Think of this course as the
chance to try your hand at writing for a particular organization
that interests you, or in a particular niche industry that
you’d like to learn more about. If you have no contacts
in that organization or industry, you’d be surprised
how many places are willing to take on an intern who is professional
and organized in his or her initial contacts with them.
Normally, the internship is unpaid. If you are working to
support yourself in your studies and this organization offers
you a paid internship, we can waiver the “unpaid”
status. Whether paid or unpaid, you may accept stipends to
offset expenses.
In some cases, the internship can be taken for 6 hours. If
the writing and editing is challenging enough that you will
learn a great deal from the experience, and if you will be
working 20 hours a week for one semester or 10 hours a week
for 2 semesters, the internship can be counted for 6 credits.
You must work out the details of such an internship at the
time you enroll in it with the course professor.
Once you have secured a site for your internship,
you will need to submit an Internship Proposal with the following
information:
A. Provide key information about the site
and nature of the internship, including kinds of writing and
editing that you will be doing, name, phone number, and contact
e-mail of the person directly supervising your internship,
and tentative schedule (days of the week and hours) for the
time you will spend on site.
B. Describe your previous writing and editing
experience, noting what you have done in different genres
(e.g. literary research papers, workplace memos, newspaper
articles, etc.). 1-3 paragraphs
C. State your self-identified strengths
and weaknesses in writing and editing. Some categories to
think about are the following:
- Mastering standard edited English conventions, including
grammar, editing, usage, etc.
- Mustering a successful voice or persona in one genre or
another
- Developing and implementing organizational skills, both
to support your writing processes and to structure your
finished written products
- Handling collaborative writing
D. State some plans you have for using this
internship to improve upon your weaknesses.
E. Provide an initial inventory of writing
in this workplace, to the best of your ability. Make a list
with short commentary on each kind of writing you see—from
sticky notes to annual reports. Note the forms of collaboration
(who is involved, and how?), scheduling (frequency and timing),
and where and how the writing and/or editing that you will
be doing fits into this overall scheme. As concerns the writing/editing
you will be doing, provide a detailed account, including how
much, in what form, and how often.
Once you have submitted the internship proposal,
you will be required to do the following:
1. Keep a weekly log (300-600 words per week) of your internship.
Each entry should summarize your writing/editing for the week,
note challenges you’ve faced and how you’ve handled
them, and note what you’ve learned.
2. Develop and maintain a portfolio of your writing and editing
during the internship. You will use this portfolio to discuss
your progress with the course professor in individual conferences;
it will also help you to compose your end-of-term report.
Your weekly log should be part of the portfolio.
3. Meet with the course professor at intervals (every 2-3
weeks) to assess progress. Conferences will last one half
hour.
4. Submit an end-of-term report and discuss it, along with
your portfolio, with the course professor, at your final scheduled
conference. The final report should summarize the internship
and highlight ways in which you have broadened your skills.
It should refer to specific projects that you see as most
important to your growth during the internship (roughly 1500
words).
5. Request that your supervisor at work send to the course
professor two concise assessments of your performance in the
internship. One will occur at mid-term: a summary of your
work and an evaluation of its quality (one or two pages).
The second will occur at the end of the term, after he or
she has consulted with you. This assessment should summarize
your work for the semester, identify your contribution to
the mission of the organization, and assess the quality of
your performance, noting specific strengths and areas for
improvement (two pages).
6. The course professor will base your grade for the internship
on the evaluations by the supervisor, the weekly log, the
discussions during conferences, the final report, and the
portfolio.
An internship can be a great way to begin your career as a
professional writer or editor! You get the chance to write
or edit under a supervisor in a workplace setting, all the
while reflecting on this work and analyzing is with your professor.
The portfolio you create—whether three dimensional or
online—can be a great boon to your career development.
Please contact Prof. Susan Lawrence for more info:
slawrenb@gmu.edu
Assistant Professor of English
MSN 3E4
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030
(703) 993-1088
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