Internships can be hard to come by, but some Ohio State students are on the inside track.
A minor in professional writing, offered by the College of Humanities and administered by the Center for the Study and Teaching of Writing, places students in a professional writing internship at a Columbus-area organization.
“The professional writing internship gives students real-world writing experience in their field. Students can be placed into businesses, government agencies or non-profit groups,” said Barbara Glass, senior lecturer for the College of Humanities.
The minor consists of 25 credit hours with a wide variety of classes. English 110 is the only prerequisite to enter the minor program.
A course from the 367-series and Humanities 450 are required for the minor itself. The internship counts for five credit hours, and the other 10 credits are chosen from a list of elective courses, Glass said.
“Last quarter, we had six students apply for the internship, and this quarter we have 14 applicants,” Glass said.
The minor is open to students in all undergraduate majors. The purpose of the internship is for students to gain hands-on writing experience in their respective fields and in a real job setting, Glass said.
“Accompanying the internship is a two-hour class that gives students in the program an opportunity to talk about their job and how it has shaped their writing,” Glass said. “After the internship, students should be able to say they had valuable training, real-world workplace writing and a resume-building experience.”
Internships this quarter are through the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, Aelita Software, Battelle, Alzheimer’s Associates of Ohio, Catholic Social Services and the Columbus Foundation.
“Interns are helping to write sections of annual reports, resource guides and newsletters. We even have a couple of interns who help their employers redesign their Web sites,” Glass said.
Justin Ward, a junior in English, is enrolled in the professional writing minor.
“I like this internship experience because I’m getting some real-world exposure and training before I graduate from college. I feel this will put me ahead of the game when I venture out into the job market,” Ward said. “I definitely recommend this minor to other students. Communication is getting more and more important out in the real world. Many people don’t learn the necessary skills to communicate well, and this minor teaches just that.”
The Center for the Study and Teaching of Writing is part of the College of Humanities and has a writing center open to all students.
“Students can come in to brainstorm ideas and have us look over drafts of their paper. We won’t edit your paper, but we will help you with grammar problems,” said Beverly Moss, associate professor for the College of Humanities.
The center is in a partnership with Central Ohio public schools that offers seminars to teachers.
“We give seminars to public school teachers on Saturday mornings, once a month. A class capacity is 24 teachers, and we currently have 104 teachers on the waiting list. This month’s seminar is on how to teach writing skills to special needs students,” Moss said.
