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Report on a longitudinal study of transfer, investigating dispositions in two participants' internships. Prior knowledge helped one student overcome negative attitudes toward school. With less experience and disruptive dispositions, the second student was less successful. Thick descriptions of their experiences are followed by implications for supporting transfer in internships and for future research.
Imagine an upper-division writing course a few weeks before summer break. Everyone is a little tired of the academic grind. Even so, things are going well. Before beginning her lesson, the instructor is returning drafts of students' final projects, including her commentary, and collecting peer reviews. As she moves around the room, she makes conversation.
"So, what are you all planning to do this summer?"
Blake, a senior business major, raises his hand, uncharacteristically speaking first. "I got an internship at Disney!" A murmur of approval goes around the room.
"Nicely done!" says the instructor. "Let's hear a few more."
Scarlet, a senior double major, is next. "You know my job as a student worker? A full time position was posted, and my boss asked me to apply!" The senior sitting next to her, Ford, nods approvingly. "I got a job through my internship. Hope the same for you."
The good news continues through many of the sixteen juniors and seniors, spanning their diversity of majors. Elbow will be an intern in clinical laboratory science; double-major Jenna is moving across the country to clerk in a law office; Karina will continue her undergraduate research in psychology in her mentors lab; Sophia will finish her student teaching, then prepare for her first full-time teaching job with the help of a veteran teacher. Nearly every student mentions internships or similar work-to-learn experiences. But not all the news is good. Alex is not there to tell his story, since he dropped out of the university early in the semester. Lenore, Nicholas, and Alison are silent, probably because their searches for internships have so far been unsuccessful. And Jordan and Mitchell, the two English students, are not only silent, but seem visibly uncomfortable listening to the successes of their fellow students.
Extending Scholarly Conversations about Writing Transfer in Internships
In this fictionalization, we transform the sixteen participants in our longitudinal study of writing transfer into...