- the reflective journal,
- periodic reports,
- a portfolio of selected work samples,
- self-evaluation forms or checklists,
- testimonial letters from your supervisors or coworkers,
- supervisors' evaluation forms,
- an hourly log, and
- a capstone report combining sever, of the foregoing documentation methods.
Some of the methods discussed in this article may be required by your school; others may not. The descriptions contained here will help you understand the rationale behind commonly used documentation methods, including the advantages and difficulties of each. These descriptions will also help you maximize the effectiveness of each method you use.
You may also want to supplement your school's documentation procedures with one or two procedures of your own. For example, creating a portfolio of work samples or obtaining testimonial letters helps gre itly in your job search, even though your school may not require them. Review and evaluate each method to determine its usefulness as a supplementary technique.
Journal keeping is a self-evaluation method often used by interns in other disciplines, such as business and psychology. It can be very beneficial to paralegal interns as well. A journal of this kind contains descriptions of each day's activities and the intern's thoughts and observations about them.
What makes a journal different from other documentation methods is its reflective component, not only reporting but also evaluating the intern's experience. A single entry can be anywhere from a paragraph to a page or more in length, depending on the activities being reported and the intern's thoughts about them.
Many schools require interns to prepare periodic reports summarizing recent internship experience. Required content, length, and format vary widely from school to school. Nevertheless, periodic reports usually have certain basics in common.
Written Reports
Periodic written reports differ from journal keeping in several ways. Journal entries are written every workday, but periodic reports are done on a weekly, biweekly, or monthly basis. Some schools require one written report at the midpoint of the internship and another when the internship ends.
Rather than analyzing each day's events, periodic reports function as a general summary of tasks the intern performed, highlighting experiences that led to significant learning. Periodic written reports work best when the daily self-evaluatior of journal keeping is not needed. Interns with several weeks on the job, for example, may no longer have dramatic new experiences to report every day. Periodic written reports may also be a more manageable method for directors to monitor many interns simultaneously.
Oral Reports
In programs in which interns meet periodically in a class or seminar, oral reports may be required. Often, the oral report covers the same elements as the written report and may even be based on a written report prepared for the same class.
Sharing oral reports with other interns does more than help you identify your own learning; it multiplies internship learning many times over. Consider trying this technique even if your school does not routinely require it. You and several colleagues might meet informally every week or two for this purpose. Alternatively, ask the paralegal club at your school to sponsor a few sessions of this kind. Invite newer students to attend for a realistic preview of internship experiences. With relatively little organizational effort, many will benefit from the verbal exchange.
Journal entries, written reports, evaluation forms, and testimonial letters always present some risk that the information they contain may be colored by personal biases. An overly critical supervisor, for example, might overlook some hard-earned skills. An unduly optimistic intern may unknowingly overstate them. School administrators and accrediting agencies are often aware of these possibilities. Future employers are especially skeptical about them.
A portfolio eliminates suspicions of biased reporting. It allows employers and others to draw their own conclusions about your skill level. Providing tangible evidence of reported achievements, a portfolio facilitates independent evaluation by each reader. It may even indicate skills you did not know you had.
To create a work portfolio, begin by reviewing your reference file, if you have one. If you do not have a reference file or if your reference file does not contain sufficient work samples, then review client files with which you were involved.
Identify all the documents you have drafted, choosing at least three that meet the criteria listed below. The shorter your documents, the more of them you should include. Keep the following elements in mind as you select samples of written work:
- Complexity. Your best research memorandum, for example, is one that relies on several legal authorities. A civil complaint containing multiple claims or litigants is more impressive than a simple one. And a letter mat addresses several different issues shows greater ability than a one-issue note to a client.
- Flawlessness. Use only samples that are typed or word processed, proofread, and error free.
- Length. Longer documents usually demonstrate more impressive skills than short ones. Exceptions are documents containing mostly boilerplate language adopted completely from other sources without change; such documents are not the best choice.
- Creativity. Try to include drafting work that involved selecting and combining language from various forms books, including tailor-made modifications of your own creation-or writing that shows skillful handling of a difficult issue.
- Versatility. Choose as wide a variety of work samples as possible. Let each one demonstrate a different kind of expertise.
Sometimes, writing samples alone are not indicative of an intern's best work. Interns in non-law-offlce settings may have drafted very few documents. Instead, they may have been mediating consumer disputes, screening and referring pro bono clients, or interviewing and investigating. Even conventional law office interns sometimes find that their proudest achievements had nothing to do with drafting. What if an intern implemented a litigation database and retrieval system for a major trial, or speeded up the office's forms work with significant changes in their document-assembly system? How can evidence of these achievements be included in a portfolio?
Where challenging internship work is not demonstrated by writing samples alone, other kinds of evidence can also be used. Here are several suggestions:
- Single-page computer printouts (accompanied by a brief, typed explanation) showing the templates you created, the index you wrote for a database, or other technological improvements you implemented
- Step-by-step outlines of the procedures you followed in dispute resolution, investigation, or other major processes
- Copies of checklists you created (or followed) for interviews, client follow-up, and similar work
- Copies of forms used in complex areas of your work, particularly if you helped create them
- A one-page, narrative description of a challenging case or assignment, outlining your involvement in it
- Testimonial letters from your supervisor or coworkers
After choosing items to include in your portfolio, you must then determine whether these items are protected by client confidentiality. Documents that are already a matter of public record (such as recorded deeds or mortgages and most pleadings) might be included in your portfolio without breaching client confidentiality. Others may be highly confidential in nature. Some documents may be sensitive enough to be withheld from distribution even though they do not technically fall within the rules of client confidentiality.
Never decide on your own whether a work sample is safe for inclusion in your portfolio. Instead, show each item to your office supervisor. If client confidentiality is an issue, see whether deleting names, addresses, and other identifying information is sufficient to remedy the problem. Major portions of a document can be omitted while impressive sections of your drafting work remain. Occasionally, a document will simply have to be replaced with something less sensitive.
When confidentiality issues have been resolved, the mechanics of assembling your portfolio are simple. Follow these guidelines:
- Use copies for all your documents-not originals. Keep extra copies for later use in your job search.
- Omit clients' names, addresses, and other identifying information as requested by your supervisor. Do this neatly with typewriter correction fluid. Check the entire document for hidden references to a client's identity.
- If your documents come in different sizes, copy them on a machine that adjusts their dimensions for uniform presentation.
- Purchase a slim, professional-looking binder for keeping your documents together.
- Prepare a cover page identifying your bound collection as "Work Portfolio."
- For prospective employers, mark the cover page with your name, address, telephone number, and the date on which the portfolio was completed.
- For your school, indicate the name of your internship supervisor and the course number, if required.
Schools often create self-evaluation forms for interns to use in reporting their learning on the job. Functionally similar to a checklist, self-evaluation forms list the characteristics and skills schools want their interns to develop. Often, these forms also require interns to rank their level of achievement for each item. The exact contents of such forms vary from school to school, reflecting whatever characteristics and skills each school perceives as most essential. These forms commonly emphasize basic work skills such as dependability, thoroughness, and effective communications. They may also include specific, law-related skills and tasks.
Your school's self-evaluation forms call attention to objectives that were chosen long before your internship. Knowing from the outset what your school's expectations are, you can seek tasks and experiences that will help you achieve those objectives. Using forms prepared by your school also br rigs uniformity to the self-evaluation process, ensuring that all interns use th o same criteria to evaluate and report their learning.
The list of learning objectives you prepared at the beginning of your internship represents a second, equally important, self-evaluation checklist. It has the added advantage of being uniquely tailored to your educational and career goals. If your school requires the completion of a standard self-evaluation form, a mplete it conscientiously-but also evaluate your learning on the basis of your own, original list of learning objectives. Review your learning objectives from time to time throughout your internship, noting which goals have been achieved and which still need to be pursued.
