Internships

Overview

Complete an ENGL4378 Internship to discover ways to apply learning. Internships require students to (1) work with an organization over the course of a semester, (2) write a research paper, (3) create a portfolio, and (4) submit materials to a faculty internship mentor.

Internships must involve workplace writing, design thinking, or other skills we emphasize in our degree programs. Create a new internship, or consider internship opportunities already established.

Requirements

1. Research Paper (30%): The internship requires a substantial research paper on a topic related to the internship work. Your mentor and workplace partner may require additional or alternative deliverables.
2. Blogfolio (60%): The blogfolio is a private blog shared to the internship supervisor. It should also serve as a place for you to collect documents that you developed as part of your internship, along with your descriptions and commentaries on your experiences and accomplishments.
3. Participation (10%): To be determined and specified through your Internship Agreement.

Your work supervisor does not assign the course grade (because that person is not a TTU faculty member in English), but that person may write an assessment of your performance and professionalism that the faculty member will consider in assigning the grade.

Options

Internships must involve workplace writing, design thinking, or other skills we emphasize in our degree programs. Create a new internship, or consider internship opportunities already established.

You may choose to find an internship in a city of your choice with a firm or type of organization that you might want to work for after graduating. Many companies offer internships. Some approaches:

• Contact companies on your own (search recruitment and personnel sections)
• Consult our STC Student Chapter's list of internship opportunities
• Internships by Chegg
• Disney College Program
• Search online job services, such as monster.com and ZipRecruiter
• Work with TTU Career Center

Further, our program partners with companies to offer internships. These internships require an application and review process. For details, contact the Director of Undergrad Studies. Some of our partners:

• Lubbock Farmer's Market
• TTU Teaching, Learning, & Professional Development Center, ePortfolio Initiative
• Coalition of Community Assistance Volunteers (Free Tax Service)
• TTU OnRamps Program

Get Started

Before the internship begins, you, your faculty advisor, and your workplace sponsor must agree to an Internship Agreement:

• Hours you will work (per week, beginning/ending dates)
• Whether and how much you will be paid (unpaid can be just as valuable)
• Your access to information: you may need to sign a non-discloser statement.
• Your argument for why this internship will help you learn about or gain experience in technical communication
• Who among the faculty will mentor you
• Who will supervise your internship work at the company, agency, or organization
• A schedule for meeting with your mentor. You and your faculty mentor will work out the details of meetings and deadlines. If your internship is local, your supervisor may require you to meet with him or her every week or two to review work assignments and progress. A long-distance internship may require correspondence by email or conversations through Skype.

The agreement can be a memo that the responsible parties sign and email the Director of Undergrad Studies.

Okay, let's get moving! Email the Director, who can help you with the memo.