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Throughout this semester, I have learned many skills that have improved my public relations writing skills and has helped to better prepare me for a potential future in this field. I have learned the proper formats, times, and target audiences for each genre that we learned about in class and I am better educated on how to create proper public relations materials. I also learned about what makes a story newsworthy and how important it is in public relations. I have also learned about the obligations and difficulties that can arise in this field and how to better combat them. Overall, this class has much better prepared me for a future career in public relations

After reviewing your comments I have found many of them to be helpful and overall helped to improve my Public Relations writing while taking this course. Two comments that you used in my drafts was making sure that the material is newsworthy and concise. After taking this course I now understand what makes a story newsworthy and why it needs to be concise as well. Newsworthy means that it is worth the audience's time to read your work and conciseness ensures that you keep the reader engaged and interested. You also commented on my organization in certain pieces of writing and recommended the inverted pyramid. I used the inverted pyramid in my press release to order my information from most to least important and it improved my press release writing drastically. Peer reviews also allowed me to use the tips I have learned in the class and pass them on to my classmates and help improve their work. These peer reviews also provided me with peer feedback to improve my public relations writing as well and it allowed me to gain insight that I might not have gotten otherwise.

I would use a newsletter when my target audience is in need of more information and has more time to read and process my writing. Newsletters tend to be more informative and longer than a Media Advisory. I would use a media advisory in a situation where my target audience needs a quick summary of an event and does not have much time to focus on my writing. A media advisory has the benefit of summarizing quickly before your target audience loses focus but it includes less information. A newsletter is longer and can cause your target audience to lose focus but it includes more detail. My target audience would be college aged young adults for a media advisory and middle aged people for newsletters.

After learning more about Media advisory, I feel more prepared to write a proper media advisory. I have learned that a good way to write a media advisory is by answering the questions what, who, when, where and why. This helps our target audience get the full details of our media advisory. However, it can be difficult to capture the reader's attention by only using these questions. We must ensure that our answers are newsworthy and informative in order to draw the reader in. It can also be difficult to fit all the information you need on one page, but we can overcome this through peer review because it helps to receive feedback from others and make changes accordingly.

After completing my fact sheet, I feel more prepared to create better fact sheets in the future after playing around with different templates on adobe express and canva. However, it was difficult at first for me to figure out how to use all the tools on these poster websites and organize my information neatly. After some playing around with canva I was able to create a template that looked appealing and displayed my information neatly. It can take some time though unless you have experience in graphic design or other design skills. Fact sheets are good at catching the eye of your target audience and gives them quick insight on your organization. However, it can be hard to give your target audience the full description of your company in one fact sheet. Peer editing can help you better determine what is necessary to include and what to get rid of or add. It helps to have multiple sources review your fact sheet.

After discussing AP Style, inverted pyramid and press release formats I feel much more confident in my ability to write a good press release. I am still slightly concerned that some of my material was not informative enough but I feel that I will resolve this issue during the peer review process. I feel like I did a good job incorporating the inverted pyramid and I believe that I have used proper press release style formatting but I want to make sure that my writing is professionally formatted properly during peer review. Press releases are very short and to the point and I feel like it can be hard to fully outline the topic of your press release. However, we can use social media posts and captioned photos to create more buzz around the event and further explain the smaller details.

One scenario in which you might use a press release could be to announce an important upcoming event for your company. The desired outcome of using this genre is to create attention among the companies target audiences and attract them to attend the event and further interact with your company/business. Secondary target audiences could be tourists or younger people who are not familiar with your given company/organization. The goal of a press release is to get as many people as possible interested in what your company has to offer.

I have learned many new techniques that will better prepare for writing feature articles in the future. One of these techniques is a delayed lead which focuses on giving background before diving directly into the most important part of the feature article. This is a very common way to set up a feature article and it is effective at catching the readers attention. One thing I had trouble with was keeping this feature article under 250 words and I believe that peer editing in class will allow others to help me figure out what parts and can get rid of. Feature articles benefit organizations by allowing them to do feature articles that highlight important members of the company both inside and outside of the organizations. One issue of feature articles is that you are typically limited to one person or one event for a topic and it is hard to cover large amounts of information in a single feature article.

I have learned multiple tips and techniques while learning how to write a pitch letter. One technique that better prepared me for writing a pitch letter is to be concise and to the point otherwise your reader will lose interest in what you are pitching. You also want your pitch letter to persuade the reader to take interest in what you are writing about by pitching them something (product, event, etc.) that is newsworthy. I learned these techniques because at first I was struggling at being concise and persuading my reader with newsworthy information. Working with peers to edit my pitch letter helped me realize that my work was not concise enough and also required a little more newsworthy information in order to persuade my reader. Having multiple people to provide feedback on my letter helped me make corrections I would not have noticed. Some benefits of pitch letters are that it allows you to grab the attention of very specific segments in your target market, such as CEO's or a head of a certain department that relates to your company. However, it can often be too specific and not allow for you to penetrate the target market on a broader scale. You could overcome this by sending pitch letters to multiple people from other companies or employees within the same company. You could also post a pitch letter on a blog to drum up attention and see who answers.

Personally, I really like peer review because it is a great way to gain constructive feedback from peers within your class and improve your work. I have conducted multiple peer reviews in both college and high school throughout my years in school. The peer review process provokes classmates/colleagues to give each other constructive criticism and provides different points of view that the original writer might not have thought of at first. I learned that I must be honest and respectful of others work when peer reviewing in order to make the peer review process as beneficial as possible.

I believe that we must "deal" with the media because the media is often viewed as nosy and invasive. Many writers often see the media as dangerous and capable of ruining a company with one bad article or review. This creates a hostile environment between PR writers and the media because they feel as if they have a conflict of interests. As a PR professional I will use the mindset that "there is no such thing as bad publicity." Communicating with the media can be great for creating a positive company image through PR writing.

My writing process is very short and I often do not brainstorm much and start my writing process without much prior thought. I hope that throughout the duration of the semester I am able to learn how to properly plan and execute my writing process. I hope that it will help me manage my time better and improve my writing efficiency throughout the writing process. I have learned about how I must consider the multiple styles and formats involved in PR writing (professional/persuasive, tone, target audience, purpose, etc.). It is important to understand the multiple components of PR writing and plan the writing process around it because it allows you to produce higher quality writing material in the real world. It is best to create a writing process based on the situation your business or client is in and what is required in order to make the best strategic decision that will benefit a business relationship between two entities. I also know that having a proper writing process will improve not only my work as a whole, but it will also allow more to be more productive in terms of time.

My writing process is very short and I often do not brainstorm much and start my writing process without much prior thought. I hope that throughout the duration of the semester I am able to learn how to properly plan and execute my writing process. I hope that it will help me manage my time better and improve my writing efficiency throughout the writing process. I have learned about how I must consider the multiple styles and formats involved in PR writing (professional/persuasive, tone, target audience, purpose, etc.). It is important to understand the multiple components of PR writing because it allows you to produce higher quality writing material in the real world based on situation your business or client is in and what is required in order to make the best strategic decision that will benefit a business relationship between two entities. I also know that having a proper writing process will improve not only my work as a whole, but it will also allow more to be more productive in terms of time.

I am a little concerned about the challenges that lie ahead because I do not have any experience in PR writing prior to taking this class. I am going to overcome this fear by embracing the challenges that come my way with a positive attitude, asking for help when I need it, and by learning from the obstacles that I encounter during this semester. I am confident in my general abilities as a writer and will use that confidence to propel me through the new challenges that I will face as I learn more and more about the different genres of PR writing. I believe that having an open and positive mindset for the duration of this course will also allow me to overcome my fears and help me further my education.