Environmental Science 101: Press Release 3 Writing Prompt
For this press release you will write as the public outreach coordinator of a Public Utility District (PUD) or Waste Management Facility/Program. The purpose of the press release is to inform the public that lives in the area that the PUD (energy production and/or distribution) or Waste Management program (water, garbage, sewer, recycling, compost etc) services about innovative programs or technologies that they offer or use. Your choice of topic will be partly determined by the PUD or Waste Management Program that you choose. The press release may discuss (but not limited to) the following topic examples:
The press release should inform the public about the following:
**The press release will be at a minimum 800 words in length (not including the heading, titles and your name).. The press release will paraphrase and/or summarize information from the sources used. You may also responsibly use direct quotes within reason. Please refer to owl purdue for guidelines on responsible use of quotes. The press release will use acceptable citation methods (i.e. APA, MLA etc).
Appropriate sources for this press release include: Scientific peer reviewed journal articles, government websites (examples: Bureau of Land Management, Department of Ecology, Department of Energy, etc), and the specific web page for the PUD or Waste Management Program.
Here are a few examples of PUDs and Waste Management Programs around the State of Washington:
Format of the Press Release:
o Paragraph 1: summarize the entire story.
o Describe the parts of the story from paragraph 1 in more details using facts. DO not include opinions. A few quotes are okay because press releases are fact driven. Quotes from the organizations or projects leader(s), experts, community leaders, etc. would be appropriate.
o Boilerplate: Standard language at the end of your release that summarizes your organization and reflects its values. This summary should only be a few sentences long, but will vary by organization.
You will signal the end of the release with ###