Journal Writing

Keeping a journal is usually required by your faculty advisor to receive academic credit. As such, you should find out when the journal must be turned in to your faculty advisor. However, it is the suggestion of Career Services that all interns maintain a daily journal whether or not it is required. If your faculty director requires a journal, then the following suggestions might be helpful:

1. Do NOT write in your journal during working hours. If necessary, make a list of activities or key words during the day to prompt your memory after work.

2. Be sure that your journal is legible. You will not receive academic credit if your faculty director cannot read about the internship.

3. Your journal entries should be more than a laundry list or log of assignments or projects. Although it is necessary to indicate exactly what you are involved in, the purpose of the journal is to gauge your reactions and learning. As such, ask yourself:

Did I describe the assignment, observation, and experience?
What did I learn from this assignment or from observing this meeting?
How does my course work relate to this assignment?
Do I enjoy what I am doing?
Would I like to do these things as a career?

4.  Remember: an overarching goal of the journal is to help you to wade through the experience to determine what you actually liked and didn't like, what you'd like to get more of and less of, and even to contemplate fully on what types of people you like and don't like working with. The exercise of maintaining a journal truly can be a help to you.