MENTORING FEATURE STORY

The ability to write a feature story is a crucial skill to have as a public relations professional. The feature story I wrote began as an assignment for my public relations writing class. I chose the topic of mentoring because the BYU Chapter of PRSSA decided to have a focus on mentoring for their events in fall semester 2020. I have read lots of articles about the importance of mentoring, but I noticed a lack of stories about a PR professional who got to where they are in their career because of a mentor. This is what I decided to write my story about.

The first step of the project was to create a strategy brief. I determined the news values and plot archetype that would interest my target audience. Then I planned my primary and secondary messages, and found a PR professional who would be willing to be interviewed about their mentoring experiences. At this point, I pitched the story idea to PRSSA Progressions and it was approved.

I wrote the article following the feature story structure with a headline, lead, background, nutgraf, body, and wrap-up. After undergoing revisions with recommendations from Progressions and my professor, my feature story was published at Progressions. Read my feature story, How Mentor Guided GM Communications Coordinator to Dream Job, on the PRSSA Progressions blog.