Purpose

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Welcome to The Guide for HEPR Online Feature Writing! A subfield of public relations, higher education public relations takes a look at how colleges and universities connect and build relationships with their audiences. These audiences range from both internal stakeholders, such as students, faculty, and staff, to external audiences, such as parents, alumni, and most importantly, prospective students.

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In today's digital world, the best way to connect with an audience is through a website. A college's website is the main way for prospective students to learn about a college and make decisions about applying, but little research has been done on how colleges use their website to connect with them.

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This guide works to remedy this, providing instructions for how to write online feature stories to connect with prospective students. Feature stories differ from normal news stories in that they are promotional. Instead of simply being promotional, they use rhetoric and human interest to persuade the reader. In higher education, feature stories are used to persuade prospective students to apply.

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Using digital journalism concepts within the field of HEPR, this guide seeks to provide HEPR work studies with the tools and ideas they need to best engage prospective students.

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Who the Guide is For

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As a student work-study employed by your college's public relations office, you already have most of the tools you need to connect with prospective students. You're in a similar age group, you're a digital native that knows how to work the internet, you know a lot about your college, and you have a smartphone.

 

In case you've forgotten the versatility of your smartphone, you have the power to report, create, and distribute an online feature story right from your fingertips. You can write text, take videos, record videos, share the story, converse with others, and so much more without any professional equipment or experience.

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Writing online feature stories is also a great form of professional development. Whether you're a public relations major or not, the skills you'll learn from this guide will translate into any career.

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Framework

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Writing for the web, also known as digital journalism, requires an understanding of how to use the medium, though. Prospective students are an online audience who look for online content. To best instruct how to write HEPR feature stories, this guide uses the three main concepts of digital journalism: interactivity, hypertextuality, and multimediality.

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Interactivity is the idea that the author of an online article can communicate directly with their readers. In HEPR, you can converse and engage with prospective students directly through social media.

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Hypertextuality is the idea that every webpage is connected. This is important for getting prospective students information about your college, finding information for yourself, and enhancing the credibility of your school.

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Multimedia is the idea that online feature stories use more than text. They include pictures, videos, audio, and more. As a young, digital audience, multimedia elements are critical in capturing the attention of prospective students.

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Ready to get started?

 

Chapters can be read in any order, and we encourage you to start wherever you like. You can also read this example article to see all the lessons in practice or take our interactive quiz to test your knowledge.

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