You must complete all major assignments to pass this course. Regardless of other graded work, failure to turn in all assignments on time will result in a failing grade. If you do not submit all materials for each project, you will not pass the class. I am particularly twitchy about work you do that involves your fellow students.

You should submit your work on time. Late work will only be accepted if you consult with me prior to the class period in which the work is due.

Contract Grading

In this class we will be using “contract grading.” For each assignment you’ll be given a list of quantitative requirements that you must meet to reach a specific number of points. In this particular class, that means that you choose the number of points you want.

GPA Percentage

Assignments

Note that these are just brief overviews—full‐length assignments and examples will be provided in class. All written assignments, with the exception of peer feedback, can be revised and resubmitted with revision cover letter that clearly outlines changes between drafts as well as strategic choices in drafting process within two weeks for a new grade.

• Total Course points: 800
  • Participation and Weekly Internship Log | 100 points
  • Strengths assessment and portfolio plan | 100 points
  • Host Organization Content Audit | 100 points
  • Career Report | 100 points
  • Provide Helpful Feedback | 300 points
  • Employer evaluation/hours | 100 points

Participation and weekly internship log | 100 points

This course requires active participation, including in-class discussions, reading, and group work. I occasionally collect in-­class in Moodle and count them toward your participation grade. In particular, students will develop questions to ground the week’s readings. In addition to developing questions for the class you will be asked to fill out a weekly internship log, sometimes, it can feel like we aren’t doing much at our internships. Every task you do, however, has the potential to contribute to the story of you and your profession but first we need to track what you do, no matter how small. Every week, make a record of your hours and the work that you do at your internship. Even if you don’t work that week it is important to log that you did not. This log is due Friday at 10:00 pm. You will receive credit for completed logs.

Strengths assessment and portfolio plan | 100 points

In addition to taking and turning in results from the StrengthsFinder 2.0 text, you will create a professional portfolio is an organized collection of relevant documents and artifacts that showcases your talents, most relevant skills, and charts your professional growth. A professional portfolio can be created and used for any discipline or profession (teaching, art, research, nursing, journalism, etc.) but they are key to educating employers as to who you are and what you can do beyond your degree and title. You will create a design specification for your portfolio.

Career report | 100 points

For this report, you will explore professional writing from a few vantage points. You will research what professional writing means (for instance, by interviewing working professionals and faculty) in your internship and career. You will also, most importantly, research what professional writers do, what they produce, and what tools they use to do their jobs. Once you have done your research, your report must have a core focus. Having done the research, you should be able to say that  “professional writing is…” or “professional writers are…” and then support that claim with quotes, examples, details, and description. Feel free to sub out “professional writers” for the position title you have at your internship i.e. “social media coordinators are,” or “science communication is,” would be a good way to start the the memo.

Content audit | 100 points

A content audit involves taking a look at all the content on your website and assessing its relative strengths and weaknesses in order to prioritize your future goal directed activities. It’s a qualitative assessment and evaluation based on the KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) that you select beforehand. As such, it should include a full inventory of all indexable content on a domain, which is then analyzed using performance metrics from a variety of sources to determine which content to keep as-is, which to improve, and which to remove or consolidate. You will provide one for your host organization.

Provide helpful feedback | 300 points

As part of your participation, you will share your writing and offer feedback to others that helps them improve their own thinking and their drafts. We’ll spend a good deal of time talking about how to improve in this area, as it is a key leadership skill needed to advance in any knowledge worker career paths.

Host organization evaluation/hours | 100 points

Your employer will evaluate your efforts and score them. Must complete and document 120 hours at organization.