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Audience This seminar is for anyone who is new to writing for PR or wants to re-cap on the different writing techniques needed for news and features. It is designed for in-house and agency personnel and marketing professionals, and will be particularly useful to anyone who has until now found writing a struggle or a challenge. Skills Gained - Abolish writers' block - forever
- Have a firm starting point for any piece of PR writing - and know where to go from there
- Have the confidence to recognise a story and to sell your ideas to your company or client
- Make your press release the one in a hundred that will get into print
- Collect information with all the skills of an experienced journalist no matter how new you are to the media world
- Be creative with story ideas and use lateral thinking to expand a gem of an idea into a full-blown feature
Course Outline Why clients don't know everything - The conflicting priorities of clients (or companies) and the press
- What the press want from a press release
- What the client wants from a press release
- The tightrope-walking act of the PR professional and why it's important to get the balance right
How to write a successful press release - Different types of press release
- Characteristics of news and features
- The importance of understanding the difference in writing styles
- Writing news intros - a formula that works every time
- The importance of adding value with good story ideas
- Benefits and features
- Common errors in press handouts
- Build your reputation by avoiding the pitfalls
- Case histories - the good, the bad and the downright dreadful
- Eye-catching headlines - what works and what doesn't
- Every picture tells a story - caption writing that counts
- Captions that inform and tempt the reader into your story
- The must-have-list every good press release should have
- How to give your releases a professional look - plus real life examples
How to make writing as easy as speaking - Writing fast, writing fluently
- Taking the struggle out - putting the fun in
- Identifying the roots of writers' block - and banishing it forever
- Accessing your creativity; it's easier than you think
- Understanding the psychology of the writing and editing process
- Step by step to achieve sparkling copy
- The four step process that guarantees results
How to write fascinating features - Finding ideas for features
- Useful sources
- Fabulous formats - different types of features you can use to ring the changes
- Researching the style of your target magazine
- Audience
- Copy style
- Regular slots
- Understanding what the editor wants
- Making contact
- Presenting a well informed synopsis
- The rules of give and take - and how it can work for you and your client
- Making your copy more active and dynamic
- Don't rush into editing
- How to revise when the time comes
Making a start - The nuts and bolts of a well-written feature
- Writing the intro - easy formulas for success
- Tips and techniques to get your story up and running
- Structuring your feature
- Making order out of chaos
- Links and transitions - the secret of getting your feature to flow
- Common sense approaches when all else fails
Collecting your information - Taking the brief
- Is it achievable?
- Does it fit the strategy?
- Getting the extra information you may need
- What the client wants to tell you and what else you need to know
- Interviewing secrets of the top journos
- Planning your questions
- Taking 'tangents'
- Keeping them on track
- Maintaining control
- How to identify good quotes. And why they can be the life and soul of your story
- What makes a dreary, disappointing or unusable quote
- Questions that trigger great quotes and why you as the writer should never make them up yourself
How to make a booking for the WS-WSP course
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