By: Christina Garcia

Since starting at PTE, I have learned so much about working at a mixed marketing communications firm that I can’t comprehend everything that I needed to learn when I began this internship. I have learned about important writing styles and PTE preferences that have become habitual to me as well as important marketing concepts to understand when working at a communications firm.

Before I begin anything, I always set my margins to 1” and change my font to Century Gothic, which is the correct format for most documents we write at PTE. While this may not be the same at each firm, it is always important to know the company’s style to keep consistency and remember proper branding. I also have learned AP style, which the preferred writing style for public relations and journalism. AP style includes omitting the oxford comma, putting periods after a.m. and p.m. and not including ordinal numbers when listing dates. Although one may think these details are just minutiae, they can make a huge difference when submitting a news release to the media and getting media coverage. I am 100% in favor of the oxford comma (we have friendly in-office debates about this), so I have had to break out of my typical writing style to become a better writer.

In addition to breaking my habit of the oxford comma, I’ve also had to break my habit of always writing for advertising. As an advertising minor, I automatically gravitate toward trying to persuade or sell when I am writing documents. This has made writing for public relations a challenge for me. I have had to learn to adjust my word choices, consider my target audience and alter my writing style to remain informative when I am writing news releases.  So far, I have worked on many different PR projects, which has given me a tremendous amount of experience outside of my advertising studies.

I have had many experiences working on class projects create ads, copywriting and analyzing a brand or market, but that does not compare to the hands-on learning I have received at PTE. If there was any question in my mind if I could do marketing, PTE has taught me what I need to know to go into my career and be successful. If there was one tip I could pass on to future interns, it would be to always ask questions, but trust your instincts if you have a good idea.

I have learned so much at PTE and I am excited for these last few weeks to gain even more experience before my internship ends!