Date Approved

6-24-1999

Embargo Period

7-21-2016

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.A. in Public Relations

Department

Public Relations & Advertising

College

Ric Edelman College of Communication & Creative Arts

Advisor

Bagin, Donald

Subject(s)

Public relations; Publicity

Disciplines

Public Relations and Advertising

Abstract

This thesis provides research findings on what design elements public relations professionals use to produce award-winning publications. Professionals in the workforce who use desktop publishing software to produce publications can use these findings as a reference guide. A survey was conducted of 15 public relations professionals who have won national awards for either their newsletters or brochures. These professionals belonged to one of the following public relations associations: the International Association of Business Communicators, the National School Public Relations Association or the Public Relations Society of America. Respondents were found to use serif typefaces for body copy, sans serif typefaces for headlines, and prefer using paragraph indents instead of flush left style. Respondents also preferred using photographs as copy-breaking devices. The majority of respondents prefer using two typefaces in a publication. Almost half of the respondents use three columns of type in a newsletter page to make it effective. No consensus appeared when respondents were asked how they use the last page of their newsletters. No consensus appeared when respondents were asked how they evaluate their publications.

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