Information meeting: wednesday 10 oct 2012, 13.00 hours: room 5A37
Internship Requirements and Assessment
Preparation
Before starting on an internship, students have to submit an internship plan and an internship agreement. These requirements have a standard form and can be downloaded from Blackboard under Course documents (Internship_agreement.doc. and Internship_plan.doc).
During the first weeks of the internship (or as soon as is clear what the research is going to be about), students have to write a short research proposal (1 A4 maximum) that gives the subject, explicates the main research question, suggests research methods, and names a few publications relevant to the subject. This proposal will be send to Dr. Frank de Zwart, and shall be discussed with the student before commencing the research.
Note the deadlines: timely submission of all documents is a strict requirement. The plan and agreement are submitted before you start the actual internship; the internship report and research paper (see below) are submitted maximum two weeks after the internship was completed.
Reporting
The three relevant documents concerning reporting on you internship are: an assessment form, an internship report, and an internship research paper.
Assessment form: The assessment form is written by the internship-supervisor from the organization where you did your internship. This is a standard form. It can be found on Blackboard, under Course Documents (Internship supervisor final assessment form.doc).
Internship Report: This report, approximately 1500 words, contains: a) Description of the internship—the type and aims of the organization you worked in; the various activities that the internship entailed, and the function of these activities for the work of the organization at large. b) Reflection on the internship in light of the academic study of IRD. Try to relate your experience in the organization to themes in the literature on IRD and describe how the internship contributed to your knowledge and insight of IR and D.
Internship Research Paper: The research paper, between 3500 and 4500 words reports in proper academic format on the research that you have conducted during the internship. The overall aim of the research paper is to make it contribute to the practical needs of the organization and to the academic literature (theory) on the issues you write about. The paper has a consistent reference system, and a full length bibliography. It is written in 1.5 line spacing, and a font size 12.
The paper has an introduction that introduces the main research question(s), relates these questions both to the work and needs of the organization and to relevant academic literature, and explains the research method. The middle part of the paper presents the research findings in light of the literature (in several chapters or sections). The conclusion sums it all up and notes implications which the research findings have for the practice of the organization concerned and/or the theoretical literature.
If the internship was not focused on original research, the internship paper will have to be based on literature. Students choose a subject that is pertinent to the study of international relations and somehow related to the activities of the organization in which the internship was done. The research paper is similar to the above: it introduces a question, related to the academic literature and the work of “your” organization, and it answers that question on the basis of research in the literature and/or documents.
Grading
The assessment form will be graded as pass/fail. The Internship report makes up 30 percent of your final mark. The internship research paper makes out 70 percent of your final mark.
Criteria for grading are conform standard academic convention:
Formulation of the research problem
Quality of the conceptual and theoretical framework
Quality of empirical content
Presentation (structure, language and referencing)
For further questions please contact:
Femke Avtalyon-Bakker MPhil (coordinator)
email: f.e.avtalyon@fsw.leidenuniv.nl