Christopher Newport University • Department of English English 491 Professional Internship in Journalism Dr. Terry Lee ENGL 491. Internship in Writing (3-3-10) Prerequisite: English or Communication major, junior standing, at least one upper division writing course with a minimum grade of B, and consent of instructor. Fall and Spring. Part-time internship in journalism. See Dr. Terry Lee for availability and eligibility requirements for writing, reporting, and photojournalism internships at a newspaper. Prerequisites • Journalism course work, intensive experience working at the student newspaper for at least two semesters, permission of the instructor, and a professional recommendation from the instructor to the newspaper. Attendance • Be on time at the newspaper for which you are working • Contact Dr. Lee once a month, with an update on the internship Goals • To develop on-the-job experience at a professional newspaper • To be a reliable member of the newspaper staff • To develop or improve journalistic or business expertise during the internship Overview Serving in this internship is a privilege. While you are here to learn, you also are here to contribute a significant amount of quality work. You will need to put in at least 120 during the course of the semester, following the work schedule that you develop with your newspaper mentor/supervisor. At the newspaper, you will be assigned a mentor to be your supervisor. Work with him or her as you would any professional supervisor in a professional internship setting. Supervisors, in a professional setting, for instance, are in not required to work with student interns. It is your responsibility, then, to ensure that the internship experience will be a successful one, and it is your responsibility to drop the class by the withdrawal deadline if you believe you cannot thrive in the internship. You serve in the internship at the pleasure of your mentor/supervisor. Your mentor/supervisor does not supervise the three-credit course, however; the faculty advisor does. The mentor/supervisor is responsible for alerting the CNU faculty advisor of any problems in an intern's performance, such as missing work, missing deadlines, sloppy work or insubordination. That's as far as the Editor's responsibility goes concerning the three-credit course. Your mentor/supervisor will assign you a letter (or numerical) grade that will count for 60% of your final grade. Requirements • be reliable and on time • perform your assigned duties professionally; • work willingly under the direction of your mentor/supervisor; • be at work and fulfill your duties at the newspaper on time and in a professional manner; • fulfill your duties to meet the highest journalistic standards of accuracy, completeness, fairness, objectivity and ethics. • Read the newspaper at which you intern daily • Put in a minimum of 120 hours over the course of the internship. • Notify your faculty sponsor (Dr. Lee) when the internship concludes. If you need or desire more time to complete the internship, you must request an incomplete grade, which may or may not be granted. • A professionally prepared reflective essay (see below) • A professionally prepared hours log (see below) • At the conclusion of the internship, turn in the following: 1. The Reflective Essay A critically reflective essay that comments on and evaluates your experience, discussing what you offered the paper, what you learned, and so on. (1,250 words) 2. The Hours Log A well-kept, typed record of time put in, with brief descriptions for each week of work you did. For example, a week's entry might look like this: Feb. 2-9 Total of 11 hours reporting and writing two stories: I covered city council meeting and wrote a 300-word story on Feb. 4; I reported and wrote an enterprise feature on the shipyard. Spent three days in the shipbuilding welder's shop for a 1,500-word feature. Attended Thursday staff meeting. 3. The Portfolio A complete collection of your work organized neatly, with work trimmed / folded so that it fits neatly within the folder. The advisor will keep the folder. You may turn in original clippings or photocopies. 4. (In an e-mail or letter sent separately to Dr. Lee) Mentor/Supervisor's Written Evaluation Please have your supervisor write a paragraph describing your duties. In a second paragraph, have your supervisor evaluate your performance and give you a letter (or numerical) grade. The grade counts for 60% of your final course grade. Course Grade Your course grade will be based on the following: • Your mentor/supervisor's grade, which is worth 60% • A consistent record of turning in work on deadline. • A record of putting in the minimum hours per week (10) • The quality of work, as evidenced by work in your portfolio, work described in your Reflective Essay. Books & Readings You need to have the proper resources for reporting, photographing, editing, and so on. You may be asked by the advisor to buy a particular book. Generally, for reporting, the recommended text is Melvin Mencher's News Reporting & Writing (any edition); for layout and design, The Newspaper Designer's Handbook, Tim Harrower; for copyediting, Barbara Ellis's The Copy-Editing and Headline Handbook.