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Getting Ready for Spring 2009 PRCA 2330

A hearty welcome to all my new students who have enrolled in PRCA 2330: Introduction to Public Relations, at Georgia Southern University.

Textbook(s)

Wilcox, D.L., & Cameron, G.T. (2009). Public relations: Strategies and tactics (9th Ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

  • Purchasing the hardcover book is about $90 at Amazon.com, 
  • You can rent the hardcover book for about $50 from Chegg. 
  • Or you can rent an electronic version of the book  from  CourseSmart for about $60.

Recommended but not required: Li, C., & Bernoff, J. (2008). Groundswell: Winning in a world transformed by social technologies. Boston, MA: Forrester Research, Inc.

Social Media

Be prepared to immerse yourself in social media as part of Intro to PR. If you want to get a jumpstart before classes begin, you might want to do the following:

  • Sign up for an account at Twitter. (What’s Twitter?) Use some variation of your real first and/or last name. (Do not include any numbers with your name, or you may risk appearing like a spammer.) Follow me at Twitter by going to http://twitter.com/barbaranixon .
  • Join PR OpenMic, an online community for public relations students, practitioners and faculty.

Additional Items

  • Pack of multi-color markers (you will need these on the first day)
  • USB drive 
  • Occasional use of a notebook computer in class

Syllabus

And last but not least, here’s a copy of your syllabus for the semester. By the end of the first week of class, you’ll also have our daily schedule of activities. You can view the syllabus online below or download it for easy printing atprca-2330-spring-2009.

PRCA 2330 Spring 2009 Syllabus          

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PRCA 3339 Newsletters in Review

The final project in PRCA 3339 (PR Publications) was a four-page newsletter for a non-profit organization, accompanied by a paper. The newsletter itself was worth 50% of the grade, with the paper worth the remaining 50%. A rubric was provided so that students could know exactly how the assignment would be graded. Though many students produced stellar newsletters, there were some common errors.

Common Errors in the Paper

  • Not including all the elements required
  • Having one-sentence descriptions for the sections
  • Not including how your newsletter will help the organization achieve its goals
  • Design Principles: When describing the four design principles of Contrast, Repetition, Alignment and Proximity, leaving out one or more of the principles, and often providing no specific example of where I should look in the newsletter for application of the principle.
  • Costs: Not including the vendor. Not including a total for one run of the newsletter.
  • Publication Schedule: Being vague with your descriptions of what it takes to put one newsletter together, complete with dates. This section should contain all the deadlines (internal and external) another person would need to complete a newsletter like this. For example, when do you need to determine what the articles will be? Assign writers? Take photos? You get the picture, right?
  • Editorial Calendar: This is quite different from the publication schedule. In this section, I was expecting to see what the themes are for each issue for a year, along with when the issue will be produced. If the May issue is dedicated to graduation, then when do you need articles/photos on this topic?
  • Distribution Method: Most people did fine in this section.
  • Skills & Knowledge: Not being specific. Saying “I learned how hard it is to put together a newsletter” does not describe what you learned.

Common Errors/Problems in the Newsletter

  • Leaving out required elements (like the pull quote and masthead)
  • Having a mailing panel that does not conform to USPS regulations
  • Not using all available lab time to create the newsletter. When you create the newsletter on your own with the free download trial of Adobe InDesign or use the computers in the library, you don’t have the benefit of having others around you to help troubleshoot when you can’t figure something out.
  • Using too many fonts. Aim for two to four fonts, max. More than that, and it will look like a scrapbook page rather than a newsletter.
  • Headline and body text fonts too close in size.
  • Body text font too large
  • Pixellated photos and clipart
  • Photos and clipart that are stretched or squished (not proportional)
  • Color combinations that were hard to read (for example, red text on a green background)
  • Not using InDesign’s built in feature that allows you to flow text from one text box to another, complete with jumplines and continuation heads.
  • Not using InDesign’s built-in feature that helps you align elements on the page
  • Putting a pull quote or image in the middle of a block of text, then having the text wrap around it. Okay to do if you are using columns, but very hard to read when it’s smack-dab in the center, and text from one line is on the left and right of the image.
  • Not allowing enough white space between text and borders
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Deep Breath In . . . Long Exhale Out

Exhale by Photochiel.Since it hasn’t been so long since I was a student myself, I can definitely relate to the stress involved during finals week. My best advice? Not “take a deep breath.” It’s exhale.

According to the International Breath Institute, “‘Take a deep breath’ can [actually] be very bad advice to someone who is feeling anxious or is agitated.” To balance your CO2 levels, inhale, then make your exhale last twice as long. You’ll definitely feel a difference.

I keep a framed kanji of the word “exhale” on my wall. When I’m feeling out of sorts, a quick glance at the kanji reminds me to do what’s best for me, to exhale.

In closing, here’s a wonderful quote by Koichi Tohei: “Breathe out so your breath travels to heaven.” Keep this in mind the next time you are feeling stressed.

Exhale.

Photo Credit: http://flickr.com/photos/photochiel/2672476712/

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Key Learnings for Corporate PR Fall 2008

Bendable Pirate CharactersAs our fall semester is winding down in my Corporate PR class at Georgia Southern University, we had a fun way to wrap up the key learnings.

Each student chose a small character (ninja, pirate or rubber ducky) from a basket and named the character. Then they each came up with a word or phrase that started with each letter in the name. (Full directions to the assignment are at my Becoming Learner Centered blog.)

A few volunteers came to the front of the class and presented their key learnings to us by showing their list and character on the document projector.

You’ll see what the key learnings for my students were as comments to this blog post. By having them create their own mnemonics in class today, I’m hopeful that they’ll remember many of the key points of this class long after it is over.

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Key Learnings in PR Publications Fall 2008

Graduation Rubber DuckiesAs our fall semester is winding down in my Public Relations Publications class at Georgia Southern University, we had a fun way to wrap up the key learnings.

Each student chose a small character (ninja, pirate or rubber ducky) from a basket and named the character. Then they each came up with a word or phrase that started with each letter in the name. (Full directions to the assignment are at my Becoming Learner Centered blog.)

A few volunteers came to the front of the class and presented their key learnings to us by showing their list and character on the document projector.

You’ll see what the key learnings for my students were as comments to this blog post. By having them create their own mnemonics in class today, I’m hopeful that they’ll remember many of the key points of this class long after it is over.

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Key Learnings in Public Speaking Fall 2008

As our fall semester is winding down in my Public Speaking class at Georgia Southern University, we had a fun way to wrap up the key learnings.

Each student chose a small character (ninja, pirate or rubber ducky) from a basket and named the character. Then they each came up with a word or phrase that started with each letter in the name. (Full directions to the assignment are at my Becoming Learner Centered blog.)

A few volunteers came to the front of the class and presented their key learnings to us by showing their list and character on the document projector.

One of the characters, Bocephus the Pirate, even had a crush on me. It said so in the speech bubble near his head. Cute!

You’ll see what the key learnings for my students were as comments to this blog post. By having them create their own mnemonics in class today, I’m hopeful that they’ll remember many of the key points of this class long after it is over.

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Creating Our PRCA 3331 Final Exam

Together, we (the students and I) will create the final exam for the PRCA 3331 class at Georgia Southern. In class on Monday, students will choose which topic areas to write questions about. Each student will write at least five questions total, from at least three different topic areas.

Need some tips on writing multiple choice questions? HINT: Learning how to write good questions is likely to help you become a better test taker, too.

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Public Relations During Times of Crisis

Public Relations During Times Of Crisis
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PRCA 3339 Blog Alternative

As a project for Georgia Southern University’s PRCA 3339, you have two choices. You can create a brochure using InDesign as we originally discussed in the class. OR, you can add several postings to your blog that relate to the content of our PR Publications class. Please let me know your decision about the assignment by Monday, November 10, at midnight. (Comment on this post to let me know.) If I don’t hear from you, I’ll assume that you’re doing the brochure as originally planned.

The Blog Assignment

  • Write & publish at least three postings of 200 words or more between now and the due date of November 21 at midnight.
  • The topics of your postings can range from using InDesign, using typography, choosing the best kind of paper, taking effective photos, storing photos online, pricing the printing of your publication using online sources, or any other topic related to public relations publications.
  • The postings need to be your original work (don’t copy and paste from another website or blog). If you use info from another site, be sure to cite your source. (No APA Style needed for this citation; you can just hyperlink to the original source.)
  • In each posting, offer at least two hyperlinks to relevant sites.
  • Also, comment on at least two of your classmates blogs.