Public Relations Process Assignment
COM 459

Overview
Grad students, your assignment is to propose a local public relations campaign to promote one side of a social or environmental issue you feel strongly about. You may choose any established local, national or global organization as your "client."

General Requirements

• Proposal length: Your proposal should not exceed ten pages.
• Assumed budget and resources: Unless otherwise specified, assume you have an overall budget of $1000. Of course, proposals with smaller budgets or no budgetary needs at all are encouraged. You can assume that you have a team of four volunteers to help you and that each person is willing to work about 5-10 hours a week if necessary.
• Timeline: Your proposed campaign must be complete by May 16, 2008. (Your proposal is due at 3 p.m. on Thursday, May 6, 2008.)
• Writing style: Grammar, punctuation, spelling and style all count. Given the limitations in paper length, one of the keys to success will be strong, logical organization. Use of headings, subheadings and bulleted/numbered lists is encouraged. Clear, concise writing is essential. Perhaps your greatest challenge will be to integrate all you have learned so far this semester and choose the most important information to present in a concise format. Decide carefully which information is most important to build a compelling proposal.
• References: Your proposal must cite relevant, credible sources. Any system of citation is acceptable (APA, MLA, etc.) as long as you are consistent in style throughout the proposal. You must include at least seven references. Although you may cite several chapters from our text, the text only counts as one reference.
• Individual work: Please talk to me to get approval if you are planning to collaborate with others. Otherwise I will assume entirely individual work.

Sample Outline
Some variation on the basic four-step process (research, strategy, tactics, evaluation) is strongly recommended, Chapters 7-9 should be particularly helpful. I'm including a very general model with which you might want to start. Please adapt this for your own purposes.

1. Research
   1. Organization
      1. What’s known?
      2. What needs further research?
   2. Publics
      1. What’s known?
      2. What needs further research?
   3. Situation
      1. What’s known?
      2. What needs further research?
2. Strategy
   (You may need to assume certain research findings here, which is fine for this assignment as long as you identify what’s known and what’s assumed.)
   1. General strategy statement
   2. Goal 1
      1. Objective 1
      2. Objective 2
      3. Objective 3
   3. Goal 2
      1. Objective 1
      2. Objective 2
3. Tactics
   1. Tactic 1
      1. Description
      2. Justification
   2. Tactic 2
      1. Description
      2. Justification
   3. Tactic 3
      1. Description
      2. Justification
4. Schedule
5. Budget
6. Evaluation
   1. Evaluation technique 1
   2. Evaluation technique 2
7. Conclusion

COM 459 Syllabus
Process Assignment Rubric