Week 2 saw things in my new internship really take off. On Monday morning, my supervisor, Dr. Farless, sent me and my fellow intern, links to the Microsoft Teams we will be using to communicate. Originally, I had issues with this link, but it was quickly resolved once I communicated the issue. She also gave us instructions to view the papers and how they were marked up so that we could begin marking our own papers before our first zoom meeting next Tuesday. From this email, I gathered that this will be a very independent internship. We are all very busy people (Dr. Farless is still teaching this semester while working and guiding us through the process,) so we do not have the luxury of meeting often for guidance. As someone who has never formally edited papers before, I already understand this will be a steep learning curve for me. However, I look forward to challenge myself (and my googling skills) as I adapt and grow as an independent learner.
This week, we also arranged our first meeting. As I said before, we are all busy people, so this was a challenging process. While it was confusing at first, it proved to be a valuable lesson in communication. It reinforced how vital time management and scheduling is in a remote internship such as this one.
Dr. Farless assigned us papers to review and advised us the add markups to the new round of applicants. I did review a few past papers, but I have yet to actually mark up a paper. It is not due until Tuesday, but I recognize this action as a failure of time management in my own part. I mentioned in my introduction post that this is looking to be my busiest semester yet, and it is already proving to be true. My procrastination habit needs to be broken quickly if I am to succeed both in this internship and my other classes.
Speaking of my other classes, I already recognize how this internship and my professional writing course will overlap. While editing and professional writing are different in a multitude of ways, professional writing values accuracy in grammar and structure. This means my grammar is sure to improve, helping my editing. Furthermore, Professional writing also teaches communication skills in a professional environment. There is an emphasis on teamwork and tact which is sure to come in handy in a remote internship.
Overall, I would say this has been a successful week: I successfully communicated and solved a problem, I identified a challenge I will need to prepare for, and I have found ways to apply my current schoolwork to this internship. Next week, I am excited to have my first meeting with Dr. Farless and the other student intern on the Florida Conference of Historians team. I am also excited to get feedback on my mark ups and discover what other roles I will learn as an intern.
Comments