Creating Texts Pro Bono: Key Words at Work Within Project Three

For our third project in Writing and Editing in Print and Online, we were tasked with developing our professional experience by working with a local organization. To begin, my group and I chose to work with a Tallahassee-based firm as we all wish to pursue careers in the legal field post-graduation. After reaching out to several law firms, we came in contact with an attorney named Halley M. Stephens who practices civil litigation. Ms. Stephens recently opened her own practice and was in desperate need of a public relations team to help Stephens Law LLC reach a greater audience.

Following this, we chose several artifacts that we believed to be strong indicators of successful campaigning- flyers, business cards, and stickers- and brought them along with us to our meeting with Ms. Stephens. After speaking with her, we learned that she was in need of a social media boost, which we later incorporated into the final artifacts that we chose to distribute- three flyers, a twitter profile, and a LinkedIn profile. In doing so, my group and I learned to cold call and to work with new software and websites that we had yet to utilize before.

After watching the rest of my peers present their own takes on project three, I found that most projects utilized the key terms circulation, design, and network. Much like our own project, social media sites like Instagram and Twitter were created in order to network for their respective organizations. In addition to this, most groups made flyers that they distributed either in person or digitally in order to spread the word about their organizations- in doing this, we can see the keywords design and circulation at work here.

In observing these groups, I watched as they worked through their constraints- specifically, I learned that composing relies heavily on edits, which are not always made by the creator, but the client as well. Aside from the technicalities, I also learned of new organizations that I knew nothing of prior to this project, and though that was not the intent, my interest has been peaked in several non-profits. From this presentation, I would mirror their efforts to create a social media page to post the other materials that I created. In the future, I hope to encourage the members of my groups to work as efficiently as my peers did throughout project three.