The past week has brought more work! I have been working for a company called Choosy Kids. Trev, the man in charge, has given me a few tasks such as transcribing a tape of a focus group, editing some papers, researching materials, and writing a press release.
I have never transcribed anything before so that was a new experience. I had to stop-and-play that tape quite a few times. Then, I had to research some information and I had the hardest time finding anything. I am not a good "internet surfer" to begin with, but I searched a lot and still came up with nothing. I emailed professors from other schools that taught the subject and looked through numerous books and came up with nothing. I guess that happens sometimes. I felt bad telling Trev that I had no luck, but he understood.
Now I am working on a press release that will discuss the company and inform people what it is all about. I have never written a press release before and the research that I've done has been a little confusing. Everything I find online tells me that a press release is written to get journalists to write an article about your information. Then, I emailed my professional writing teacher from last semester and found that a press release is just to inform people of what a certain thing or event is about. I think I have a better hold on it now so I think I am ready to write it. I am going to interview Trev to get a few more details, but aside from that I think it will be okay.
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I think interviewing Trev would be a really good idea to get a better idea of what he expects from the press release. It's always good to ask question especially as interns since we're using this as a learning experience. I really admire that lengths you took to research the document for Trev, too. Emailing professors is a great way to get info; I'm just sorry that they weren't able to help out. But Trev is super nice and I'm sure he understood that you really put forth the effort! I am exciting that we're getting more work, too!!! It's really helping with my stress levels about our portfolio & poster project; I'm not in a big panic anymore about worrying if we're going to have enough material to showcase. - Erin
I'm not sure if it will help at all, but I read that you think that you aren't the "best web surfer." I have had to do quite a bit of "surfing" at my internship and I've found that using really basic keywords in google/yahoo searches leads to pages that are in the area of interest. Then, I usually browse the pages (even if they aren't exactly what I'm looking for) and try to find more keywords to use for searching. It takes a little time, but I've been able to find some pretty obscure topics by using this keyword-technique.
Casey makes a great suggestion here about strategies for locating a range of keywords you could use to refine and/or expand your search. I'd like to hear more specific details about the research topic you were pursuing and the research strategies you pursued (sites, search engines, keywords, etc.). I'd like to give you suggestions about other research strategies you might pursue (e.g., databases, print sources), and hearing more specific about the topics and strategies you were pursuing could help me in that regard.
Also, the two ideas you heard about the rhetorical purpose of press releases are not as far apart as you might think. Community members, businesses and interested community members certainly are a target audience for press releases, but so are journalists. Many professional writers compose press releases for journalists, who either reprint them in the newspaper or follow up on the press release and produce a longer article. Either way, the professional writer's main objective gets achieved--the word gets out!
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