Writing for Communication 11/12/15

Good morning class!

We began class last night with a current events and grammar quiz.

We then shared some of our broadcast and print leads from the homework for the class and discussed how we could improve and edit aspects of each of them.

Important aspects we covered include

• structural problems with sentences
• present tense for broadcast leads and past for print
• attention grabbing leads

Next we watched a short video about the aspects of the job of the broadcast reporter. You can watch it again here.

We then worked on a full story for a broadcast piece, which will be due Monday at noon.

You must be able to justify anything you leave out and anything you put in. Paraphrasing quotes is alright. You should remember to be fair in your writing as well. 

Our guest speakers for the night were Kelly Costello and Jordan Haverly, former students of Professor Piacente. Kelly works in public relations and Jordan works for an Illinois congressman.

Kelly recommends BradTraverse.com to help students with finding jobs, as well as networking at AU and in DC. She recommends asking professors in your career field of interest for networking help, and to not be afraid to reach out to people at firms. Kelly also recommends asking for informational interviews to get to know the firms you are applying to. You should often bring prepared questions to an informational interview. In what she wishes she learned while at AU, she says she wishes she would have learned more media skills, ie how to deal with reporters. Kelly says preparation is key, especially for pitching and targeting journalists. She says not to send out mass press releases, as reporters will blacklist you. 

Jordan talked about his role as a legislative correspondent for a congressman. He recommends the position because of the broad workload and experiences. Jordan says something he wished he learned in school is "saying something is not always necessary." He recommends sometimes saying nothing is better than saying something inappropriate. 

Kelly says the two most important things for a Linkdin profile are to have a goof professional photo and for all your information to be grammatically correct. She suggests to use it as your resume. 

Have a great week! Remember your article is due by Monday at noon!