Internship Paper Guidelines

Here are some guidelines for what to include in your 8 to 10 page (12 point type) internship paper. Not all of these suggestions will be relevant to your internship experience. Please include other topics that you believe are important. Keep a copy of your paper, since the internship paper is not usually returned.

  1. Relate your internship experience to any courses or course content in communication. Show the connection between what you learned in the classroom and what you encountered on the job.
  2. Discuss and describe what you learned about the process of communication in the professional setting of your internship.
  3. Discuss and describe any new communication skills that you learned and practiced during your internship.
  4. Review what was most challenging about your internship and how you dealt with that challenge.
  5. Discuss what you liked and/or did not like about your internship. How could the experience be improved? What was particularly valuable and why was it valuable?
  6. Discuss what you learned about the work environment and how to manage other people by observing your manager's).
  7. Discuss any specific projects that you undertook during your internship.
  8. Reflect on the value of the internship experience both now and in the future.
  9. Discuss the people that you worked with at your internship and what you learned from them.

The paper should have an introduction and a conclusion. You may use topic headings to divide the paper into sections. The paper could be organized around topics or chronologically. You should attach samples of your work when possible, although these do not "count” as part of the 8-10 page requirement.

Benefits of an Internship Paper

  1. Your internship paper will help you put your experiences into perspective. It will provide an organized recorded of what happened during your internship.
  2. The internship paper helps the Department of Communication evaluate internship locations.
  3. The internship paper is a permanent record of your time at the internship location. Keep a copy for your own records. In a few years, you might find it an interesting read.