{"id":885,"date":"2014-10-21T12:57:28","date_gmt":"2014-10-21T16:57:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comgrad\/?p=885"},"modified":"2014-11-16T10:35:13","modified_gmt":"2014-11-16T15:35:13","slug":"what-it-actually-means-to-get-a-masters-in-pr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comgrad\/2014\/10\/21\/what-it-actually-means-to-get-a-masters-in-pr\/","title":{"rendered":"What it actually means to get a Masters in PR"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Ali Parisi<\/strong><\/a>
\n MS Public Relations ’16<\/em><\/a>
\nBU College of Communication<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

What is public relations you ask? Writing.<\/p>\n

As a first semester PR grad student, that\u2019s at least how I see it.\u00a0 In fact, one of my favorite classes this semester has turned out to be Writing for Media Professionals with Professor Dorothy Clark<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In high school, if you had told me that I would end up loving writing, I would have flat out laughed in your face.\u00a0 Back then, the only type of writing we did was to analyze works of literature.\u00a0 And if you didn\u2019t agree with the teacher\u2019s analysis, you wouldn\u2019t agree with your grade either.\u00a0 That type of writing was just not for me.<\/p>\n

But this class is the complete opposite.\u00a0 Instead of writing to agree with someone else, I get to write for my audience (or, as we like to call them in PR, \u201cpublics\u201d).\u00a0 I get to write things that I can actually use in the fabled \u201creal world.\u201d<\/p>\n

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For example, one assignment had us write a traditional news release.\u00a0 To simplify things, Professor Clark had us write about a made-up conference for which she provided all of the information and facts about the hosting organization. That way, we could focus on both prioritizing the information to fit the format of a news release and also on writing in the objective voice, typical of that writing format.<\/p>\n

To make this assignment even more hands-on, we also had to do a second, social media version of the news release; honestly, had no idea what a social media news release was before this class, but everyone knows that social media is huge today, and online news is growing faster than traditional media.\u00a0 This assignment gave me a taste of both and helped me feel like I was actually learning something practical and applicable for my future career in PR.<\/p>\n

Another assignment from this class, and easily my favorite so far, was to \u201ccreate a blog with a focused brand for yourself\u201d (straight from the syllabus).\u00a0 I really enjoyed this assignment because we were able to write about something that we are truly interested in, rather than being assigned a topic that we don\u2019t care about.\u00a0 I chose to create a blog that focused on fashion from an athlete\u2019s perspective.\u00a0 Check it out here<\/a>\u00a0(Note: keep in mind that I made this site for the assignment and therefore it may not be perfect! Meaning the social media links don’t actually link to anything, etc.).<\/p>\n

Everything we do in this class is up-to-date and tailored to fit the demands of new media.\u00a0 Aside from the blog and news releases, we\u2019ve also worked with Twitter, created a landing page for an event, and will be working on a feature and slideshow in the next few weeks.\u00a0 We\u2019re always talking about writing online as being a portal to other information, writing in your voice versus a company\u2019s voice, and more.\u00a0 Most of our assignments have second drafts, which gives us the chance to review and refine our work after getting criticism.\u00a0 I feel that this is extremely valuable for the real workplace, where editors are more likely to chop up your work and spit it back at you, demanding a re-write.<\/p>\n

If all of my classes in grad school are as engaging and hands on as this one, I have a feeling I\u2019ll be just fine.<\/p>\n

Check out the video below of\u00a0Alumna\u00a0Sandra Frazier (’01)\u00a0 as she shares how the Public Relations courses she took at BU helped prepare her for working in the real world. Frazier is CEO of Tandem Public Relations in Louisville, KY.<\/p>\n