Independent Task 2 - LIA

Literal:
a) “I, Kaitlyn Bradshaw, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.”
b) I made the color-coded post its with labels and dates for each magazine deadline, and put together the template for the calendar for them to use as their visual for ed. cal. deadlines


Interpretive:
My product is being used by the entire office, and it has increased their efficiency in meeting deadlines, since they can visually see what they need to hit. I had to type, print, and cut labels with magazine names, date of release, and magazine theme, and had to put them on the color-coded post its, and helped with the template of the calendar.


Applied
It showed me that organization is an important part of PR, and it helps to have visuals to see deadlines, instead of having to search for them either online or in the giant binder they had been using. Simple tricks can drastically improve your productivity.

2-Hour Reflection

PART ONE: 2-Hour Presentation
P+/AE-
1) I made my time so I was proficient, but I went over the time required and I did it well, in my opinion. I put a lot into it, typed up worksheets, had everything timed well, and overall I think it went well.
2) The thing I am most proud of in my presentation is that people seemed to really understand what I was teaching, from what I saw in the activities.

PART TWO: Overall Senior Project Experience
1) I think I did well on my products and my independent components. What I made for the office is something that they use everyday, and they have all said that it has been extremely beneficial. I wish I had kept up on the blogs a little more, and I think that I could have done better on some individual components, like science fair and 20-minute presentation
2) My EQ is "What is most important to be successful in Public Relations?" and my best answer is to be persuasive in writing, speaking, and presenting.
3) My answers to my EQ changed during the iSearch, because I realized that they were too general. In having the advisory meetings for the two hours, it helped show me what they needed to be and what I was missing in my answers. I redid all of them, and narrowed them down more so that they were more specific to my topic.
4) The only thing I wish could change is to have more details in the beginning, because it was hard to do some of the things later on in the year with my topic being Public Relations. (Like the science fair.)
5) P or P-, because I did everything that was expected, but didn't do anything above and beyond.

Service Learning LIA

Total Hours: 67
Duties: I would help around the office, making copies, organizing things, helping interns with editorial calendar information, helping Alyssa find deadlines of magazines she wanted to find placements for, do research on past placements, help organize the ed. cal. binder

Alyssa King, Account Executive
(310)248-6158

The most important thing I gained from this experience was to see all the work they do that isn't glamorous, because anyone looking in at a PR specialist's job will only see the fun stuff, like the events they go to, the people they meet, the lunches they have with editors, etc. However, being there all day and doing all the sideline work of just doing chores showed me what it really is to work as a PR specialist, and now I have a real true picture of what I would be doing, should I choose to go into that field.

I got all of my EQ answers from the experiences I had with Alyssa; before working with her, I had no idea what the job really entailed. She is also the reason I chose being a persuasive writer/speaker/presenter as my best answer, because I got to see her in action in her job and I got to see exactly how she does things in order to be successful.

Alyssa King, Account Executive

(310)248-6158

2 Hour Lesson Plan (Rough Draft)

• Sponge Activity: Have posters of people that have had accomplished amazing things in PR hanging around the room, then ask if anyone knows who they are. (they won't, because PR people are never put in the spotlight, which will emphasize my later explanation about how PR people are the ones that come in and fix everything but never get the credit for it)
• Intro: 
• EQ: What is most important to be successful in Public Relations?
• Important: most crucial, needed, or necessary. Successful: Always completing the job efficiently and making the client the most satisfied they can be.
• I chose my topic because it seemed really interesting, and like something I might enjoy doing in the future as a career. It also helped that I had all of my interviews, service learning, and other things already set up for me, because it made it easy to fulfill the requirements of the project.
• Plan for the day: Say foundation and body (specified below); go over the first answer, which will be the most important answer; do activity that relates to my answer; go over the second answer; do second activity; go over third answer; do third activity; conclude presentation; ask for questions

• Foundation: Go over the differences between advertising and public relations to give the students basic knowledge of my topic, because the distinction must be made before the presentation to avoid confusion later.
• Body:
• Answer 1: Being a persuasive writer/speaker/presenter
• Activity 1: Give them examples of persuasive and non-persuasive writing styles or pitches, then have them identify what words make it persuasive; give them clippings of a press release and have them organize it so that it makes sense, see which groups get it closest to being correct
• Answer 2: Know how to target demographics
• Activity 2: Give each group pictures of products (15 pictures?) and give them different possible demographics, and have them place the product with the demographic they believe it would best sell to, and see which group gets the most right
• Answer 3: Be able to identify variables
• Give each group a paper with a company history on it, and have each group read the history and write down the possible problems a PR representative might come across if they were to promote that company, and write down the things the PR representative could emphasize to make the company look better.
• Conclusion:
• My best answer is to be a persuasive writer/speaker/presenter, because without this skill you will not make it into public relations at all, because to even get a job at a PR firm you have to be able to pitch yourself to the interviewer, and convince them you would be a good addition to their firm. Once you do get a job, you have to use this in any project you work on in PR, whether it's pitching a story to an editor for their publication, writing a press release, or pitching an interview to a producer.
• My 3 most important sources would be 1) Alyssa King, my service learning expert, because I learned more things from following her during a normal work day and seeing first-hand what she does throughout the day, and getting examples of how to cold-call and pitch stories to people. 2) My second important source would be the LG National Texting Championship, because since I got to go to the interviews and stuff I got to see how they interact with producers and editors, and I got to see what it takes to set up the interviews, and I got a first-hand experience of all the behind-the-scenes background work that people don't usually realize goes into making appearances and getting publicity for a company. 3) My third important source would be the database I found, aboutpublicrelations.net, because it gave me a lot of articles that proved to be extremely important in gaining knowledge about my topic. I learned really important information, and these articles helped me to be able to support my answers to my EQ.
• My product would be the visual representation of the editorial calendars that I made for Ogilvy, because I came up with the idea on my own, and they have used the calendar I made for them a lot in the office, and it is used by the whole office. Before my visuals, they had to flip through a giant binder to find the deadlines of different magazines, but with the big weekly calendar and the post-its that work with the system I came up with, all they have to do is look at it and know when the next deadline is coming up. They said it has proved to be extremely useful, so I am pretty proud of that.