Name: Luke Capizzo
Title: Communications Specialist
Website: twitter.com/capizzol, www.mcul.org
Location: Lansing, MI
Tell us about your educational/professional background.
I graduated from Michigan State University in ’07 with a dual B.A. in Political Theory and Constitutional Democracy (PTCD, that’s one) and Professional Writing (PW). I really enjoyed studying the leading writers in Western political thought, but I’m employed because of the writing skills, design processes, and use of the serial comma that I learned in Professional Writing. I spent a year at a small PR firm (with varying degrees of success) before taking my current job.
Tell us about your current job.
I’m a communications specialist with the Michigan Credit Union League (MCUL), the state trade association for credit unions. I’m in a department of four people that takes care of media relations, publications, multimedia, web writing (and a little bit of design), social media outreach, and member communications. I handle about half of the media relations load including writing press releases and op-eds, contacting reporters and pitching stories, and general strategizing for media outreach. We get to dabble in the political advocacy side of media communications as well, which I enjoy tremendously.
I also write for four different MCUL publications and am the editor/designer for one of them. We oversee the website content, so I get to do regular updates to the public affairs pages and work with other departments to improve the information architecture, usability, and writing in their areas as well. Our department does video work, generally for web use, so I get to write, shoot, and edit the occasional short video. My boss (the director of public affairs) is a former TV news guy, so I’ve learned a lot about basic video production from working with him. I also tweet occasionally on the company account.
What does a typical day look like for you?
It varies greatly, which is a real asset. In the middle of a major media campaign, I may do almost exclusively media work, including writing, calling reporters, and tracking stories, for the better part of a week. When the publication deadlines come up, I’m usually buried in Quark for a few days. Web updates happen daily, but the larger ongoing online construction projects are usually put aside when more pressing things come up.
Usually it’s some mix of the above tasks. If I’m on top of things, there isn’t usually much time pressure for any particular item. At the same time, it’s rare that I run out of things to do. I appreciate the variety and the time I have to play and create.
What kinds of documents do you produce?
Press releases, op-eds, a quarterly publication (for a fairly conservative member audience), as well as internal, informal plans. We tend not to have formal intra-office memos. Our communications staff constantly shifts between pieces written for members (with technical language, financial industry jargon, and pro-credit union slant) and the media (low industry knowledge, consumer focus, jargon free). Then we have to convince our bosses not to add in overly complex language and concepts to the media communications before they go out.
What communication skills are needed for your job?
Written, oral/aural, and visual design skills are all important, in generally equal parts. When dealing with reporters, you lose credibility quickly with misspellings, punctuation errors, and grammatical missteps — both in press releases and emails. You also have to be able to speak their language when calling and listen to gauge their interest in a story.
That said, those skills don’t matter if I can’t produce decent-looking, visual-rhetorically-sound press releases, publications, and web pages. I’m not a designer or a telemarketer, but I have to sound professional and create documents that look professional. The skills are different than those needed for writing, but the necessity of audience understanding is the same.
How did you prepare for your job?
Working for a PR firm gave me a firm grasp of AP style, working with reporters, and producing news-centered writing. For a PW grad, it’s the process of adding a very specialized audience to your repertoire. Never having worked for a news outlet of any sort, this was a big step for me. It’s not rocket science, but there is a lot of thought that goes into every lede and every pitch. It’s also done very badly by thousands of organizations every day, which makes it important to separate yourself from the inbox trash that reporters receive every day. Luckily, I’ve been able to conjure up design and publications writing skills from PW classes.
List three of your favorite professional resources/references/tools and tell us why they’re your favorite.
I use a number of different reference books to fulfill my style, grammar, and usage needs. I like having actual books because, after so much time staring at the screen, it feels good to turn pages.
AP Stylebook is the Bible. We generally try to stick to AP style for our publications (for our own sanity), but there are times when I turn to other books for specific publication-related questions. Chicago Manual of Style is comprehensive and often is able to offer two or three solutions for a given situation. I use A Writer’s Guidebook for answers to my grammar questions because its explanations make sense to me, for whatever reason.
These three are within reach at all times. Strunk & White is also on my shelf, mostly as a conversation piece.
How do you stay up to date in your field?
I have been somewhat involved with the local chapter of the Public Relations Society of America, and have been lobbying the boss for more funding to increase my participation.
I do read a number of PR-related blogs including The Bad Pitch Blog, which offers sobering tales of really poorly done PR, and the NY Times After Deadline grammar blog, which gives insight into both the pitfalls between a writer and clean, clear sentences, and the internal workings of a major newsroom. I also follow many PR and communications types on Twitter and benefit from the wisdom they share.
How would you define professional writing?
Professional writing is conscious communication. It’s writing a document and being able to make a supporting argument for every decision made in the process; it’s web design that satisfies the needs of three different audience groups; it’s a publication that gets its point across on different levels for different readers, both in terms of design and content.
Do you have any tips to share with other professional writers/editors/designers?
In my organization, one of my most important jobs is to be an evangelist for good writing. You do this by consistently writing well, but also by helping others to improve their writing and understand the goals of audience-focused communication. It is possible, though not always easy, to do this and still have friends at work.
The more we can share the importance and perspective necessary for better writing, the better our workplaces can communicate with each other and the less work we’ll have to do correcting everyone else’s stuff. The world is growing increasingly more complex, so people who can explain it and help others explain it grow more important every day.
Tags: communications, In the Workplace, public relations, Writing