Writing for Public Relations and Strategic Communication equips students with the knowledge, skills, and tools they need to write persuasively. The book underscores the importance of strategic analysis at the beginning of the writing process. Utilizing an audience-centered perspective, it shows how persuasive writing emerges organically after critically assessing the goals of an organization's message in light of its intended audience.
Students learn essential strategic thinking and planning skills to create effective and intentional writing. The book presents the theoretical underpinnings of behavior, which students can then employ to generate prose that prioritizes the audience's reasons for attending to the message. The book is unique in presenting a primer on communication, persuasion, and moral theories that provides students a roadmap for constructing effective, ethical arguments. Throughout, anecdotes, examples, quizzes, and assignments help connect theory to practical, real-world applications.
Writing for Public Relations and Strategic Communication helps readers build their persuasive writing skills for professional and effective public relations, employing unique strategies and tactics, such as:
Writing for Public Relations and Strategic Communication equips students with the knowledge, skills, and tools they need to write persuasively. The book underscores the importance of strategic analysis at the beginning of the writing process. Utilizing an audience-centered perspective, it shows how persuasive writing emerges organically after critically assessing the goals of an organization's message in light of its intended audience.
Students learn essential strategic thinking and planning skills to create effective and intentional writing. The book presents the theoretical underpinnings of behavior, which students can then employ to generate prose that prioritizes the audience's reasons for attending to the message. The book is unique in presenting a primer on communication, persuasion, and moral theories that provides students a roadmap for constructing effective, ethical arguments. Throughout, anecdotes, examples, quizzes, and assignments help connect theory to practical, real-world applications.
Writing for Public Relations and Strategic Communication helps readers build their persuasive writing skills for professional and effective public relations, employing unique strategies and tactics, such as:
William Thompson brought experience from an active national
consulting career to his students during 23 years teaching public
relations and communication theory at the University of Louisville.
A former head of AEJMC's Public Relations division, he authored a
previous PR writing textbook, Targeting the Message.
Nicholas Browning (Ph.D., The University of Georgia) is an
associate professor at The Media School at Indiana University,
where he serves as the school's curriculum coordinator for the
public relations major and teaches courses in the sequence. He also
serves as associate editor for the Journal of Public Relations
Research and is the co-founder director of IU's Strategic
Communication Research Lab.
"This is one of the best strategic communication texts I have read.
From the moment the authors clearly demonstrated the connection
between communications and economic theory, I was sold. It is an
excellent text for high-performing institutions. The theoretical
backing is superb and the authors excel at demonstrating the
relationship between theory and practice without confusion and in a
tone that is interesting and easy to read while offering just the
right amount of challenge in concepts to create relevant dialogue.
… The organization makes excellent sense to me as a professor and
practitioner who appreciates guided processes. ... I like the more
academic tone that is set throughout the text. … I believe theory
gets the short end of the stick in too many communications writing
texts. Based up having attained my master's in communications
management after a number of years in the professional world, I
understand the value of the theory in helping students to
understand the landscape of communications and the media. Why what
we do works makes the how and what we do more meaningful. The
theoretical aspects are deep and rich and help to create an
understanding that most books don't cover."
Kelly C. Gaggin, APR, Assistant Teaching Professor, Public
Relations, Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse
University
"I like the idea of not just getting students to write first, but
to think first before writing. Most textbooks tend to have students
just writing for the sake of diving into skills and tactics.
Writing can't solve all problems and sometimes we shouldn't write
for our audiences, but instead do something else. … Most important
is Part I, 'Think First, Write Second,' in which the textbook shows
how much prep goes on before the writing begins. That's a good
niche for this textbook to fill, and it addresses the problems of
writing for writing's sake, rather than for good reason for the
right audience in the right way. … This textbook brings together
the whole toolbox of strategic communication—with its research,
planning, and strategies—and places this toolbox at the disposal of
writers and content creators, so that they don't do writing in
isolation from the toolbox. In addition to writing formats, this
text includes terrific resources such as quizzes and assignments,
which is helpful to any writing professor who will spend a bulk of
their time in responding to assignments."
Jacqueline Lambiase, Professor of Strategic Communication, Bob
Schieffer College of Communication, Texas Christian University
"I believe the idea behind the book is a good one. In my classes, I
continually emphasize the process of first thinking strategically
about the purpose of a communication, and only after that, putting
together the actual content. The book does a good job of describing
up front the relationship between initial strategic thinking and
its eventual execution. … Their approach differs in a couple of
ways, which are positive. First, there are a good many anecdotes
and specific examples, which I believe greatly strengthen any book
of this kind. Second, there is generally a breezy, conversational,
informal tone to the wording, which generally works well with
students. Third, the breakdown [at the beginning of each chapter]
of 'What You Know' and 'What You'll Learn' and the summary of each
chapter is a nice tool. … [This textbook] is an interesting,
up-to-date discussion of the interplay between strategy, content,
and tactics in PR and marketing communication."
Russell Mack, Instructor of Strategic Communication, Bob Schieffer
College of Communication, Texas Christian University
"I very much like this approach, because it emphasizes that each
piece of writing must have a defined purpose (goals and objectives)
and must be developed in response to the organization's goals and
objectives. … As students learn to use the thinking and planning
principles to understand and think strategically beyond just
creating some type of communication, their writing becomes sharper
and more focused on the goals and objectives. They also find they
can defend why they approached different situations as they did,
which is essential to demonstrating the power of public
relations."
Barbara DeSanto, ARP, Fellow PRSA, Adjunct Associate Professor,
A.Q. Miller School of Journalism and Mass Communications, Kansas
State University
"Thompson and Browning's Writing for Public Relations and Strategic
Communication provides a thorough introduction to the thinking and
planning that's required prior to the penning of any PR product.
Thompson and Browning leave no gaps—they begin with an application
of the theoretical underpinnings of behavioral response, and offer
a number of novel approaches for strategic communication. An
excellent resource for anyone who wishes to fully explore the why
behind prospective word choice in PR tools."
Paul T.M. Hemenway, Professor of Communication, Department of
Communication and Media, Lamar University
"An overview of strategic communication writing on multiple
platforms, from planning to assessment. … The authors clearly love
their topic and are excited to share information with students. The
approach is grounded in strategic and critical thinking, which is
essential for student to understand professional and effective
public relations. The writing level is appropriate for an
introductory course and moves at a fairly effective pace. It would
be easy to incorporate this text into just about any broad PR or
strategic communications course."
Erica Salkin, Associate Professor of Communication Studies,
Whitworth University
"This text emphasizes the importance and value of understanding
target audiences, which is a positive; further, it gives time to
the importance of research and data analysis on which communication
content approaches are based. ... [T]his is a very comprehensive
book that moves beyond just writing. It helps create an integrated
picture about the role of writing in the larger practice of
PR."
Stephanie Smith, Associate Professor, School of Communication,
Virginia Tech
"Very thorough and well written textbook on writing for strategic
communication. The text covers current topics every professional in
this field deals with regularly and shares excellent personal
examples and stories to emphasize important concepts."
John J. Powers, School of Communications, Quinnipiac University
"I personally like their concept of the 'receiver-centered writing
process,' which is a new and interesting concept for me and makes
total sense. I also like their integrated approach to traditional
and social media communications."
Donna Stein, Adjunct Professor of Public Relations, New School of
Public Communications, Syracuse University
"A practical writing text that incorporates theory in an easy to
understand manner."
Arien Rozelle, Assistant Professor of Public Relations, St. John
Fisher College
"This is an excellent introduction to contemporary theories of
public relations and marketing."
Vivian Wagner, Associate Professor of English, Muskingum University
Ask a Question About this Product More... |