class: 

• Read Chapter 12 of the book and focus on pages 233-235

• Watch the news (either NBC, ABC, or CBS) and pick a story and compare it to a story from the Post - write several bullets on the differences. We will be presenting these in class next week!
• Don't forget to keep reading the Post and the Skimm every day

Have a fun Halloweekend! See you next week,
Jacob Popescu