This is the second blog in the three-part series where I will be detailing my time as an intern at Perficient. The first blog in the series discussed my goals at the start of my internship.
One of my main focuses over the ten week internship was to improve my writing. Throughout high school, I have always been interested in and loved the written word. I took part in a plethora of writing electives and enjoyed the process of producing stories, blogs, and even papers. It was exciting to be able to incorporate so much writing and editing during my internship, and with each project I took on I could see the improvement in the language, flow, and refinement in my style.
Writing Stories for the Employee Magazine
My first project as an intern was writing an article about employee wellness for Perficient Pulse, the internal magazine shared with colleagues across the globe. It was my first piece of writing for Perficient, so adjusting to their brand standards was a big learning curve in terms of style, consistency, and language. The piece revolved around examining different methods to improve overall wellness that Perficient offered, consolidating them, and including thoughts from several colleagues.
SEE MORE: Articles on employee wellness at Perficient
After my first draft of the article, I received the most feedback out of all the others I wrote, and it prepared me for the weeks ahead. I learned how to place equal emphasis on multiple people in one story without overshadowing others and how to include data into an article without making it too dense. It was also my first look into what my colleagues want to see in my writing, and I was able to tailor my future pieces to that criteria better.
Writing Articles for the Life at Perficient Blog
The bulk of my writing for Perficient was for the Life at Perficient blog, where I got to explore more A&E (Arts and Entertainment) style of writing. When writing for my school paper, I was never much of an A&E writer, and I wanted to improve that so I can write with a higher quality.
I was able to do this by writing a blog regarding self-advocacy and improvement and another featuring a colleague volunteering at a local animal shelter. Each of these pieces taught me something different. While the self-advocacy blog taught me how to combine a feature and advice to make one cohesive story, the service blog taught me how to feature one person and go in-depth about all aspects of the story. Both taught me unique skills and broadened my horizons.
How Editing Improved my Writing
One of my big, long-term projects throughout my internship was editing a “Welcome to Perficient” email series or the new colleagues from the PSL acquisition. Though this was largely a project that involved editing, it taught me a lot about how to write in a professional manner. Every week I was reading pieces involving topics that I wasn’t always familiar with and had to learn to dissect, understand, and improve them. The corporate style of writing that wasn’t natural to me at the beginning of the internship started to show through in my writing as the weeks progressed.
If you are interested in improving your writing check out these three resources.
- Writing Class Radio Podcast
- Write Tight: Say Exactly What You Mean with Precision and Power by William Brohaugh
- You Are a Writer (So Start Acting Like One) by Jeff Goins
Keep an eye out for my next blog where I’ll be talking about how I was able to grow in the communication and business areas of my internship!
At Perficient, we continually look for ways to champion and challenge our talented workforce with interesting projects for high-profile clients, encourage personal and professional growth through training and mentoring, and celebrate our people-oriented culture and the innovative ways they serve Perficient and the community.
Learn more about what it’s like to work at Perficient at our Careers page.
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