Rinse & Repeat

The weight is finally off my shoulders! I have completed my twenty-day work experience at an events organisation which was undertaken between May and September for my Public Relations Internship 393 unit. So… how did I go?

Whilst the internship appraisal form my supervisor gave me was close to perfect I still feel that I could have done better. Throughout my twenty-day placement (which I’m still currently undertaking), I feel that my public relations knowledge and skills acquired at Curtin University have not been tested at all or applied to a relevant task.

My role at the organisation primarily involves making phone calls and sending emails to relevant organisations for the oncoming event. The emails are templates that I was able to write up at the beginning of my placement which was interesting at the time and tested my creativeness. However now I feel that morale is down and Ctrl C + Ctrl V (copy and paste) are up.

My other role consists of posting selected pictures and captions on Facebook in order to create awareness for the oncoming event.

Despite morale being down and repetitiveness being high, I believe that my communication skills over the phone and writing skills in emails have increased exponentially so I am grateful for that.

Here’s to Public Relations Internship 393 and my final semester at Curtin University!

Writing in the real world.

Thus far in my internship I have done quite a bit of writing, mostly blog and newsletter type pieces. I have found that while we are thought to write in a specific format and style at uni it does not always transfer to being appropriate in the workforce.

One of the most difficult things I seem to find is write in a semi formal to casual style, which Networking WA prefer, especially for their blogs. Learning to not take comments about editing my work to heart was a little hard sometime but I can definitely say that I have learnt a lot.

Some of the most useful tips in writing I got from Rebecca Cole, my boss, is to:

-      -  Create an interesting writing style but reading other peoples blogs and newsletters.

-      - Always have a catchy heading and grabbing first sentence, as it keeps the reader interested and then the will want to know what the rest of the article is about, and read more.

-      -  Edit, edit, edit! Always re-read what you have written to make sure your grammar and spelling is correct, as well as making sure you are using the right word for the right meaning.

-      -  And most impotently practice, practice, practice, especially writing catchy headings and that first grabbing sentence.

I have been lucky enough to have two of my blogs picked, to be put up on the Networking WA blog and Facebook page. One was on Social Media which I found really fun to right about and the other was a feature to do with an coming event Networking WA are hosting called Chinese Investment.

Writing can be difficult for some (Me definitely), especially when trying to change styles but practicing is key as it is important to be able to adapt your writing style in the workplace.