Writing Workshop - Covering Writing for News Media, Writing Proposals and Reports for Management and Writing Profiles

What to expect

This extended training format focuses intensively on a single set of competencies for five days. It is designed to develop practical and enduring expertise in one particular specialty.

Expect to spend a lot of your week writing, not listening. You will also receive personal coaching on your writing style – and feel free to bring along any speeches and other that you are working on, if you would like in-depth feedback and guidance.

Every day follows a hands-on format, revolving around fun and fast-paced writing exercises. Over the course of five days, you will cover all of the core skills and concepts of writing for PR as well as specialist formats and applications.

This course covers the following modules:

• Writing for the media
• Press release writing
• Writing for the Web
• Specialized PR copywriting
• Speechwriting

## Course Objectives

By the end of the program, participants will be able to:

• Develop enhanced PR writing skills to amplify the impact of everything that you write, from press releases and case studies to emails and blog-posts
• Write powerful and newsworthy press releases quickly and instinctively
• Adapt and develop texts for the different needs of readers on the Web, including website content, blogs and other social media, and micro-format writing like Twitter
• Deploy a range of specialized PR writing formats including OpEds, PR case studies, placed features and advertorials
• Plan, outline and draft well-structured and speeches using powerful language for the spoken word

## Course Outline

Writing for the media

• Principles of writing for PR: core concepts of writing for PR.
• Writing for news value: how to weave strong news angles through PR writing in order to grasp attention and drive coverage.
• Tighter PR writing: clarity, precision and focus in PR prose
• Techniques for structured, disciplined and efficient writing
• Writing for impact: word-craft for PR
• The creative dimension of PR writing
• Powering up your prose to create clear, bright and engaging copy

### Press release writing

• Press release essentials: the core principles of writing effective press releases
• Press release presentation: structure and format
• Essential ingredients of content and presentation
• Press release content: news, language and color
• How to develop news angles using focused and powerful language.
• Press releases online: search and social media impact

### Writing for the Web

• Principles of writing for the Web: practicalities of customizing writing for the very different environment online
• Writing for websites: composing content that gets discovered: keyword and search optimization
• Writing for blogs and social media: creating content that inspires people to share and forward in social media
• Micro-writing: Twitter, Status, SMS and the mobile Web
• Writing for the shortest online formats that increasingly dominate people’s consumption of information online

### Specialized PR copywriting

Opinion editorials: advocacy and thought leadership Case studies: bringing messages to life PR features: long-form writing techniques Advertorials: targeted editorial impact

Speechwriting

• Speech planning: strategic approaches and planning techniques to lay the foundations for effective speeches.
• Structure and flow: how to outline and structure a speech framework for optimal narrative flow and development of concepts.
• Language for the spoken word: how to “write aloud”: composing texts for oral delivery using natural, colorful sp0ken language and rhetorical techniques
• Essential components and delivery: best practice in writing introductions and conclusions, and preparing a speech for delivery