The purpose of this empirical study is to explore expectations of industry insiders and identify how student interns are performing in relation to those expectations as defined by 11 performance areas. The results of a survey of 238 industry supervisors were collected over a 5-year period in the departments of English and communication at a private university in the Northeast. While the results suggest that student interns tend to meet their supervisors’ expectations in many areas, performance categories such as initiative, writing skills, and oral communication skills require increased attention in the ways we prepare students for their internships and post-graduation employment and, perhaps, the ways we help onsite supervisors develop expectations for and evaluate our interns.
Allen, S., Mims, C., Roberts, S., Kim, B., & Ryu, J. ( 2006). Internship experience: Engaging in the big discourse . TechTrends, 48, 44-48.
2.
Anson, C.M., & Forsberg, L. ( 1990). Moving beyond the academic community: Transitional stages in professional writing. Written Communication, 7, 200-231.
3.
Bailey, T., Hughes, K., & Barr, T. ( 2000). Achieving scale and quality in school-to-work internships: Findings from two employer studies. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 22, 41-64.
4.
Barr, S. ( 2007, September 24). Bringing Generation Y into the fold. The Washington Post, p. D01.
5.
Bosley, D. ( 1988). Writing internships: Building bridges between academia and business. Journal of Business and Technical Communication , 2, 103-113.
6.
Bosley, D. ( 1995). Collaborative partnerships: Academia and industry working together. Technical Communication, 42, 611-619.
7.
Brady, A. ( 2007). What we teach and what they use: Teaching and learning in scientific and technical communication programs and beyond. Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 21, 37-67.
8.
Chapel, W.B. ( 1998). Advising graduate students for successful international internships. Business Communication Quarterly, 61, 92-102.
9.
Coon, A.C., & Scanlon, P.M. ( 1997). Does the curriculum fit the career? Some conclusions from a survey of graduates of a degree program in professional and technical communication. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication , 27, 391-399.
10.
Dias, P., Freedman, A., Medway, P., & Paré, A. (1999). Worlds apart: Acting and writing in academic and workplace contexts. Mahwah, NJ : Lawrence Erlbaum.
11.
Eyler, J. ( 1995). Graduates’ assessment of the impact of a full-time college internship on their personal and professional lives. College Student Journal, 29, 186-194.
12.
Feldman, D., Folks, W., & Turnley, W. ( 1999). Mentor-protégé diversity and its impact on international internship experiences. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 20, 597-611.
13.
Freedman, A., & Adam, C. ( 1996). Learning to write professionally: "Situated learning" and the transition from university to professional discourse. Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 10, 395-427.
14.
Gaitens, J. ( 2000). Lessons from the field: Socialization issues in writing and editing internships. Business Communication Quarterly , 63(1), 64-76.
15.
Gault, J. ( 2000). Undergraduate business internships and career success: Are they related? Journal of Marketing Education, 22, 45-53.
16.
Gloria, A.M., Castillo, L.G., Choi-Pearson, C.P., & Rangel, D.K. ( 1997). Competitive internship candidates: A national survey of internship training directors. The Counseling Psychologist , 25, 453-472.
17.
Gordon, D. ( 2002). Tracking internship outcomes through comparative quantitative assessment. Journal of Career Planning and Employment, 62, 28-32.
18.
Grabowsky, E., & Harden Fritz, J. (2007). The internship: Bridge between marketplace and liberal arts education. Catholic Education , 10, 436-448.
19.
Hayhoe, G.F. ( 1998). The academe-industry partnership: What’s in it for all of us? Technical Communication, 45, 19-20.
20.
Jayson, S. ( 2007, May 9). "Beta moms" drop the juggling act. USA Today, p. 1D.
21.
Knouse, S., Tanner, J., & Harris, E. ( 1999). The relation of college internships, college performance, and subsequent job opportunity. Journal of Employment Counseling , 36, 35-43.
22.
Little, S.B. ( 1993). The technical communication internship: An application of experiential learning theory. Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 7, 423-451.
23.
Rehling, L. ( 2000). Doing good while doing well: Service learning internships . Business Communication Quarterly, 63(1), 77-89.
24.
Roever, C. ( 2000). Mead Corporation’s creative approach to internships: Success in a unionized manufacturing plant. Business Communication Quarterly, 63(1), 90-100.
25.
Rothman, M. ( 2007). Business students’ evaluation of their internships . Psychological Reports, 101, 319-322.
26.
Spigelman, C., & Grobman, L. ( 2006). Why we chose rhetoric: Necessity, ethics, and the (re) making of a professional writing program. Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 20, 48-64.
27.
Steeves, H.L. ( 2006). Experiencing international communication: An internship program in Ghana, West Africa. Journalism and Mass Communication Educator, 60, 360-375.
28.
Tovey, J. ( 2001). Building connections between industry and university: Implementing an internship at a regional university. Technical Communication Quarterly, 10, 225-239.
29.
Worley, R.B. ( 2000). Internships in business communication. Business Communication Quarterly, 63(1), 62-63.
