Writing for Strategic Communication (COM223)

The ability to effectively and compellingly convey an organization’s key messages to its target audiences is a strategic communications function in today’s media- saturated world. COM223e Writing for Strategic Communication approaches writing as a strategic communications function and equips students with the vital writing skills needed to support an organization’s strategic communications objectives. These include speech writing, public relations writing (including writing for social media) and organizational writing. The course adopts an applied orientation designed to develop a student’s writing abilities as a current or aspiring communications professional. Self-directed online learning is complemented by face-to-face seminars where real-world examples and case studies provide the context for interactive discussion.

• Pre- to Post-Writing
• Discovering and Writing the Paragraph
• Traits of Effective Writing
• Improving Your Writing
• Rhetoric and Persuasion
• Writing Persuasively
• Writing News Releases
• Writing Media Invites/Pitches
• Organizing Your Speech
• Beginning and Ending the Speech
• Social Media for Corporate Communications
• Writing for Facebook and Twitter
• Fundamentals of Effective Organizational Writing
• Developing a Winning Workplace Writing Style
• Writing Good-News/Informative Messages
• Writing Bad-News Messages
• Writing Professional Reports
• Writing Letters and Memos/E-mails

• Describe the writing process
• Discuss traits of effective writing across an organisation’s strategic communication functions
• Apply effective writing techniques across an organisation’s strategic communication functions
• Write effective public speeches
• Develop key public relations documents including news releases, fact sheets, executive biographies and craft copy for an organisation’s social media
• Formulate writing strategies to embark on key types of organisational communication including letters, memos, and e-mails