ENG 400: Internship
You are currently looking at the ENG 400 welcome page, where you can find our course description, meeting times and location, requirements, and policies.
This site contains all the material that would normally be on a course syllabus, and more. There’s a lot of information here, but that’s because everything you need for ENG 400 — on the Department of English side, at least (it’s up to you to arrange other necessary information with your partner organization!) — is all collected here conveniently in one place. You’ll mainly use this site for reference during the year, but before you commit to joining our class, be sure you review and understand the contents of this site, because by proceeding with the class, you indicate that you understand and agree to the course requirements and policies explained here.
I am happy to arrange accommodations or modifications to this class for anyone who would benefit from them, but in my classes, you must request accommodations and modifications according to the instructions at the bottom of this page (simply sending along a letter of accommodation will not be sufficient here).
I’m your professor, Matthew Sergi. You can call me Prof. Sergi or Matt (not “sir,” please); you can contact me at sergi.utoronto@gmail.com as needed. I’ll only be able to answer emails sent to sergi.utoronto@gmail.com; if you send an inquiry about ENG 400 to another email address of mine, it will likely be delayed, missed, or deleted.
Course Description
The primary purpose of this course is to assign students to, and facilitate, credited internships (about 84-88 hours across winter term) with selected organizations outside of the U of T campus — and so to oversee and provide support for those partnerships from within the university/classroom, and to assess and evaluate students’ work by combining feedback from off-campus partners with in-class reports by students. We’ll attend not only to basic professional skills and practices that English majors and specialists might need for the workplace beyond campus but also to the contributions that English majors and specialists might be especially well-positioned to offer in such workplaces.
Thus, in addition to the approximately 7 hours per week that each student must spend at their internship, students enrolled in ENG 400 must also attend periodic in-person meetings on campus with Prof. Sergi (schedule below). Across their internship hours and their on-campus sessions, students can expect to:
practice the application of writing and communication skills to meet organizational needs;
develop collaborative workplace and time management skills;
develop professional networks and working relationships in areas that may provide future career opportunities;
share internship experiences in conversation with fellow students and reflect critically and collectively on lessons learned in the workplace;
integrate academic and experiential learning to create a presentation, both in person and with a lasting presence online, of the skills and experience they gained.
Attending Your Off-Campus Placement
Some internship placements may give you work to do, or meetings to attend, remotely. All placements will have some significant component to attend in person.
ENG 400 expects you to work with your off-campus partner organization, proactively and thoroughly, to establish your work schedule within the first week (see “Individual Work Plan,” below) . It is up to you to ensure that your scheduled internship hours add up to a total of at least 84, and no more than 92, hours over the course of term, with about 7 hours per week on average.
If you end up at the end of term with fewer hours than the minimum, your course grade may be reduced; if you exceed 92, you’ll be doing more unpaid work than what is covered by your university credit.
ENG 400 expects you to educate yourself ahead of time on what your assigned organization expects in terms of professional/mature attire, conduct, and etiquette — as well as to adjust that understanding accordingly once you start attending — and then to exceed, slightly, those expectations. Aim to do a bit better, to behave a bit more maturely, and to present yourself a bit more sharply and cleanly than the partner expects you to do.
If your attire, conduct, or etiquette leave an impression with your partner organization that you are less than professional, or not ready for professional workplaces, your course grade will be reduced.
Above all, ENG 400 expects you to complete, effectively and with high self-enforced standards of quality, the tasks your internship partner assigns you: by asking for and clarifying what their expectations are for completion, by reporting to them and to Prof. Sergi with updates on your progress, and then by meeting or exceeding those expectations within the timeframe they have assigned you. That includes attending all work sessions, meetings, and events at which they expect you. All work and attendance must be done punctually: always aim to arrive a bit early and leave a bit late.
If your partner organization reports that you have not completed your assigned work with sufficient quality or within their assigned timeframe, or if you show up late — or fail to show up — for any of the work sessions, meetings, or events at which you’re expected — no matter the reason! — expect your course grade to be reduced significantly.
Attending On-Campus Meetings
ENG 400 does not meet on campus as often as 400-level classes usually do — since you’ll already have your hands quite full with your off-campus partnership. The goal of the on-campus meetings is to support and evaluate the work you’re already doing, rather than add further work hours, so our on-campus meetings are infrequent. In-person attendance at these meetings is still required, but I promise to respect your time.
On-Campus Meeting 1, Wed 13 Jan, 3:10pm to 4:40pm: initial meeting and check-in, troubleshooting; review of requirements and assignments (attend this meeting with 14 printed-out copies of your résumé)
On-Campus Meeting 2, Wed 20 Jan, 3:10pm to 4:40pm: first-week check-in, troubleshooting, reflections on workplace conduct, attire, and etiquette (attend this meeting dressed as you would for the workplace and bring one printed-out copy of your Individual Work Plan)
On-Campus Meeting 3, Wed 10 Feb, 3:10pm to 4:40pm: discussion: how non-campus workplaces can fit into, and change, the “literary heart” (self-care, self-presentation, long-term plans)
On-Campus Meeting 4, Wed 3 Mar, 3:10pm to 5pm: discussion: how the “literary heart” can fit into, and change, non-campus workplaces (ethics, humanistic interventions, purpose); review of online projects; assignment of final presentation dates
On-Campus Meeting 5, Wed 24 Mar, 3pm to 5pm: final presentations part 1
On-Campus Meeting 6, Wed 31 Mar, 3pm to 5pm: final presentations part 2
All on-campus meetings will happen at [assigned room TBA], on the University of Toronto campus, which is on the shared territory of many First Nations, including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Wendat, and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, under the Dish With One Spoon Treaty, and under Treaty 13 between the Mississaugas and subsequent settlers.
If you can’t make it to an on-campus meeting in person, you can (though this is hardly ideal) attend via Zoom and, even without prior notice, not have it count as a “no-show” (see below): I will always keep Zoom running and recording during on-campus meetings, at the “Current Remote Meeting Link” provided under “Resources,” above. Before you do so, consult my Rules and Requirements for Remote Attendance (click here and scroll down); expect me to call on remote attendees without warning, periodically, and to eject remote attendees who are unresponsive more than once.
Course Requirements/Grading Weight
Instructions, prompts, and evaluative criteria for each of these course components are explained at more length below.
Impressions from Placement Partners, 20%
Individual Work Plan, due (printed out) at On-Campus Meeting 2, 10%
Weekly Reports on Internship Work, 10%
Lasting Online Portfolio/Presence, due in draft form (online) at On-Campus Meeting 4, due in final form (online) exactly one week after On-Campus Meeting 6, 20%
12-Minute Final Critical/Creative Presentation, due either in On-Campus Meeting 5 or 6 (as assigned at random), 20%
Actual Attendance at your Placement (Work Sessions/Meetings/Events) and On-Campus Meetings, 20%
Impressions from Placement Partners
After the end of your placement, I will share a simple exit questionnaire with your partner organization, asking them five simple question sets:
Did your intern attend all work sessions, meetings, and events at which you expected them? If they missed any expected attendance without clearing the absence with you ahead of time, when and where did this happen — and what reason, if any, was provided?
Was your intern consistently punctual, attentive, and alert during the work sessions, meetings, and events they did attend — and if not, when and where did this happen?
Did your intern consistently demonstrate a professional and mature level of attire, conduct, and etiquette, as appropriate to your workplace? What advice, if any, should we offer them to improve this?
Did your intern complete, effectively and well, the tasks you assigned them? What advice, if any, should we offer them to improve this?
Is your intern the type of worker you’d be ready and eager to hire at your organization, or to recommend for hire at a similar organization, if a position appropriate to their level of experience appeared? Would you be ready and eager to meet your intern after the end of their placement, for lunch or a coffee, to chat informally and discuss their career plans?
I will invite your partner organization to rate your work in relation to each question set above, on a scale of 1 to 9, 9 being highest. I will then convert those ratings to a 10-to-90 scale. Skipping the first question (see below), then taking the average of the four remaining scores, and then making adjustments based on my own impressions of the partner organization’s ability to assess your work fairly and of their verbal answers to the question sets, I will determine a final, non-negotiable grade for this course component. The highest possible score here is 90 — keep all five questions in mind throughout your internship work, and aim for above 90.
Individual Work Plan
Work scoping and planning is a critical skill that professionals use in every field and sector – whether it be project managers at an environmental science firm, research directors at non-profit organizations, or graduate students in managing their own research work. At the beginning of the semester, students will be introduced to their host supervisor, who will describe the project/work to be undertaken, as well as expectations around timelines, communication, and other facets of the student’s engagement with them and their team. Based on this initial contact, students will then be expected to draft a work plan. Work plans can take many different forms, but for the purposes of this assignment, yours will consist of two main sections: (a) a 350-500 word statement which outlines your organization’s vision, goals, and key activity, and fully describes the project(s) on which they would like you to work; (b) a succinct week-by-week timeline that captures precisely how you will achieve the expected outcomes/produce the required deliverable(s). Your timeline should break down the project statement into specific tasks, and outline when they will be completed.
Weekly Reports on Internship Work
This one is easy, or should be. Starting in Week 3 and continuing to April 7, every Wednesday, before 12 noon, you are responsible for sending Prof. Sergi — at sergi.utoronto@gmail.com — a short email containing only the following information, put in simple, succinct language: (a) how many hours you worked at your internship in the week prior (the prior Monday thru Friday); (b) what tasks you worked on (or what meetings etc you attended) during those hours; (c) what tasks you completed during those hours. Include nothing in the email other than that information, in simple, succinct language. Use “WEEKLY REPORT: [YOUR FULL NAME]” as your email title.
Lasting Online Portfolio/Presence
Establishing an online portfolio or other substantial online presence that summarizes and captures the spirit of your internship work — a “what I did at my 2026 internship” project — will not only help you deepen and document your learning experience over the course of the placement, but also leave a lasting online imprint of the work you did — so that future potential employers might find that imprint and form positive opinions of your work. Prof. Sergi will evaluate and grade this project based somewhat subjectively on how well you achieve that aim.
Keep in mind, as you create this project, that it should be both a product (a digital collection of artifacts attesting to your work, which future employers might see) and a process (something you compile and shape slowly and reflectively over the full course of your internship, rather than packing it into the final weeks). You can use the e-portfolio for reflecting on your experience as it progresses, but you can also edit and shape it once the placement is over, in order to generate a document that communicates your skills and experience to potential employers.
This online project can take any number of forms, on any platform you prefer, as long as that platform creates something easily searchable and accessible by the public (do not use internal campus-based apps like Quercus), even if they do not have the same accounts/subscriptions as you do (I’ll make an exception for Instagram-based projects, because these are so widely searched by potential employers). Be creative and innovative even as you demonstrate your professionalism and maturity. Perhaps this can be a Google Doc, perhaps a website or e-portfolio (consider using the Linkr E-portfolio, which you can access by creating a free account at Linkr: https://www.lovelearning.org), an online slideshow, a YouTube account with curated and self-created content, a single YouTube video, or any mixture of these. You can, if you wish, build this online project from or around any online presence or project you already have going.
The output of your online project, whatever form it takes, should require about 15 minutes of Prof. Sergi’s time (and thus the same amount of time and focus from a potential employer) in order for him to come away with the impression that you are the kind of co-worker he’d like to work with (but not that you’re creating the project for him personally).
Your project might, for instance include some or all of the following: weekly blog-style reflections (either written, audiorecorded, or audiovisual weekly reflections on your placement experience); links to or recordings of artifacts you’ve created in your placement, along with brief reflections and contexts; audio or video content, in which you might interview someone at your placement (set up a coffee date!). Your project must include a link to an online pdf of your professional résumé, updated to include your internship work.
Be prepared to present your project-in-development at On-Campus Meeting 4, and to email Prof. Sergi (sergi.utoronto@gmail.com) with a link to its final form by exactly one week after On-Campus Meeting 6.
12-Minute Final Critical/Creative Presentation
But your lasting online portfolio/presence is the outward, public impression that will remain visible to potential employers in the future.
What do you really think, as a humanist and a scholar of literature and language, about the work you’re doing and have done at this placement? What are its more complex ramifications and meanings, aesthetically, ethically, socially, theoretically or otherwise? What is interesting, complicated, deep, and human about the work — the kind of thinking that is too intricate, fine, provocative, or controversial to position outwardly to employers, but that shows your fellow students, Prof. Sergi, and yourself that you have kept your “literary heart” alive and awake during your placement — and that you’ve looked for opportunities to humanize the workplace by bringing it into contact with the work you’ve done in English?
In the last two weeks of class, you’ll be given 10 minutes to present a structured talk, organized around but not limited to your online portfolio/presence project, that answers some or all of the thought questions above — or, ideally, that complicates and deepens them — with respect to the work you’ve been at all term. Use your ten minutes to draw our attention to elements (or ramifications) of your online project that a possible employer, or a casual scroller, might miss — “another mode of meaning behind the obvious,” as Thomas Pynchon might put it.
As long as you organize your 12 minutes around your online portfolio/presence project, you can use any format or medium you wish, as formal or informal as you wish as long as the result is substantial, complex, provocative, and deep (set part of it in verse! deliver part of it as a fiery exhortative sermon! sing part of it as a song! do a performance piece! whatever!) — aim to leave your classmates, and Prof. Sergi, inspired, provoked, and thinking more deeply and complexly about your work than we did before. Prof. Sergi will evaluate and grade this project based somewhat subjectively on how well you achieve that aim.
Each of our final two On-Campus Meetings will feature seven students’ 12-minute presentations. Practice your presentation to make sure it takes 12 minutes: coming in under 11 or over 13 minutes will result in a grade penalty. There will be time for Q&A and discussion of the presentations at the end of both final class sessions — be prepared for that (Prof. Sergi will take the quality of the end-of-class discussion into account when grading).
At On-Campus Meeting 4 I will assign students to present either at On-Campus Meeting 5 or 6, at random; you cannot negotiate your assigned presentation date with Prof. Sergi, but you are invited to ask fellow students if they are willing to switch. All such switches must be confirmed with Prof. Sergi at least three days ahead of time.
Actual Attendance: Read This Carefully
You earn twenty points of your course grade (see above) just for showing up. If you fail to show up, without clearing that absence with the partner organization or professor, and receiving their approval, ahead of time, you will lose some of those allotted points.
For grading purposes, every student can no-show once without affecting their course grade — by “no show,” I mean “missing any single assigned session/meeting/event, inclusive of all such assignments from your partner organization and on-campus meetings, without clearing that absence and receiving approval ahead of time.” Even a no-show with a good reason — if that reason is only communicated after the fact, or does not receive approval ahead of time — will count toward this one-shot limit. (I’ll gather information about attendance from your partner organization at end of term, using the questions listed above.)
To be clear, you should never no-show for a course that connects you to real-world workplaces (!) — but emergencies do come up in ways that can take us by surprise, and so you can do so once without affecting your course grade.
Beyond that, and regardless of the reason, every further no-show (again, inclusive of placement assignments and on-campus meetings) will reduce your Actual Attendance grade by five points. Thus, no-showing twice will reduce your Actual Attendance grade to 15/20; three no-shows will make it 10/20; four will make it 5/20; five will make it a zero — beyond that, further no-shows will be counted, and factored into your overall course mark, as negative numbers (six no-shows will be counted as a -5, etc). There are no after-the-fact exceptions to this policy, regardless of the circumstances.
This policy does not bar you from missing assigned sessions/meetings/events in general (people get sick! problems arise!): it penalizes you only if you have missed an assigned session/meeting/event, twice or more, without clearing that absence and receiving approval from your partner organization (or, for on-campus meetings, from Prof. Sergi) ahead of time. Serious issues and emergencies arise for all of us at one time or another, but in the world outside the university, even in hard times we still must show up for work — and if we can’t, we absolutely must get in contact with our employer, respectfully and as soon as the issue becomes apparent, in order to proactively come up with a plan to make up for lost time.
NB: Since accommodations and modifications related to attendance (see below) must be secured, and approved by both the professor and the internship partner, before the placement has begun, accommodation-related absences already count as “approved ahead of time,” to the degree that they conform to the terms of the agreed-upon accommodation.
NB: For absences from on-campus meetings, Prof. Sergi will pre-approve any request to skip a meeting (no reason need be provided) up to two times, as long as the request is made by email (sergi.utoronto@gmail.com) by 5pm on the Monday prior — except for the meeting where the student is scheduled to present, which the student must attend. Requests to miss a third meeting, or requests made later than 5pm on the Monday prior, will be automatically rejected and will thus count toward your no-show limit. Remember that you can always attend on-campus meetings remotely, even without prior notice (see above).
NB: It is up to you and your supervisor at your partner organization to determine, proactively, whether and how to clear and approve any given absence ahead of time (for instance, you might try “I’m sorry, but something has come up that will make it difficult for me to attend our scheduled appointment on Tuesday; can we re-schedule for later in the week? I’ll work around your availability on Thursday or Friday” or “I’m feeling under the weather and doubt I’ll be able to attend later today — would it be all right for me to attend this meeting remotely?”). As long as your supervisor gives the okay, however informally, and approves your absence ahead of time (and so has no reason to list the absence as unapproved in their exit questionnaire), the absence will not count toward your no-show limit. No-showing at your partner organization may of course also adversely affect the organization’s impression of your professionalism; however, calculating your Actual Attendance grade will never take that additional adverse effect into account.
Other Course Policies
Be sure you know the ENG 400 policies before joining our course — because joining ENG 400 means that you understand and agree to its course policies, as far as they are summarized on this page. If you are concerned that you may not be able to adhere to any of these policies, or if you want to learn more specific details about how or why I enforce a policy, click on the “further explanation” link next to that policy.
I can gladly customize my course to your needs or your learning style with accommodations and modifications to its structure or requirements, as long as those accommodations and modifications are requested, proactively and respectfully, in an email to me at sergi.utoronto@gmail.com, a full month or more (preferably much more!) before your internship begins. This timeframe is non-negotiable: it will allow me and the Experiential Learning Office necessary time to negotiate the modification with the partner organization. I cannot, and will never, approve accommodations or modifications of any kind after the internship placement has already begun. But I will generally approve requested accommodations and modifications that (1) do not compromise the course’s pedagogy/spirit/learning outcomes, (2) do not modify evaluative criteria in a way that is unfair to fellow students, (3) do not make unfair or inappropriate demands on any partner organization or on me, and (4) do not set any precedent that would require extra work hours on their part or on my part. I never require any documentation, proof, or even a reason why you need accommodations — in your request, feel free to just say “it would help me learn if we did this” — and as long as your requests satisfy items 1-4 above, we’re all good. You are welcome to share with me any accommodation letter that you usually use if you wish to, but mainly I require that any request for accommodations provides, in clear, succinct language,suggestions for modifications specific to this course, or to any of its particular assignments or policies, with direct reference to this webpage.
Every student must be absolutely clear that they understand, and agree to, the course attendance/no-show policy as stated above under “Actual Attendance.” There will be no after-the-fact exceptions made to this attendance policy, under any circumstances, regardless of the reason.
I generally use Google apps and Zoom, not Blackboard or Quercus, for class announcements and contact. After term begins, you must make sure you are receiving class emails I send from sergi.utoronto@gmail.com; adjust your junk mail or spam settings if need be. (Click here for a further explanation of this policy.)
In order to minimize glitching and lag in the online materials I use in class, to accommodate various participants’ needs, and to stand against the encroachment of an exploitative attention economy, I require all in-person students to disable internet connectivity on all their devices as soon as they enter my on-campus meetings, to stay offline until the on-campus meeting is done, and not to engage at all with phones, even offline, while the on-campus meeting is in session, except where online access is necessary for in-class projects or presentations. (Analog attention management tools are fine.) If I see an in-person student using phones or internet connectivity during class, I will require that student to leave the classroom, marking the student as a no-show for the day. If you have a special circumstance on any given day in which you need to remain on call, clear that with me ahead of time, at the beginning of class.
All students, with no exceptions, are required to engage and participate actively in discussion during on-campus meetings in order to count as having attended them. (Click here for a further explanation of this policy.)
For students who have difficulty jumping into class discussion, I offer an array of alternative avenues for participation, which the student must pre-arrange with me according to the specific instructions I make available on this website. (Click here for instructions on how to arrange for alternative avenues for participation.)
There are no extensions available for assignments that involve real-time presentations. If you do not deliver your presentation on the assigned day, I will record it as a permanent zero. If you are unable to attend class in person on an assigned presentation day, attend remotely and deliver a modified version of your presentation via Zoom (see above).
If you want a deadline extension for an assignment that does not involve real-time presentations (i.e. the Individual Work Plan, the final Lasting Online Portfolio/Presence, or any given Weekly Report), you must request it at least one week in advance (please do not share the reason for your request; just ask). If you request the extension one week in advance, I will extend your deadline by exactly one week (no more no less).
Without an extension secured in that way, I will penalize late assignments that do not involve real-time presentations by 3 points (out of 100, counting the Weekly Reports as one collective 100-point assignment) for the first week after the assignment was due, then an additional 3 points (totalling 6) beyond that. From there until exactly two weeks after On-Campus Meeting 6, no further penalty will be taken. However, I will record any assignment that has not been emailed to me (sergi.utoronto@gmail.com), following the instructions at this page, two weeks after On-Campus Meeting 6, as a zero. If you have good reason to hand in an assignment late after that point, you must approach your college registrar, and ask them to provide me with a formal extension request; if I receive such a request, I’ll honour it.