JS 181 – Internship: Justice Studies
Final Paper Guidelines
Students must complete a 10 to 12-page (16 to 18-page for six credit internships) paper that describes and
analyzes their experience with the internship organization, department, or agency. The paper must include all
items (1 – 4) outlined below. The paper must be in APA format, which includes 12-point Times New Roman
font, double spaced, with one-inch margins. APA guidelines can be found in the American Psychological
Association, 6th Edition reference book available at any bookstore. A quick style guide may be found at the
OWL Purdue Online Writing Lab.
Failure to adhere to these guidelines will result in a student needing to revise the paper until it is deemed
satisfactory by the internship instructor, or in a NC (no credit) or I (incomplete) grade.
1. Include a proper title, short introduction, and thesis statement (at the end of the introductory
paragraph). [Note that the first person “I” is appropriate for use in the Thesis Statement (ex. In this
paper, I will describe my internship experience in three parts….) as well as in the specific analysis
section].
2. There must be a body composed of three parts:
A) A brief description of the agency and what you did; list the duties in order of importance
and the approximate percentage of time spent on each activity. Describe the general level of
sophistication and amount of energy (both mental and physical) that your job required.
B) A general analysis of the intern experience and how it related to academic experiences; that
is, “bridging the gap” between facts, theory, and practice. In this regard, at least ten scholarly
citations must be provided. For six (6) units, there must be at least 15 citations. In this section,
you should address what you learned about the way justice is sought and achieved (or not) in
the real world. You may contrast your specific observations to what scholarly research
suggests about how that kind of agency or organization functions. Point out ways in which
experiences and observations confirmed coursework and ways in which they contradicted it.
C) A specific analysis of what you liked about the job and why (e.g., why was the experience
“meaningful” to you? How did it challenge your thinking?), and what you disliked about the
job and why (i.e., why was the experience was not as good as it might have been?). In this
section, you might comment about how the experience shaped your thinking about your
career choices and options.
3. Provide a short concluding paragraph that summarizes the main points of the paper and provides
final thought.
4. Include an APA formatted references section that lists all academic sources cited in the paper. A
quick style guide may be found at the OWL Purdue Online Writing Lab.