COMM 489: Internship in Communication
Spring 2016
DR. JENNIFER MIZE SMITH
Office:
E-Mail:
102 Fine Arts Center
jennifer.mize.smith@wku.edu
Phone:
270-745-5147
Office Hours: M/W 1:00 – 3:00 pm
And by appointment
Course Description
The Department of Communication offers students the opportunity to earn college credit
while gaining valuable work experience. The internship course COMM 489 is a
supervised internship in a professional position with a designated organization. The
internship should provide students with responsibilities and experiences similar to those
that are expected in a first job after college graduation. Experiential learning outside of
the classroom provides numerous benefits, including the ability to:
 Explore a particular career field
 Gain experience in a professional organizational environment
 Improve your communication skills and knowledge
 Apply principles and theories to real-life work situations
 Meet and network with working professionals, and
 Enhance your personal growth.
Prerequisites
To be eligible for the Communication Internship Program, students must have:
 Attained Junior or Senior class standing
 Declared a major/minor in Corporate and Organizational Communication and/or
Communication Studies
 Completed COMM 200 Communication Foundations and COMM 362
Organizational Communication, and
 Completed or be enrolled in COMM 300 Introduction to Communication
Research Methods.
Internship Standards *
The Department of Communication Internship Program defines an internship
experience as one that meets the following criteria:
 The student works a minimum of 200 hours
 The student assists in and/or performs the majority of work in a professional
setting (not remotely or in a home office setting)
 The main purpose of the work is both educational AND contributing to
organizational goals, thus benefiting both the student AND the organization
 The student engages in meaningful communication-related activities in which
s/he contributes to organizational processes and outcomes
Dr. Mize Smith – Spring 2016
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The student’s position is a temporary placement or entails new responsibilities
(i.e., it is not the student’s regular job
The student reports to site supervisor (may not report directly to a close relative,
such as a mother/father, brother/sister, aunt/uncle, or grandparent)
The student may or may not receive a salary or other compensation
The student completes all COMM 489 course requirements in a timely manner,
including the submission of periodic reports in which s/he analyzes, reflects on,
and makes sense of his/her work experiences.
Employer Commitment*
To ensure a successful internship experience, the host organization and site supervisor
should make the following commitments:
 Offer a professional work environment in which the intern can participate and
interact with other organizational members
 Offer opportunities for the intern to engage in substantive work that contributes to
organizational goals
 Provide the appropriate workspace, tools, and any other resources necessary for
the intern to complete assigned tasks
 Provide direct supervision and offer regular feedback to help the intern
understand expectations and make improvements
 Formally evaluate the intern’s performance by completing the midterm and final
evaluation forms (both provided by the intern), and
 Carry business and liability insurance that covers student interns while working
both on organizational premises and off-site on behalf of the host organization.
Application Process
To apply for acceptance to the Communication Internship Program, students must
complete and submit the following materials to the Director of Internships:
 The Internship Application
 The Employer Learning Contract (signed by your internship supervisor), and
 An unofficial copy of your WKU transcript.
All internships are subject to approval by the Director of Internships. Upon approval,
you will be advised on how to register for COMM 489.
Teacher Communication
The best way to contact me is via email (rather than phone). Be sure to include the two
dots in my email address – jennifer.mize.smith@wku.edu. I will make every effort to
respond to your email in a timely manner. However, email may not be checked after 5
pm each day, so plan accordingly.
Dr. Mize Smith – Spring 2016
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Written Assignment Guidelines
All assignments are available on the COMM 489 Blackboard site. All assignments must
be typewritten and submitted on Blackboard through Safe Assign, a plagiarism
detection software.
Written work should be in a standard Microsoft Word format including 12 point font,
double spacing, and 1 inch margins. In the case of multiple pages, the paper must
include a footer located in the bottom right corner with a page number and your name
on every page. Written assignments must adhere to APA style guidelines. For help
with APA style, see online sources such as http://owl.english.purdue.edu. Effective
organization and correct citations of sources are also expected. Errors in APA, as well
as spelling and grammar, will result in point deductions.
Course Assignments
 Online Discussion Board
Purpose: To allow you to interact with other student interns
Periodically, you will be asked to contribute to a discussion board on Blackboard
in which you can share your experiences (the good and the bad) with other
students who are also doing an internship. There are no right or wrong answers.
You are expected to give open, honest, and respectful opinions in hopes that you
all can empathize with and learn from one another’s successes, challenges,
strategies, and mistakes.
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Four-Week Time Reports
Purpose: To document your weekly time schedule and hours worked
At the end of each four-week period, you should complete a Four-Week Time
Report that records your hours worked.
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Journal Entries
Purpose: To guide you in applying your coursework to your internship
experiences
At the end of each work week, you will be asked to reflect on and make sense of
your internship experiences. Questions will guide you to apply particular
organizational communication theories and concepts, which you should recall
from you classes, primarily COMM 200 and COMM 362.
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Midterm Evaluation
Purpose: To allow you to provide confidential feedback about your experiences,
roles, and expectations
Approximately half way through your internship (see schedule for specific
deadline), you should complete and submit the Midterm Evaluation (posted and
submitted on Blackboard).
Dr. Mize Smith – Spring 2016
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Supervisor’s Midterm Evaluation
Purpose: To allow your supervisor to provide feedback about your performance
and any areas of needed improvement
Approximately half way through your internship (see schedule for specific
deadline), ask your site supervisor to complete the Supervisor’s Midterm
Evaluation (posted on Blackboard). S/he may or may not choose to discuss the
evaluation with you. Instructions for returning the form are located at the bottom
of the form.
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Final Evaluation
Purpose: To allow you to provide confidential feedback about your experiences
and any suggestions for the communication internship program
Near the completion of your internship (see schedule for specific deadline), you
should complete and submit the Final Evaluation (posted and submitted on
Blackboard).

Supervisor’s Final Evaluation
Purpose: To allow your supervisor to provide final feedback about your
performance and any suggestions for the communication internship program
Near the completion of your internship (see schedule for specific deadline), ask
your site supervisor to complete the Supervisor’s Final Evaluation (posted on
Blackboard). S/he may or may not choose to discuss the evaluation with you.
Instructions for returning the form are located at the bottom of the form.
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Consultant’s Report - Imagine that the organization for which you have interned
has invited you back to serve as a consultant. Based upon your journal entries,
choose three areas in which you can offer suggestions for improvement. Be sure
that your suggestions are grounded in communication theory, meaning that you
use theory to point out an organizational weakness and to support your
recommendations for change. Your analysis should include examples to
illustrate the organization’s shortcomings and specific recommendations to help
the organization improve. Your 5-6 page paper should be organized as follows:
Introduction: Attention getting statement, followed by a preview statement of the
three topic areas you will discuss.
Topic Area 1:
Paragraph 1 – Briefly summarize the organizational theory/concept. Include intext citations in APA format.
Paragraph 2 – Describe how the organizational theory/concept is present in the
organization. Give specific examples.
Dr. Mize Smith – Spring 2016
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Paragraph 3 – Evaluate the effectiveness (good/bad, effective/ineffective,
appropriate/inappropriate) and describe the outcomes.
Paragraph 4 – Offer recommendations for improvement, using communication
theory/concepts to support your suggestions, and discuss how the organization
might improve if your recommendations were implemented.
Topic Area 2: Repeat format
Topic Area 3: Repeat format
Conclusion
References
For example, if you choose technology as one area:
Paragraph 1 – Summarize the importance of technology and Media Richness
Theory in which the richness of the medium must support the nature and
ambiguity level of the message.
Paragraph 2 – Give some examples of how technology is used to communicate
with other organizational members (may be employees, customers, etc.). You
may pull examples from your journal entry or offer new ones. For example, the
boss sent an email to all employees about a major change in the health care
policy.
Paragraph 3 – Evaluate the effectiveness of the chosen technology for that
particular task and discuss the outcomes (good, bad, who was affected, and
how). For example, the health care policy email was lengthy and confusing.
Employees were upset and complained among themselves. It caused a
decrease in moral and trust of management.
Paragraph 4 – Offer a suggestion for how technology may be used more
effectively or more appropriately in the workplace. For example, you might
suggest the organization use face-to-face communication for important, complex
policy changes like those related to employee health care, allowing employees to
interact and ask questions. Perhaps the organization could also provide a list of
Frequently Asked Questions, contact numbers, and other resources that
employees could access online at any time. You could then discuss how these
ideas might prevent conflict, might help reduce and manage employees’
uncertainty, and might even increase employee identification if employees feel
like their employer really cares about them as people, not just workers.
Dr. Mize Smith – Spring 2016
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Point Distribution
Assignments
Discussion Board Participation
Four-Week Time Reports
Journal Entries (10 entries)
Midterm Evaluation
Final Evaluation
Consultant’s Report
Total
A = 450-500
B = 400-449
C = 350-399
Points
30
30
200
20
20
200
500
D = 300-349
F = 299 and below
* These standards and criteria were adapted from Internship Programs at Marist
College and the University of Texas-Austin.
Dr. Mize Smith – Spring 2016
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COMM 489 COURSE SCHEDULE
Date
Assignment Due
Monday 1/25
Begin Internship (if you haven’t already)
Monday 2/1
Enjoy getting started!
Monday 2/8
Journal Entry 1: Getting to Know Your Organization
Monday 2/15
Journal Entry 2: Organizational Socialization
Monday 2/22
Journal Entry 3: Organizational Identification
1st Four-Week Time Report
Monday 2/29
Journal Entry 4: Technology
Monday 3/7 –
Friday 3/11
Spring Break Week
Monday 3/14
Back to work!
Midterm Evaluation: Student
Midterm Evaluation: Employer
Monday 3/21
Journal Entry 5: Employee Communication
2nd Four-Week Time Report
Monday 3/28
Journal Entry 6: Leadership
Monday 4/4
Journal Entry 7: Organizational Culture
Monday 4/11
Journal Entry 8: Power and Control
Monday 4/18
Journal Entry 9: Realistic Job Preview
3rd Four-Week Time Report
Monday 4/25
Journal Entry 10: Reflection
Monday 5/2
Final Evaluation: Student
Final Evaluation: Employer
Monday 5/9
Consultant’s Report
Final Time Report
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