Coursework
During my time at Auburn, I've taken many courses that have greatly contributed to my public relations knowledge. Listed below are some key courses that have been invaluable to my education and career ambition.
Public Speaking: this course focuses on oral communication theory and practice in a public speaking setting with an emphasis on content, organization, delivery and adaptation to the audience.
Persuasive Dicourse: students are taught to understand and analyze persuasive messages through theory and critical evaluation.
Newspaper Fundamentals: this course focuses on Associated Press Stylebook, word selection in newspaper writing and spelling.
Foundations of Public Relations: this course equips students with the history, communication skills, technologies and theories necessary for success in the public relations field.
Newswriting: this course focuses on newswriting techniques, with an emphasis on learning news values, recognizing parts of a story and writing stories that meet standards of accuracy, style, grammar, spelling, ethics and law.
Case Studies and Ethics in Public Relations: this course is an intensive investigation and analysis of public relations issues through case studies. Students examine problems faced by organizations and the possible solutions using public relations techniques.
Principles of Management: this course introduces students to the basics of business management, including a brief covering of human resources, good business practices and an overview of cultural differences in management practices.
Writing for Public Relations: students gain writing skills necessary for the practice of public relations. This class includes the compilation and presentation of a full media kit for a local business client, in addition to weekly writing assignments.
Survey Research Methods: this course explores basic research principles and survey research as it is used by public relations and mass media.
Style & Design in Public Relations Messages: this course provides an overview of software and social media, and explains how they are used to achieve public relations goals. Coursework includes writing one story per week feach for The Corner News and the Auburn Family website, crafting a personal website, image and publication production, and creating a flash version of my personal resume and portfolio.
Public Relations Campaigns: this course is the public relations major's capstone class that allows students to apply PR principles to a real-life situation. Students team up and take on a campaign for a local business client.
Feature Writing: this course teaches students the unique skills that seperate hard newswriting from soft newswriting. Students are challenged to go into the community and find unique people, places and events to spotlight in their stories.