Part I

Identify a publication, company or organization for or about which you will create online content. This entity can be real or imagined, corporate or non-profit, local or national or international. Examples are: Outside Magazine, The New York Times (Liesure, Travel, Arts, Book Review sections only), Coin Collector’s Digest, Coca-Cola, Habitat for Humanity, International Association of Business Communicators, the Miami Dolphins.

The entity you choose should be a publication or organization with which you have or want to have some connection or affiliation, one with which you are already familiar. It can be the one for which you already work, or one for which you want to work in the future.

Prepare a two-page summary of the audience needs for the publication or organization for which you will be writing content. Do research. Your summary should include:

• Audience profile: Who will be reading the content?
• Purpose of publication: Is it for entertainment, for news, for both?
• Frequency of publication: Is it a monthly magazine or an hourly-updated blog?
• List of the competition: What are the other publications competing for the same audience.
• Style issues: Will you maintain the current style guide of the publication or organization, or is there need for a new one?
• Information challenges: What does the audience need to know, or what information does the organization need to broadcast? Do any special obstacles stand in the way of communicating that information quickly and clearly?
• Your response to the information challenges (How will you overcome any barriers and get your content out there?

Part II

What you write and develop is up to you, so you have the flexibility to do what makes sense and to write what can best serve you where they are now – school, on the job or on the job hunt.

Possibilities for this assignment include:

• A news story or series of news stories
• A feature story
• Criticism (such as restaurant review, play or movie review, book review)
• A press release
• A how-to feature

These are just a few of the possibilities. Keep your publication’s audience first and foremost in your mind. Identify the topic or angle of your proposed piece, making sure the topic is relevant and timely.

Create a content outline for the content you will create for your organization or publication. An outline looks like this:

1. Item one
   1.  sub item
   2. sub item
2. Item two
   1.  sub item
   2. sub item
3. Item three
   1.  sub item
   2. sub item

DO NOT write the article! That is an upcoming assignment.