A four-week internship each year is a mandatory requirement by the KSLU. As and when our students complete their internships, the university has certain requirements that must be fulfilled. One such requirement is a two-page report, which encapsulates the students experience at their organization of choice. In order to guide the students on how to write these reports, the college organized a workshop, by none other than Professor Alexander Cheriyan. Being a very familiar, and moreover, a popular face in our college last year, he was welcomed with great enthusiasm by all the students.

Professor Cheriyan made the session interactive by first asking the students exactly what the reports must entail, thereby facilitating introspection. He took the time to ask a couple of individuals about the specifics of their internships. After creating a flowchart on the board, he gave the students a basic framework to work within.

Professor Cheriyan impressed upon the students that along with the name of the organization, it is important to elucidate the mission and type of work carried out. Each student must expand on their responsibilities, more specifically, their tasks and daily routine. This includes the nature of their work, be it office-based, or field-based. He mentioned that any personal contributions we might have made, will form an integral part of the report, and must be fleshed out in detail, while maintaining factual accuracy.

The primary goal of these internships is for students to acquire practical experience, and most of our students came away having gained new perspective and grown in some way or the other. The report will therefore be incomplete without a detailed description of the knowledge and skills acquired through the experience.

Lastly, Professor Cheriyan spoke a little about some fundamentals of report writing, like the prohibition of informal, inappropriate or slang language. He also reminded our students that paragraphs must have unity and coherence. Students were introduced to the efficiency of creating mind maps or flowcharts, to help them find the right flow while writing. We hope this workshop will lead to some well refined reports. After all, as Professor Cheriyan says, “the best writing occurs through the process of rewriting”.