Internships: The Gateway Drug to a Hardcore Writing Career

Abstract

Internships add to the overall versatility of an English undergraduate degree and the career possibilities available to English majors. Delving into students' multiple capabilities and skills they build upon as they pursue the degree reveals how an English student prepares to enter the workplace and accomplish compelling, team-based writing projects through an internship. In examination of student expectations, the benefits that arise between schools, companies, and students, and the changing requirements for the degree, students develop a better understanding of the type of networking that help them pursue a career in a variety of avenues pertaining to their writing abilities. Although internships have their limitations involving pay and flexibility, overall, they offer students a different way of learning that challenges and complements the pedagogical platform of lecture and the academic practice of writing in the classroom. The internship enables students to apply skills drawn from the English undergraduate program to real-time projects and collaborate with like-minded, multicultural, and opinionated groups to further their skill set and understanding of the writing industry within a given framework that pertains to their specific interests. Students pursuing an undergraduate English degree who take advantage of as many internship opportunities as possible learn how to expand their experience, their versatility, and their marketability in the ever-competitive and expanding writing field.