Diploma’s in the bag!

Yesterday I received the best possible birthday and Christmas present ever – news that I passed my CIPR research project with a merit – so I am now the proud owner of the CIPR Diploma in Public Relations. Two merits plus a distinction means I get a merit grade overall. Whoop! I would have been perfectly happy just passing the damn thing, so to get a merit is a super added bonus.

Since I embarked on my first tutorial back in January and until I handed in my research project at the end of October, this diploma has been a huge weight on my shoulders. Those of you who tune into Robyn’s Nest on a regular basis will know how miserable it made me. I am not an academic and my free time is precious, so this was a real struggle.

Anyway, it’s over and done with and more than likely worth it. I have the NCTJ qualifications I achieved 10 years ago – making me a certified hack – and now I have the CIPR qualifications to boot – making me a certified PR bod. Hoorah!

Here’s what I had to do to get there:

• Write two essays (known as the critical reasoning test or CRT). There were five questions to choose from, I think, and I had to write up essays in answer to two of them using 2,500 to 3,000 words for each. I plumped for:

Public relations is most likely to contribute to organisational effectiveness when the senior public relations manager is a member of the dominant coalition – where he or she is able to shape the organisation’s goals and to help determine which external publics are most stategic.” (Grunig, L. Grunig, J. and Dozier, 2006: 34). Write a report to the board of the organisation you work for, explaining why this is so.

And

There is an increasing number of individuals and organisations entering the “blogosphere” where reputations are played with by almost everyone, from anonymous mischief makers to the openly concerned. Your CEO has heard that her name has been mentioned in an anonymous blog and she wants to retaliate. Before you advise her as to what is best to do, write yourself a reflective paper about public relations and the “blogosphere”.

• Next up was the hideous planning assignment, a more practical approach to a PR crisis, using up to 6,000 words. This was the scenario my cohort had to deal with:

You are the Director of Public Relations and Fundraising for a leading charity devoted to research into the causes of heart disease. Approaching the end of a two-year planning period, you are one month away from the launch of a new campaign, entitled ‘Let’s Kill Heart Disease’. The campaign aim is to raise the equivalent of £3 million over the next two years for distribution to the charity’s medical research units throughout your country.

During your regular Monday morning staff update session, one of your junior press officers mentions that a friend of hers who works for a leading cereal manufacturer has mentioned that her company’s new Corporate Social Responsibility initiative is remarkably similar to your campaign. Entitled ‘Stop Heart Disease. Dead’, the company has set a fundraising target equivalent to £1 million over the next 12 months. The funds raised will be distributed among scientists from anywhere in the world submitting successful funding bids that involve research into the heart-health benefits of cereal. The company has significant backing from a range of existing celebrity endorsers, and will be using high-impact TV and billboard advertising to publicise its campaign.

You are due to present to your charity’s board of directors in two days time, where you will be required to provide: 1) A step-by-step plan to manage communication around this issue, providing a clear list of actions in order of priority and a summary of content for any written communication outputs. 2) A proposal to establish an issues management group, to monitor opportunities and threats, build and maintain the charity’s reputation in the longer term. 3) A rationale for each step of your approach.

• And last, but by no means least, was the research project or dissertation. We could choose a topic that interested us and conduct some research, and analyse it, using no more than 6,000 words. The title of my project was:

Beware the blogger? Should the public relations industry pay more attention to community journalism?

Some people were interested to see the results of my research, and I may well publish yet. Watch this space…

Study is over… for now

A huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders this week and life can return to normal, yay! Yesterday I sent off my final CIPR Diploma assignment – the research project - and, as long as Royal Mail delivers it today (deadline day), then I’m home dry. I have to pass the damn thing, obviously, but until I get my results in December I won’t have to think about studying, reading academic textbooks or writing challenging assignments.

Now the work is over, I can get on and enjoy myself. I can dip into crime novels at bedtime without feeling guilty that I should have my nose in Tench and Yeomans’ Exploring Public Relations; I can have dinner at a mate’s house without knowing I should be at home studying and I can have lie ins at the weekend instead of pulling myself out of bed at 8am to sit at my laptop for hours. And I can gt my head down and do a full day’s work knowing the only thing waiting for me at home is TV and dinner, not 6,000 words that need writing or 10 books that need reading.

The diploma has been tough, not just because I’m about as academic as a boiled egg, but because fitting in study around work commitments, sport commitments and a social life is seriously tricky. I didn’t do uni first time round, plumping for work experience over a degree, so this study business has been a tad on the foreign side for me. This pain has been shared with my fellow CIPR students though, and I hope we’ll be able to meet up and celebrate the end of this long year, without the threat of another looming assignment.

My research project – about PR, the blogosphere and reputation management was pretty interesting, all be it hard work, and I may well publish it, along with my survey results, if and when I pass. I’ll keep you posted. Obviously, my study journey may not be over yet; if I fail I’ll have to do some tweaking, but at least, for now, I can forget about it.

Good at bullshit?

While I’m plodding on with my final CIPR assignment – the research project – I received the results for my previous assignment this week – the planning one – and was totally dumbfounded.

I was convinced I’d failed it because I really had no idea what I was writing about, and, as the deadline drew nearer I realised I didn’t care and just wanted to shove the damn thing in an envelope, post it off and be done with it.

So, I was stunned into silence when I found out I passed with a distinction. I can draw only two conclusions from this: either I am very good at bullshit (perhaps why I became a journalist?) or the PR bods marking the assignment were high. Madness, total madness.

Anyhoo, it’s time to get cracking on my research project as time is fast running out and I’m starting to panic a wee bit. I booked eight days in Dubai at totally the wrong time and sporting commitments plus a mate’s wedding are seriously cutting into my study time.

Oh well, it’ll get done by the October 24 deadline and I have a real incentive to pass knowing that it’ll be the last assignment before I can put study behind me and get on with living and working on other personal projects of interest – I so wanna write a book.

Summer study

It’s been a while since I ranted about my CIPR Diploma, so here goes. We had tutorials on Friday AND Saturday (although I bunked off Saturday’s session in favour of lugging heavy boxes into my new flat) and, well, it looks like I can kiss goodbye to my summer.

It seems like only yesterday I handed in my two 3,000 word essays and already we are starting to workshop for our next mission – the planning assignment. To make matters worse we’ve also been asked to start thinking about topics for our third and final mission: the dissertation. And when am I supposed to enjoy the summer, see my friends, have a life?

I’m not a natural student and am finding the whole process a bit of an effort. Apart from the “Shell bingo” we play during every tutorial, what keeps me going are the interesting stories that my fellow students share in class. (I should point out that our two tutors used to work for Shell and therefore reference it at every opportunity, so one of my study buddies introduced us to Shell bingo. The record so far is 18 mentions in one tutorial.)

Anyway, yes, the stories. One lass works in the PR department of a county council where they are – amazingly – instructed to write no less that five press releases per week. Each! And I think there are five or more of them. How can there be that much to write about?!

Speaking as a journo, I find it ridiculous that press officers have to churn out press releases for the sake of it, serving only to make reporters’ eyes glaze over. This county council crew has to write monthly releases on how many books are borrowed across the county’s libraries too. Two words – who cares! Maybe an annual report on such figures would be of interest but what local newspaper will run a monthly installment on county book borrowing? Daft.

In Friday’s session we indulged in an informal chat with PR and issues management guru Roger Haywood, who, unlike a lot of PR bods, spoke enthusiastically in plain English and injected life and humour into his tales. Clearly a guy who knows his stuff.

That’s what interests me about the CIPR Diploma, not the theory behind public relations, not the long words and not the laborious assignments.  But at least all the other gals – and two token guys – in my cohort can share my pain. We all feel the same and look forward to an evening when we’re not expected to bury our heads in an academic textbook.

On another shared note we also find great hilarity in the poor communication skills of the CIPR and the London Met Uni, where we study. Kinda ironic, seeing as the diploma is based around communication and us students are supposed to be professional communicators.

So, when a feedback form from the CIPR came through today, a few of us swapped emails jesting that they wouldn’t like our feedback and it would be doubtful they’d want to include it in their promotional material. In true CIPR-style, half an hour later another email pops into my inbox stating that, actually, don’t bother filling out the online feedback form because it doesn’t work. Enough said.

Essay writing hell

Okay, so the hell has begun. My CIPR CRT (Critial Reasoning Test) questions were issued on Friday and I have less that one month to knock out two 3,000 words essays on public relations stuff. Shit!

Yes, I may have been appointed deputy editor of two newspapers when I was 21 and yes, I was in the editor’s chair aged 25. But, aged 28, I still remain as academic as a goldfish.

The practical stuff I can do. The theoretical concepts bullshit I cannot. The CIPR Diploma course has helped me a lot though – I can talk the lingo a bit better now and I’ve learned a lot about people’s experiences in PR, working in different environments and tackling different issues. But the theory stuff, looking at models and evaluating and critisising theorists is beyond me. And, quite frankly, incredibly boring.

So, I am giving up my spare time in April (within reason – my sporting activities will remain permanent diary entries) to research and write these damned essays. I know it will be worth it if (when??) I pass and I certainly don’t want to tackle it a second time. So it’s important. But it’s a case of the more I know I have to do something the less I want to do it.

Anyway, I’m gonna try and get my head down. Saturday was spent at a CIPR tutorial which was half helpful, half a waste of time – plus I got drenched walking to Euston choo choo station – and yesterday I almost sent myself to sleep reading The PR Handbook before pulling on my trainers and kicking some arse on the volleyball court.

A girl at work did the CIPR Diploma last year and it concerns me slightly that she took two weeks of annual leave to dedicate to her essays. I’m reluctant to give up my holiday entitlement for this academia and my work commitments won’t allow it. So, if by April 25 – when I aim to hand in my scribblings – I look like I haven’t slept for three weeks, it’ll be down to the stinky study. Wish me luck.

Wading through April

Today is the last day of March which means tomorrow will be April. No flies on me, eh! As much as I’m glad the clocks have gone forward and we’ll get lighter nights, I’m not looking foward to April; it’s gonna be a long month.

Why? Well, my dreaded CRT will be issued this Friday – the first essay/exam type thing as part of my CIPR Diploma and it means I need to pull my finger out and do some work. It means dedicating any free time I have to reading, studying, revising, researching - what ever you want to call it - so I actually know what I’m writing about.

This will be made increasingly difficult by the fact that three out of four Saturdays in April are taken up with work commitments. Well, the first one is my CIPR tutorial at the London Met Uni, then I have to interview some Naval pilots at a degree ceremony at The Barbican the following Saturday and then attend a degree ceremony in Torquay the Saturday after that. 

Add these work commitments and study/essay writing – I have less than a month to complete two essays and send them off - with the fact that I’ve launched my pre-summer fitness campaign and already I’m starting to loathe April.

If I want to look like a goddess on the beach this summer I need to start working on the old health and fitness routine now. I started this yesterday with a run (well, it was more like a long walk with a short run in the middle), a stint on the cross trainer and a few weights and sit-ups. I now have a huge blister on my heel and will no doubt hobble around the korfball court tonight.

So, April is gonna be a long month and one where fun things will have to take a backseat while I concentrate on work and study, with a bit of fitness in between. But it’s only one month and when May comes round it’ll be time to enjoy myself – or reward myself, even, for all my hard work.