On Friday I went to my first day at my internship with the West Virginia University Press. This is a new path for me in regards to what I'm used to writing and working on. At the Press I'll be working primarily on their website, or reworking it, I should say. The site currently severely lacks flow and is has a very plain, unappealing design. It's very uninteresting and doesn't really draw the user in to further explore the page, much less accomplish the task of leading the user around the site. My job at the Press will be to enhance the usability, among other tasks I'm sure, but this is the main thing I'm going to be focusing on throughout the semester. As I said, this is a very new avenue for me. I've critiqued websites before in my comprehensive editing class and I've worked on websites in my technical writing class, so at least I've got a bit of experience I can apply to this new internship.
When I think about all of the classes I've had during my time as a Professional Writing and Editing minor one word comes to mind: Work. All of the classes I've taken have been challenging in their own way and have required me to do tons of work that at the time I found to be tedious. I also have to say I was a little peeved when I found out I had a capstone for this minor when many of my other friends' minors do not require any sort of final coursework. However, I am grateful for the time and effort I've had to put into this minor. This I feel has prepared me for the next level of my life, which is the stuff that happens after I graduate in May, I suppose. Either way, I'm looking forward to learning more about this field. I think that my previous classes have prepared me to do well on most of the assignments in this capstone, especially the writing assignments and this blog. I've got plenty of time to reflect on what I've learned each week and the writing exercises in general help me clear my head and put what is going on in the class or internship in perspective.
One thing I am worried about in this course is the amount of hours I have to be at my internship each week. I realize that 10 hours per week shouldn't really be a big deal, but it tends to stress me out just thinking about the task set in front of me. As I mentioned before, this internship is going to be a new adventure for me, so I'm pretty nervous about what Than (the guy in charge or us wee interns) is expecting of me. He seems nice enough, though, so that is at least a little comforting. Another reason I'm apprehensive about this internship is the fact that I already hold a very good job at The Daily Athenaeum as the administrative reporter. I'm currently covering the presidential search and the Board of Governors, which takes up a significant portion of my time already. I would hate to have to leave the DA, but if it comes down to it I will because, after all, I have to have this internship to graduate and I've done a large amount of work at the paper already. It might be time to move on, but I'm not ready yet, so I'm giving it a chance and seeing if I can handle both.
The Site is Up
16 years ago
Excellent work here, Amber. You provide lots of specific details and description here, and you also present analysis that explains how and why you're feeling the way you do at the beginning of this internship. I really appreciate your concern in terms of managing your time with this internship in relation to your job at the DA. That sounds like an excellent beat to have for the paper given the ongoing administrative searches at WVU. If you do feel that the workload between these two writing jobs becomes overwhelming, please let me know and we can meet to discuss some strategies for managing both types of work. I feel pretty certain, though, that you're going to be very happy with your experience working with Than -- he does a great job of giving interns valuable, substantive work and nicely negotiates the line between teaching you and giving you time and space to work (and learn) on projects yourself.
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