Writing With Someone Else's Personal Voice

Howdy everyone!

Firstly an update from my last post about the speech I wrote for Dine For Life. I got a call on Thursday morning from my boss surprising me with an invite to the event which was THAT NIGHT! Anyone that knows me will be able to tell you that I don't own anything that's not from an op-shop so I spent the day frantically shopping at Garden City and spending lots of dollars trying to put together an outfit for the event, so stressful! It was such a glamorous night and hearing my speech get read in front of a couple of a few hundred people is something I will always remember.

Moving on!

The 40 Under 40 is a prestigious West Australian award that recognises local entrepreneurs for excellence in  Business. Those nominated are required to submit a lengthy personal statement answering a series of professional questions in writing. This part of the judging process is weighted very heavily and determines if you progress to the next round. This was why I was a bit apprehensive when my boss handed me some notes and asked me to write out this personal statement for one of her clients that was nominating for the award.

"You have a great writing style," she said.
"I think you will be really good at being able to bring out his personal voice in the statement."

Personal voice?! I didn't even know anything about him, let alone have I met the guy! Aside from the fact that I was freaking out about making him sound like a 21-year-old girl I was majorly questioning the ethics behind this whole task. Isn't a personal statement meant to be just that? A personal statement?  It just seemed wrong for this guy to get someone else to write his application and then submit it to possibly win a massive industry award.....

Regardless of my internal struggle with the idea, I got to work. The notes I had were from an interview she conducted with him to determine the key points he wanted to put across in his application. To be honest he seemed like a genuine bloke. The more I progressed with the application the more I was ok with me writing it. If it meant getting someone who has worked really hard to establish themselves but may not have the best written communication skills some recognition from their peers then why not, right? It's a side of PR I never really considered; branding people. 

My boss was really happy with the end result, so much so she sent it off to her company's external PR manager, who also echoed her satisfaction. 

Though I am still a tiny bit iffy about the whole thing, I think I have used my skills for the forces of PR good and I really hope our nominee, who I can't name for confidentiality purposes, wins (because that will indirectly mean that I won, right?) :P

Here's my fellow NXT intern Sam and I with one of the Dine for Life directors at the event. A lot of food was consumed, hence the grins :)


Until next time lovelies!

Radhika Kayarat
15383945
Bentley Campus