Internship Report
Suggested Outline and Grading

Note:

The pupose for the Internship Report is multiple, in that it is expected to benefit you (especially in looking for a job), the University, and future students. Ultimately however, your report must be the product of discussions between you and your faculty advisor. The following suggestions are only that, suggestions.

Remember also in producing your report, you must consider both the ethical and legal implications of your writing. The most likely issue that will arise is the need to honor confidences. You must not include items in the document that will identify individuals or release company sensitive information. Please discuss the inclusion of specific projects with your On-Site Supervisor and your Faculty Supervisor.

Section I-Introduction.

1. Summary details. In this section of the report will be found, in order, the Title Page, the Table of Contents, a brief description of the host agency, a copy of your supervisor's evaluation, if available, and your summary of the internship (positive or negative and why).

Section II-Internship Experience

1. Describe your Host Agency. Provide information on the Host, the section you work in, including information on the name and job title of your On-Site Supervisor, the number of employees in the section, what they do, and who are the "customers" and "suppliers" of the section. Discuss the work schedule representative of the people in your section including information on the pace of work. If there were other interns at the Host Agency, indicate where they were from and what kind of interaction you had with them.
2. Job details. This section of the report presents a detailed description of the internship duties, work assignments, and projects completed. Include, as Figures or in Appendices, brief samples of projects worked on (e.g., research projects, studies, surveys, programming assignments, etc.) during the internship. The focus here is not on code, but approaches to assigned tasks.
3. In addition to the description of "what was done" (from the material above), you must demonstrate an understanding of the significance of the work. Why/how were these tasks important to the organization? What "motivated" the assignnments? Finally, (where appropriate) report on the "results" or the "success" of the efforts. For example, if a survey was done, how good was the questionaire, how was the data analyzed, what were the results (if the company allows this to be reported), what did the results contribute towards "solving" the problem.
4. Problem resolution. Discuss how you went about resolving problems you encountered during the internship. Issues might range from project based problems to interactions with other people. Consider the types of risks encountered from the possibilities of not being assigned a project or not completing a project to the failure of, say, mishandling or ignoring a condition which might lead to loss of money or injury to people or things. Discuss also any ethical issues which arose and how you handled them.

Section III-Computer Science Courses, Readings, and the Internship.

The information necessary to be productive on your internship comes from many sources, including experience, class room studies, and on-the-job training. This section of the report is designed to have you recognize the skills you have and how you got them and the skills you need to attain.

1. In this section of the report, you must discuss, in detail, what your courses and readings contributed to the intern work assignments. What principles, ideas, or elements of the courses or readings were helpful in the internship experience? Include reviews of books and periodical articles as appropriate.
2. If you were given any company training, it should be discussed here in relation to what you already knew and what extra the company provided.
3. Discuss knowledge or concepts that you did not learn from your courses or readings that would have been useful to you during the internship. Describe any such material that you think should be included in the Computer Science curriculum. In this connection, try to distinguish between topics that you think should have been included in courses you have actually taken and topics that you think may be covered in courses that you have not yet taken.

Section IV-The Internship and Career Goals

1. Appraise your internship in terms of meeting your career goals.
2. This section of the report should concern itself with information about your preparation for getting the internship.
   1. Advertising your availability. Include a copy of your resume in the Appendix. In looking for your internship explain where you sent/posted your resume. If you used the Career Planning and Placement Service at the University, explain how you signed up with them and how you placed your resume with them.
   2. Finding out about job openings. Explain all the sources you made use of to find out about internship job openings: professors, a web site, classified ads in the paper, friends, family, a headhunter service, etc. Where did you find out about the jobs for which you specifically interviewed?
   3. Landing your internship. Relate in this section how you contacted the host agency with whom you actually interned. Did you call them or did they call you? Di d you initially talk directly with an IS person or with a Human Relations or other non-IS person? Describe the interview and the visit to the site. What did you do well? What would you do differently if you had to do it over again?
3. What recommendations would you make to the host agency on the subject of interns? What recommendations would you make to fellow students about taking an internship?

Appendix

1. Daily Log. Keep a "diary." It need not be extensive, but make two or three sentences of commentary in the work log each day, describing generally what you did that day, problems you ran into, solutions that were worked out, etc. Remember that this log will be available to others, so be sensititive to the feelings of others and to the needs of the company not to release sensitive information.
2. Include here any figures, examples, etc.

Submission

When you are satisfied with your report, put it together into Microsoft Word format or HTML format. If you wish to add some special features such as: photos, screen clips, audio, links to the host agency or to sites related to the systems you worked on, that would be desirable. Send the files to the Internship Coordinator for inclusion in the departmental web site.

Grading Guidelines

This report will be graded on three criteria. The first criterion is the CONTENT. The report must fulfull the intent of the sections detailed above. Be sure that you have read and understand the requirements. If you have questions, talk with your Faculty Advisor. The second criterion is writing STYLE. The report must use proper spelling, grammar, sentence structure, and reference construction (MLA style is acceptable). The third criterion involves the PRESENTATION of the report. The document must be neat, any tables, diagrams, figures, or appendices well formatted, etc. The report you turn in should be a product that you would be able to show to a potential employer as a demonstration of the quality of your work.

NOTE: If the reader notes any significant grammar or spelling errors on more than two or three pages, the report will be returned for correction and revision without further evaluation.