IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication Mar 2026

Internship Practices in Technical and Professional Communication Programs

Sara B. Parks Stephen F. Austin State University

Abstract

Background: Best practices for undergraduate technical and professional communication internships ensure that student experiences align with educational and professional goals. However, it is unclear whether internship programs attempt best practices to fulfill obligations to students, students’ workplaces, and employers. Literature review: Prior work has called on technical and professional communication on (TPC) faculty to lead internship programs in their academic departments. The scholarship imagines faculty who have access to workplace discourse, who are situated in internship courses or professional advising positions, and direct programs to build relationships, assess, and coordinate across academic-industry boundaries. However, it is unclear how these ideals match current institutional practices. Research question: What are the current practices of TPC internship programs? Methodology: A cross-institutional comparative content analysis examined 47 institutions’ TPC internship program and course descriptions and supporting documents that are publicly available on university websites. These were coded for themes related to internship best practices outlined by the literature. Results: The analysis found: 1. Programs give faculty supervisory titles but retain them and orient internships in academic contexts rather than orient practices toward employers, 2. Programs value their responsibility towards students over employers, and 3. The public-facing documentation does not obligate best practices as idealized in the literature. Conclusion: Current TPC internship practices do not fulfill all of the ideals imagined in the literature, but do maintain a humanist student focus.

Journal
IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
Published
2026-03-01
DOI
10.1109/tpc.2026.3658894
CompPile
Open Access
Closed
Topics
discourse analysis professional writing
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