COMM470, COMM490, & SD490: Internship

This page holds information about the requirements for the Communication Internship (COMM470 and COMM490) and the Social Documentation Internship (SD490). SD490 projects have the same general requirements as COMM470/490 projects but are a little more restricted because the client and project need to be focused on social documentation. SD490 students complete the same proposals, reports, worklogs, etc. as COMM470/490 students.

COMM470/490: You need to have a client or an employer. COMM470 and COMM490 internships can be in a wide range of areas. In some cases internships don't look like formal "jobs" and more like freelance consulting jobs. The work can be at a large or small company, a nonprofit, an government or community organization, or at an educational institution. It could be work for an individual who has hired you as a paid or unpaid consultant. This is pretty open to negotiation, but it should look like a work relationship.

For that reason, it's a good idea to avoid setting up an internship with someone you already know well in another capacity (family member, good friend, president of your sorority or fraternity). Part of the internship experience is learning how to work with clients and employers; pre-existing connections can muddy the waters.

The project needs to be somehow communication and/or media related. We try to be open about the range of jobs, but the internship should somehow related to the field: Web development, video and audio production, grant writing, publicity, all work. Operating a photocopier all semester or working as a lifeguard would be a stretch, but you're welcome to contact me to try to convince me otherwise.

The client needs to correspond with me during the semester. I will contact the client at the start of the semester to open a line of communication, letting them know the basic requirements of the internship. I'll ask them to fill out a short evaluation form every two weeks. At the end of the semester, I'll ask them to fill out a brief survey about your work.

The project should take around ten hours per week. This works out to approximately 150 hours for the full semester). You'll need to keep (and turn in) a basic work log that includes dates, times, and notes on your work. There's a link below to the Excel spreadsheet you need to use for your worklog.

You'll write five brief documents over the course of the internship (in addition to whatever work you do for the internship itself). These five documents are 20% of your course grade (the remaining 80% come from your work for your client).

1. A short memo that outlines the internship. Due Friday, 1/20. Tell me how the internship will satisfy the internship requirements outlined above, and a rough timeline for work. Include full contact info for your supervisor or client (name, company or organization name, job title, email, phone). Be sure to see these instructions on memo format [PDF].
   
   
2. A work log. Due every two weeks. Use this Excel document for your worklog. Rename it so the file has "worklog" and your name in it. Every two weeks, email a copy of your updated worklog to your supervisor and CC me on the email. Worklogs are due on these dates for Spring 2012:

• Friday, February 3
• Wednesday, February 15
• Friday, March 2
• March 16
• March 30
• April 13
• April 27
  
  

1. A brief "professional resources" report. Locate one by Friday, February 3; one-page overview due with midterm report (see below). You'll need to find and review a "trade journal" or professional web site that's related to the job you're doing (not your major necessarily, but the internship work). They key feature is that it is written by professionals in your field writing to each other. They are not simply composed of straightforward"How-To" articles (although they may have some) but also frequently contain meta-discussion: Dialogues about the direction the field is going (or should go), histories of the early profession, research about best practices, and more. For example, one online trade journal for web designers or interaction designers is A List Apart functions like a trade journal: it has articles about new approaches or technologies used by practitioners, overviews of learning theory, surveys about members of the profession, even a conference. There are similar resources for any profession: Without them, they wouldn't really be "professions."
   
   If you can't find a professional resource, describe what you're doing and where you've looked and I'll see if I can help you locate something.
   
   I'm not going to require you to spend a huge amount of time reading this material. I just want you to locate a professional resource like this and discuss it in your mid-term progress report (see the next item).
   
   
2. A mid-term progress report. Due Friday, March 9. This can be relatively short and informal (an email message will suffice) and should describe what work you've done so far, challenges you've faced (and how you responded to them), and any other information you think I should know. Due the Monday of the week before midterm grades are due. (I'll contact you during the fourth or fifth week of the semester to let you know the exact date.) The report should also include a brief (one-page) description of the professional resource/trade journal you found, including descriptions of some sample material.
   
   
3. A final report. Due Wednesday, May 2. The report should be a two- to four-page memo that overviews your internship experiences, reflects on how your coursework prepared (or didn't prepare) you for the internship, and identifies challenges you faced during the internship (and how you solved them—or didn't). Due by 4 pm of the Monday of Finals week.
   
   In the final report you must also include at least three samples of your work (be sure to discuss them briefly at the end of the memo). Exactly what you submit will depend on the internship you did. It could include URLs to Websites you designed, copies of scripts you wrote, a DVD-R of video you shot or edited. You don't need to include an extensive or exhaustive amount of work—just show me a range of some of the things you worked on.
   
   Finally, be sure to ask your supervisor to complete one final evaluation. Tell them they can also follow up via email or phone if they'd like to talk.