Jour. 361: Summer syllabus

What to turn in | Grading policies | Expectations

4 credits
Department Supervisor: Sharon Friedman
610-758-4179 (W) 610-868-7692 (H) or smf6@lehigh.edu

This is a two- to four-credit practical experience course in the "real world" of journalism or public relations. For four credits, you must work at your internship site for 195 hours; for three credits you must work on-site for 147 hours; for two credits you must work on-site for 98 hours. In addition, you will be given credit for 13 hours for work on materials for me at home during the summer. Register for the Second Summer Session.

There are no books or exams for this course: just hard, steady work at your internship site, preparing for class, and some writing for me as you go along and at the end of the course. Since we cannot all meet for class because you are scattered around the country, you will have to check in with me twice by telephone during your internship. The first time period will be in mid-June (7:00 p.m.–9:30 p.m.) for those who started their internships in May, or at the end of June (7:00 p.m.–9:30 p.m.) for those who started in June. The second time period should be at the beginning of August. I will e-mail dates to remind you. My home phone is 610-868-7692.

On-site, there are no dress codes, but appropriate work dress is expected. Start out with good shoes, nice-looking shirts and slacks or skirts or casual dresses until you find out what is expected. Some places are far more casual than others. I don't think you will need suits unless there is a special presentation or occasion. Let your site supervisor guide you, so be sure to ask about appropriate dress. No jeans (especially torn ones), no shorts, tee shirts, sneakers--you get the idea.

You are expected to complete all work assigned to you by your site supervisor given his or her time designation. Don't be afraid to ask questions so you are sure about what you are supposed to accomplish and when it is due. Be sure to say you don't understand something when that is the case. You are there to learn, not provide perfect professional material. You can't learn unless you ask.

You probably will be asked to do some routine clerical tasks occasionally, but this should not happen very often. You are not there to be an office assistant or an errand person. If you think that too much of what you are doing is clerical, I need to know about this IMMEDIATELY. I will discuss the situation tactfully with your site supervisor. Most site supervisors know what they should be giving interns, but some are new and not sure. Your assignments should be related to journalism or public relations training activities. If you think you need something more challenging to do, talk to me first and then we will approach your site supervisor about the problem.

What to Turn In

Please email me (smf6@lehigh.edu) on June 30 what you think you deserve for your midterm grade, along with two or three sentences why you think you deserve this grade. Having your views helps me interpret whether you and your site supervisor are on the same wavelength regarding your performance. If this is not the case, I will call both of you and discuss the grading. Do the same thing on during the first week of August for your final grade.

You have three other major things that you will need to do for the Lehigh part of your internship. The written materials are due as soon as you finish your internship, but no later than the end of the first week of August. The sooner the better. If you are mailing me the materials, be sure to send them registered mail, so the package can be traced should it get lost. A better way would be to send it to the Journalism Office by Express Mail or Federal Express. Address it to Sharon Friedman, Department of Journalism & Communication, 33 Coppee Dr., Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA 18015. Phone-610-758-4179.

Here are some more details about the materials required.

1. You should keep a daily diary. In it, you should be recording what activities you did that day at the internship, your feelings about these activities, highlights, bad points and what you think you learned. Information from the diary will be the basis from which you will write your final paper. So be sure to jot down more, rather than less, information.

2. You also need to turn in copies of your three best-written pieces, both in original and final draft. This is a sticky point if you are at a radio, television or web internship where you are not writing articles. Those who have a problem fulfilling this requirement may give me other things you have developed such as interview questions, research activities, tapes of shows you have worked on, etc. You should talk with or e-mail me about this as soon as possible. When you turn such work in, you will have to indicate what you did in connection with these activities. If you can't come up with three "pieces" of some sort to turn in, your other option is to make your final paper longer (10 pages) and more detailed. However, you must provide some work you have done for my evaluation.

3. You need to write a final paper. It should be no less than 5 pages and no more than 10. It can be written either as an article for the Brown and White or as a report to prospective interns and me that describes your internship and your response to it. It should discuss seven points:

a. what you did,
b. what you learned,
c. the types of interactions you had with professionals on the job and how they treated you,
d. the good points of the internship,
e. the bad points of the internship,
f. whether you would recommend this particular internship to others, and
g. how you feel this internship will contribute to your career goals.

This paper should be well-written and interesting. Good grammar and perfect spelling are a must: the paper will be an important part of your grade. Be sure that your final paper is a publishable piece of work.

Grading Policies

Your site supervisor is responsible for 60 percent of your grade and I control the other 40 percent. Your site supervisor will be forwarding both a midterm and final evaluation of your work, which contains a letter grade recommendation and answers a number of questions concerning your work, behavior and appearance. Most of you got a sample of this evaluation form in the spring. He or she also will be asked to certify that you have completed the required number of hours. I will share specific information from these evaluations with you if allowed to by the site supervisor. If he or she asks me to keep the evaluation confidential, I will share general information with you. All of this will be done by e-mail. You should ask your site supervisor for critiques of your work each month, so that you know how well you are doing and what needs improvement.

Your site supervisor evaluates you at mid term and the end of semester. You will be rated as either excellent, very good, good, fair or poor on the following:

• writing skills
• speed of work
• accuracy
• capacity to accept and respond to criticism
• ability to develop ideas and produce work with limited supervision
• readiness to share ideas and work as a group member
• motivation to excel
• leadership potential (ability to make decisions; show mature judgment)
• personal appearance (appropriate dress, personal hygiene)
• student's overall work

My part of the grade will be based on the three major things you have turned in, whether you called me twice and if you sent in your views on your midterm and final grades. I also will look for inconsistencies in grading by site supervisors and correct them when necessary. Your final grade comes from me, not your site supervisor.

Expectations

Department interns usually have a great experience, but your experience will depend on YOU. You will get as much out of your internship as you are willing to put in. You should learn a great deal and enjoy yourself. This is a wonderful opportunity to learn more about career choices and to build your portfolio with clippings and other professional work that will enhance your resume when you go job-hunting in the future.

Please contact me if you encounter any problems or if you are unhappy about the way your internship is going. We can fix things if I know about them.

Good luck this summer and enjoy your experience!

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