The Importance of Writing Skills

Public relations professionals have long lamented the writing skills of young people seeking their first job. When I practiced public relations before moving to academe, there's one sentence I wish I could have said more often: "That kid's writing skills are outstanding." Unfortunately, I didn't utter that sentence often.

Since I became an educator, I have stressed the importance of quality writing skills. I have also tried to keep abreast of the expectations of employers, including public relations agencies. Agencies, after all, serve as an important source of first employment for public relations program graduates. This study investigated the opinions of public relations agency personnel concerning the writing skills of entry-level practitioners.

There is no doubt writing is an essential public relations skill. The Report of the Commission on Public Relations Education (1999) listed "informative and persuasive writing" among the skills necessary to enter the field (p. 4). The Commission listed a "public relations writing and production" course as one of the courses in an ideal public relations program (p. 4), and the use of public relations writing textbooks (Bivins, 2005; Newsom & Haynes, 2005; Treadwell & Treadwell, 2004; Wilcox, 2005) is common. Few would disagree with the following assessment offered by Tench (2003a): "Writing is one of the foundations of a successful public relations practitioner and the ability to communicate messages clearly and concisely is one of their differentiating skills" (p. 139).

Writing-related issues investigated by researchers include the content of public relations writing courses (King, 2001; Schlagheck & Hendrix, 1996), the use of technology (Curtin & Witherspoon, 1999), students' perceptions of their own writing skills and writing courses (Sailor & Lyon, 2003; Tench, 2001), and ideological and political issues that influence the debate over writing skills (Tench, 2003b). In addition to scholarly research, writingrelated matters are frequently discussed in the public relations trade press (Crawford, 2004; Hulin, 2004; Lissauer, 2003; Schellhardt, 2005; Stewart, 2004).

The complaints of practitioners about the quality of writing produced by public relations students and entry-level graduates are well documented (Alexander, 1995; Guiniven, 1998; Haberstroh, 1995). As noted by Napoli, Taylor, and Powers (1999), regular practitioner assessments of the writing abilities of public relations students and/or recent graduates are necessary to make certain writing curricula reflect the realities of...