By Braylyn Bruno, English and Public Relations Major / McAnulty Academic Internship
When I entered Duquesne, I had a lot to learn. I remember taking Media Literacy and getting a sixty percent on my first essay freshmen year. I realized in this moment that writing in college wasn’t going to be as easy for me as it was in high school. I’ve had to work hard and listen to the critiques my professors make on my papers. I can see the improvement in the works I produce now, but each new genre of writing I encounter allows me to see how much more I still must learn.
As an intern this semester, I composed an alumni newsletter. I’ve never written anything that would be blasted out to mass amounts of people before, so this was new territory for me. One of the features in the newsletter was a profile of one of the English Department’s past alumni. I felt the pressure writing this because I wanted to make the feature seem professional and do justice to the person I was writing about. As it was my first time writing a newsletter, it was inevitable that I would encounter bumps along the road. While the newsletter wasn’t perfect, it gave me a clearer idea for how I can improve the next one. The purpose of college and internships is to learn and grow from our experiences, and each new genre of writing allows me to do just this.
The moral of the story is I entered college with a lot to learn and I still have a lot to learn today. While I might be more well versed in specific areas, I continue to be introduced to things I haven’t done before, which allow me to get feedback and valuable experience. Newsletters are a tactic that many corporate and nonprofit companies use to send information to consumers, sponsors, and stakeholders. If I were working in the real world and did not have the experience of the alumni newsletter, my first professional endeavor would be a flop. I’m sure there will be genres of writing I need to learn once I’m a college graduate, but I’m glad that my internship this semester is already preparing me for the real world. No matter how small the experience of writing a newsletter may seem, I know that these are the types of tasks that have real value.
Building Bridges 