Guidelines for Internship Journals

Log of hours | Workplace Description | Detailed Description | Examples of Work Produced | Expectations

Your journals should contain the following content, and be submitted in a three-ring binder with dividers and labels to divide content, appendices, etc. where appropriate. Sheet protectors are also required.

Log of Hours

The log should be detailed with date and times, accurate to the half hour. You should cumulatively total these hours at the end. Be sure to update and total these hours for each successive log submission.

Example Log Format

• Date   2/1
• Times   11:00-4:00
• Hours   5 hrs
• Total To Date   5 hrs

Workplace Description

Environment and context: i.e. the location, purpose of the company, who you work for and with, what your job responsibilities are, etc. This should be a separate entry, approximately 1-2 pages in length, that should precede your description of activities.

Detailed Description

This should be a detailed narrative which explains your activities. Begin each daily entry with a date and times worked header. Describe in detail the projects you are responsible for, what tasks you have learned, calls you make, documents you write or contribute to, analyses you perform, how the job works, what problems you have encountered and solved etc. The more detail, the better. If, for example, you attend a meeting, describe the meeting, its purpose, outcome, your role (if any), etc. Describe the purpose, audience, and content of written projects such as news releases, correspondence and other collateral materials. As listed below, include copies of drafts and final versions of materials you produce. Be sure to focus always on analyzing what you are learning and how it may apply to your career goals. Here are some tips as you write your journal entries:

Focus on the process of doing work, don't just list what you did. In other words, don't just write "Today I wrote a news release." Explain to me the process of getting this job done.

Write about what you learned from the experiences. If you are covering a story about a new animal attraction at the San Antonio Zoo for KSAT-12, for example, you probably learned about news coverage and about that new animal. Tell me about it.

Write about what it's like to work there. You don't have to limit your comments to the task aspects of your internship, you can write about the social aspects too. Was today a really great day because your team or organization finished a project successfully? Or was today rotten because a client said your work was sub-par?

Examples of Work Produced

You will need to include drafts (and in some cases, final copies) of written and visual material you produce or contribute to. In your narrative (item 3), describe your contributions to the material. When you do, refer me to the appropriate appendix item (e.g.: "I began a draft of a press release about...(see item A1). When I finished, I gave it to my boss and she made some corrections (also on item A1). I re-wrote it and faxed the final copy to...(see item A2)." Label these carefully, according to version number, etc. and include in a separate appendix. When I say to include drafts, I mean versions which other have edited, along with their notes, etc. Do not include busy work: i.e. several copies of the same letter sent to different people.

Expectations for Journals

When I grade your journals, I expect you to write clearly and correctly. Some people are confused by the term "journal": to them it means something informal and personal, and therefore, not accountable to the rules of grammar and punctuation, etc. That is not true for these internship journals. Your grade will be affected by the quality of your writing. I will deduct points for errors in writing mechanics and failure to adhere to the guidelines below. On the other hand, your journals do not need to be written so formally that you can't express what these experiences mean to you. You can be less formal than an academic paper, but not as informal as your own personal diary.

TIP: Buy a notebook you can carry and in which you can maintain a current log of hours and activity description. Your ability to recollect 2 or more weeks of activities and their significance is limited and will surely result in a sketchy journal and a poor grade.

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