"Vista Cocoon Diary": Keelung Teaching Notes
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August 7, 2021
It was dawn this morning, and I woke up.
I was thinking about going to the Keelung City Cultural Bureau at 9:30 to help teach a [Press Release Writing] (https://www.vistacheng.com/2020/05/6-tips-help-businesses-build-strong-media-relationships.html) course to a group of leaders and directors of performing arts groups. So I got up quickly at five or six o’clock to get ready. After a quick breakfast, I took the No. 307 bus to the vicinity of Nanjing Sanmin MRT Station and prepared to take the bus to Keelung for classes.
The last time I went to Keelung to give a lecture was on May 12 last year. Although Keelung is not far from Taipei, I felt a little uneasy because I was not familiar with the place. What’s interesting is that the two times I went to Keelung, the lecture topics were very similar. The last time they talked about media relations management, this time the topic focused on press release writing.
I originally thought that there would be very few buses on weekends, and I had already expected that I might have to wait for a long time. Unexpectedly, I only waited for fifteen minutes, and Capital Passenger Transport Bus No. 1579 arrived! After getting on the expressway, it seemed like only a few minutes passed before we arrived in downtown Keelung. Before I even got off the car, I saw the Keelung City Cultural Bureau building appearing in front of me on my left. It felt like I had received some reassurance and felt a lot more at ease!
After getting off the bus, we crossed the street and came to the entrance of the Cultural Affairs Bureau. It was just after eight o’clock at this time, and the organizer of this course had not yet arrived! So, I held an umbrella and walked around the Cultural Bureau several times. Later, I met Ms. Ren, who was in charge of contacting me, and we went to the conference room on the second floor of the Cultural Affairs Bureau to start preparing for this morning’s course.
Seeing this large conference room that can accommodate 300 people, I jokingly said: “This time we have really increased the social distance among the students and ensured each other’s safety!” However, in such a large conference room, we must not only catch everyone’s attention, but also be able to interact with the students, which again tests the lecturer’s ability to adapt to situations!
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As soon as the time reached 9:30, after Ms. Ren’s brief introduction, I took over the microphone and began to share the techniques and precautions for writing press releases with this group of friends from the art and literary circles. Press releases are usually not too long, but behind every seemingly simple and concise press release, there is actually a lot of knowledge behind it.
At the beginning, let me first introduce to you what is a press release? According to Wikipedia, a press release is a communication document sent to the media by companies, institutions, governments, schools, etc., to announce newsworthy news. Press releases written by different units often have very different purposes. For example, some manuscripts are for announcing personnel announcements, while others are for announcing award winning information and solving corporate crises. Of course, the most common ones are for promoting newly launched products or establishing brand image.
Generally speaking, common press releases can be roughly divided into types such as product marketing, corporate decision-making, personnel announcements, consumer information, public welfare activities, crisis management, and financial announcements of listed companies.
When it comes to writing press releases, “Inverted Pyramid Structure” is the most well-known writing rule and narrative structure. To put it simply, the “inverted pyramid structure” means that in a piece of news, the most important, freshest, and most attractive facts are first placed in the introduction, and the most exciting content is often placed at the forefront in the introduction; and in the main part of the news, each paragraph of content is also arranged in order of decreasing importance. It’s like an inverted pyramid, big and heavy at the top, small and light at the bottom.
The biggest difference between the inverted pyramid writing principle and the traditional article writing method that advocates “starting, continuing, turning and combining” is that the most important information is written first, and then the facts are written down in order of importance. In other words, the inverted pyramid writing method starts by highlighting the most important information in concise words, listing the content or information that readers need to know, and remembering to include a call to action at the end.
Of course, don’t forget to include the introduction and contact window of the company or organization at the end of the article so that readers who are interested or in need can inquire and contact you directly.
During the two and a half hours in the morning, in addition to introducing the writing logic and related techniques of press releases to this group of art and literary workers, I also used a large number of cases to explain. Finally, I also used a press release from a large company to dismantle and practice, hoping that everyone can better understand how a good [press release] (https://www.writing.vc/2020/02/tesa-pr-writing-class.html) is written?
When we walked out of the Cultural Affairs Bureau building, it was still raining in Keelung! Although the rain was heavy, I felt a little excited at the moment, because successfully completing the first physical class after the epidemic was lowered to level 2 alert was not only a relief for me, but also very meaningful.
After all, no matter how convenient online learning is, there is still a layer of isolation and distance. Being able to communicate with everyone face to face is a joy after all!
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