Public Affairs |
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Learning, Qualifying for, and Practicing the Specialty
Thanks to Texas WIng Group III for the material on this page.
content credit to Capt. Arthur Woodgate, TXWG
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Public Affairs Officer - References Pamphlets
Regulations
Air Force Publications
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Public Affairs Officer - Developing Writing Skills Basics Use short words whenever possible, and avoid Latin-root words if you can. English sounds best Anglo-Saxon origin words are used. Avoid the passive voice. It is convoluted and sounds stilted. Whenever elegant, use the apostrophe-s possessive rather than the "of the" prepositional construction. Write clear sentences. If you must write a long sentence, follow it with a short one to relieve the monotony. Do not repeat a word in the same sentence. Better yet, do not repeat it in the same paragraph. Ideally, just don't repeat it. Repetition should be used only when there is a compelling reason to do so (as in this case), or when quoting someone else, such as, As Michael walked along the lake, he heard a splash. Immediately, "Help, help!," cried a voice, loudly and with a tinge of panic. As he scanned the water in the direction of the sound, he saw splashing about, some 300 feet from the shore. The victim seemed to be in distress. Michael was puzzled, since he couldn't see any vessel: where had he fallen from? When quoting, it is permissible to use the quoted person's own words, even if ungrammatical, within the boundaries of taste. But the sentence leading up to the quote, and whatever explanation or parenthetical comments follow are your own words and need to be in correct grammatical form. Keep your verbs in harmony. If you are not comfortable with complicated verb tenses, write the piece in the present tense or the simple past. Do not write an entire piece in the present participle; if you do, you'll probably lose your reader by the second paragraph. Avoid slang at all costs. What makes sense to you locally might have quite a different meaning elsewhere, at times objectionable. English derives its grammar from German, which in turn got it from Latin. This grammatical tradition gave us prepositions and rules for what must follow them. In general, prepositions must be followed by either a direct object (accusative) or indirect object (dative). A verb following the preposition "if" must be in the subjunctive mood. It is extremely common to hear or read, "If I am ready to go..." when that sentence fragment should read, "If I were ready to go..." (Remember "The Fiddler on the Roof," who sang, "If I were a rich man, ...") Writing for CAP There is no better training than hands-on, up-to-your-eyebrows commitment to an article. Do your best and send it to the Group PAO for editing. When you get it back, read it carefully and compare it with your original submission. Your Group PAO has published articles up to and including national magazines, so he must be doing something right. Writing Style Get a copy of The Associated Press Stylebook . It's more of a specialized dictionary than a book, but its aim is to codify how things are presented or said. Be warned: it falls off on military ranks, and things military in general, since it was written by civilians. It is a valuable resource book because most newspaper editors adhere to it, so if your piece is written in that style, it'll have a better chance. Download a copy of the Air University Style and Author Guide . There is much good advice here. Buy The Elements of Style , by Strunk & White. This short, wonderful little book will be useful to you for a lifetime. Get a good English Grammar book. Read it, study it, and practice it. Read for form as well as content. Writing is a craft: the more you practice it, the better it should get. However that won't work unless you have something to say. Here is a very short list of some of your Group PAO's favorite authors (and recommended works):
Drama Drama cannot exist unless there is at least the possibility of death. Neither can drama exist unless at least one person is at dire risk. In CAP, especially in emergency services and disaster relief, we face drama both as a phenomenon and a personal tragedy. Here are some examples:
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Public Affairs Officer - What Does a PAO Really Need to Know? Regulations There used to be a time, centuries ago, when there were no regulations. The rules were passed along orally, and the penalty for breaking them was usually harsh and permanent: many a head rolled away in the Middle Ages as a result of a minor infraction. The modern military, created by Napoleon Bonaparte who was the first to foster a meritocracy, was built on performance, intelligence, and rules. Thus the French military of his day had very few noblemen in positions of authority; he simply picked the best man for the job, then gave him a title to go with the position. To this day, the French look down their nose at "Napoleonic titles," which are held in the same contempt at our society regards "the new rich." But the idea of writing down the rules stuck. As did the system of meritocracy. As Civil Air Patrol members, we are bound by rules, called "regulations" the same as in the Air Force. Therefore, the PAO needs to know "the regs." Activities Since the PAO is his commander's advisor on matters of protocol, naturally he needs to know protocol, military courtesy, and how CAP works. Also, since the PAO writes about what CAP members do, he needs to know in more than passing detail the fundamentals of Emergency Services, Cadet Programs, and Aerospace Education. The ideal PAO is a qualified Mission Radio Operator, Mission Information Officer, Ground Team Member, and also holds a rating in some air crew specialty (Pilot, Observer, or Scanner). The well-rounded PAO is also familiar with Cadet Programs and has had some experience in a position of leadership working with cadets. Aerospace Education should be a PAO's avocation, perhaps even passion. Skills Obviously, writing is what we can always do, no matter what the circumstances. Even if we have no paper and pencil, we can tell the story to someone else, either over the phone or radio, or in person. A good writer organizes a story logically, kicks it off with a great "hook" for a leading paragraph, and develops it with a sensitive eye towards human interest -- while keeping in mind that Job #1 is to present CAP at its best, because each story is a chance to "win" the public. Stories are not complete unless images are produced. Therefore, a PAO needs to know how to take photographs. A news piece might be a natural for filming. Seeing the possibilities and luring the local TV crew to your site to tell it to the world is also part of the job. People Your job as a PAO always involves people. You write about people, interview people, get people to help you with leads, or by taking photos, or coordinating with the local media. When acting as a Mission Information Officer, you'll need speaking skills in order to address the media or be interviewed on camera. You need to take the CAP story out to the public in other ways, such as speaking at schools, service clubs, city councils, and so on. If you don't like people, you are in the wrong job. We write about people, for people, and with the help of people. This involvement can be harmonious or offer an opportunity for friction. For best results, offend no one, tell only the truth, admit mistakes readily and offer an apology, never promise what you cannot deliver, and never tell what you have been told not to tell. If you do all these, you'll be a happy PAO.
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Public Affairs Officer - Career Track Information References CAPP 201 - Specialty Track Study Guide - Public Affairs Officer is your guide for what you need to do in order to progress within the career track. The same as all other CAP career tracks, you first earn a "Technician" rating, then "Senior" and finally "Master." For promotion to Capt, you must have achieved a Technician rating in at least one career track. For promotion to Maj, you need a Senior rating in any career track. For promotion to Lt Col, you need a Master rating. Help Your best source of information for how to achieve your career goals is your squadron's Professional Development Officer. Much information is online, so you need to be comfortable accessing the Internet. Many required tests are found online as well. How To Do It Do not be deterred by the path placed before you. Take one thing at a time, learn what you need to know, and if you devote yourself to it, you'll get there.
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Public Affairs Officer - Developing Media Relations Local Media As a squadron PAO, your local media is invaluable to you. Make a date and meet the editor of each of your local papers, especially the weeklies. Find out what each editor wants, what focus they like, how they want you to give them the information ... then send it in as asked for. Dailies are time-conscious. Occasionally, a daily will take an article covering a two day old event, or even older, but that is a rarity. Generally, if it's over a day old, your chances of getting an article published in a daily are extremely slim. Weeklies are more flexible, and will publish an article covering a 4- or 5-day-old event. They might even have a "focus" section where they can take a "backgrounder" describing what your squadron does. In all cases, when you have a big event coming up, you'll be better off if you contact the editors and let them know about it, so they have the chance to send a reporter. All of the above is also applicable to TV stations, except that usually they'll only carry what they shoot themselves. Stock film won't make it to the air unless you've captured a disaster than no one else has. Should you be this lucky, your footage is likely to make it to national distribution. Byline Often, the newspapers will steal your byline and pretend that they wrote the piece themselves. Occasionally, they might give you a token credit reading, "Parts of this article were provided by XXX," where XXX is your name and rank. Never mind that, you got published. So keep feeding that editor. If you get well-known enough, eventually they'll keep your byline -- or not; many editors have big egos. Do not be upset by the above, nor "punish" the editor by not submitting other stories. Remember that our mission is to get the CAP story out, by hook or by crook. If the paper steals your byline, and the Group III PAO knows that you submitted the story because you passed the story through Group III for editing first, you'll get the credit in CAP's books. Heads Up When you have a good working relationship with an editor, and you have a nice event coming up, give that editor a heads up and offer the story before it's happened. Newspaper editors like to plan their issues, too -- a luxury they seldom enjoy.
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Public Affairs Officer - Article Submission Guidelines Here's a simple checklist for preparing and submitting articles.
As to the article itself, follow the guidelines in CAPP 190-1, Vol 1 and be sure not to save the best part of the story for the last paragraph. Newspapers often have limited space available, and if they need to cut down an article, they always trim off the bottom. Don't let your best statement wind up on the cutting-room floor.
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Public Affairs Officer - New CAPR 190-1 I am very pleased to inform you that the new CAPR 190-1, 4 Jun 07, is posted on the publications page on the CAP website. You can download the PDF file directly via this link: http://level2.cap.gov/documents/R190_001.pdf . This is an important new reg. The entire document has been rewritten, however many of the provisions will be familiar to PAOs. In my opinion, the most notable changes are that the regulation –
New ES Checklist Guide for IOs As a companion to the new 190-1, the Operations Directorate Emergency Services Checklist Guide for mission Information Officer (IO) has been revised. You can download this Word document at: http://www.cap.gov/documents/ES_Checklist_Guides.doc There are some important new provisions in this checklist as well (IO section: pages 6 & 7), including –
Please review these new documents carefully!
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Using the e-mail account where you want to receive the news, send a message to Majordomo@Lists.SemperVigilans.org and be sure to write one of the following lines as the first line of your message: subscribe cap-ae subscribe cap-cadet subscribe cap-comm subscribe cap-es subscribe cap-forum subscribe cap-pao subscribe cap-webmasters [The cap-forum list is moderated; the others are not.] You will receive an automatic reply message at the e-mail account you used, asking you to confirm your request in one of various ways. If you do not respond within 7 days, your subscription request will be ignored. After you confirm your request, you'll receive yet another automatic message with your account password at that site. If you ever want to be dropped from the mailings, you'll need this password. Make a hard copy, file it securely, and live happily thereafter .
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NOTE : Failure to provide the training certificate by 30 Sep 07 will preclude the officer from functioning as IO until the training is completed and the certificate is provided. The IC Level criteria are the minimum NIMS requirements. All IOs are encouraged to seek additional professional development opportunities, such as state emergency PIO training courses and exercise training outside of CAP to hone their skills. Online, available courses are:
The courses listed above may be found here... http://training.fema.gov/IS/NIMS.asp
The information on this page has been adapted from a message posted to the PAO Forum by Capt Steven Solomon, SER DPA.
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WEBmaster Maj Ira Rosenberg - web@aurorasquadron65.org Date page last updated - September 6, 2007 This is an official CAP Internet Operation conducted in accordance with CAPR 110-1. ©2006, Civil Air Patrol. All Rights Reserved. Images and text are authorized for reproduction by news media and all Civil Air Patrol units. LINKS OR REFERENCES TO INDIVIDUALS OR COMPANIES DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN ENDORSEMENT OF ANY INFORMATION, PRODUCT OR SERVICE YOU MAY RECEIVE FROM SUCH SOURCES About Us | Site Map |Contact Us | ©2006 Oregon Wing, Civil Air Patrol |
