Working for Academic Credit
An internship is an arrangement between the university and businesses in which enrolled ASU students can explore career opportunities, gain practical knowledge of the workplace, and enhance skills in writing, editing, research, and document production including desktop publishing and mass media writing and production. Internships for an English major may also cross over into areas of journalism, communications and technical editing and writing, and may be on- or off-campus. Internships may be offered by appropriate campus units, public agencies, nonprofit foundations, or private corporations.
Academic Requirements
Undergraduate students pursuing an internship should have an academic classification as a junior or senior and be in good academic standing with at least a "C" (2.50) GPA. Students seeking an internship must receive permission by submitting an application and obtaining appropriate departmental approval. The approval process is not complicated, but must be done prior to engaging in any actual internship work. Students will be asked to submit a position description of the duties required by the internship and to develop, in conjunction with the site supervisor and the intern coordinator, an intern contract that can be assessed and monitored during the internship period.
Students may engage in an internship either with or without earning academic credit. If a student wishes to earn credit for the internship, he or she must be enrolled in ENG 484 for undergraduates and ENG 584/784 or LIN 584 for graduate students. This course is a forum for exchanging insights and information between the student and the internship instructor. During the course of the semester several conferences will be arranged between the student and the Intern Instructor.
When the internship is finally completed, interns meet with the internship instructor for a final evaluation conference. After reviewing the job supervisor's evaluation and intern's self-evaluation, the internship instructor will submit a grade to appear on the student's transcript. Internships may be graded on a standard A-E scale, or may be taken as pass/fail.
Officially, internships may be considered complete when the contracted number of hours has been finished, even if interns have not completed all the tasks they intended. Interns may choose to continue working, of course, to meet obligations made to supervisors, even after semester deadlines and the internship instructor's final evaluation conference, but the university does not require this.
A Note to Employers
The faculty of the English department of Arizona State University invite you to join with us in a partnership which can be beneficial to you and your employees as well as to us and our students. By working with us to provide internship opportunities for our students, you will be serving the future. As students work for you, they benefit from real work experience, and you get some of your important work done by eager, well-trained writers. In addition, we invite you to offer encouragement to your current employees who may benefit professionally and personally from advanced training in written communication by earning a writing certificate from Arizona State University. Please contact our writing certificate director, undergraduate advisor, or any one of the writing faculty members listed on this Web page for more information about how you can become involved in this valuable partnership.
To discuss the possibilities of an English internship, see the English department writing internship coordinator.
Ruby Macksoud
Ruby.Macksoud@asu.edu
RBHL 129
480-965-7659