Charlie Laidlaw is a former journalist, author and tutor at Creating Writers.
Many of us are a little daunted at first by having to write a story or press release for a newspaper or magazine.
We worry that we can’t write well enough and that will reflect badly on us or the company we work for. Or we’re not sure of the message, or messages.
But it’s a skill that more of us are having to learn. The internet and social media continue to drive a voracious information appetite demanding much greater participation.
It all comes down to having confidence. After all, to misquote Somerset Maugham, all the words we need are in the dictionary. It’s just a matter of arranging them in the right order.
Of course it’s a bit more complicated than that, but learning how to write the killer press release is a great place to start.
That’s what we teach on our short media writing course. Because if you can write a lucid and compelling press release you can write anything.
That could be a newsletter, blog, other website content or magazine article.
Our course is designed to be completed in no more than four weeks. But if you’re having trouble meeting that timescale, do talk to the course tutor. It’s not a fixed deadline, and we aim to be as flexible as possible.
It’s a course that is all about helping you to understand some of the basics of great PR writing. But this course is different to other PR writing courses. We provide a wider communications context, looking at ethical and other issues that impact on the PR landscape.
Media course
It’s an introductory course designed to get you thinking, and to give you greater media confidence.
You’ll be expected to submit written work and, every week, have one-to-one tutorials with your course tutor. In other words, we’re with you every step of the way.
The course will benefit newcomers to PR, or those hoping to enter the profession. It will help you to understand the media a little better and how to write compelling material. It will also help you see PR in its wider marketing and corporate contexts.
But it’s also a course aimed at anybody who simply wants to learn basic writing skills, and who may be able to put that to good use in their careers. In an always-on communications world, with social media often dominating agendas, being able to write well has never been more important.
So, while this course is all about the basics of writing for the media it’s also about giving you the confidence to write anything that’s important to you or your company or organisation. Learn the basics, and everything else will follow.
You can see more about the course here, and we’d be delighted to answer any of your questions.
Photo by Roman Kraft on Unsplash