Internship report example: building a clear document, part by part

What an internship report is really for

The internship report is a document written at the end of the period spent in a company or organisation. It is not there to copy out a timetable: it shows that you understood how a workplace operates, that you carried out specific tasks and that you can draw a lesson from them. For your institution it is an item of assessment. For you it is also a useful record when preparing for a later interview or application.

Each school, university or sixth-form college sets its own instructions: number of pages, font, whether a summary is needed, whether there is an oral defence. The outline given here is therefore an example of organisation, not a requirement. When the instructions for your course differ, they always take priority.

A standard outline you can adapt

Most reports follow a five-stage progression, moving from the general to the particular before returning to an overall review.

1. Cover page and acknowledgements: title, name, course, dates, organisation, supervisor and academic tutor.
2. Contents and, if requested, a summary: a few lines on the subject, the method and the main conclusion.
3. Presentation of the organisation: activity, size, structure, customers or public served, and where your department fits.
4. Description and analysis of the tasks: the core of the report, often two thirds of the total.
5. Review: skills gained, difficulties, a critical view and the link with your study plans.

Appendices come at the end: tracking tables, screenshots, document templates. They add to the text without replacing it, and each appendix should be referred to in the body of the report.

Presenting the organisation without copying its brochure

The presentation of the organisation is the part where people tend to copy the corporate website. It is better to select what sheds light on your own task: the sector, the public served, the size of the team and the place of the department that hosted you. Two or three pages are generally enough for an internship of a few weeks.

A simple chart of the organisation, drawn by you and given a caption, is often more telling than a long paragraph. State the source of each figure and its date. If a piece of information was given to you verbally, say so rather than presenting it as an official statistic.

Describing a task: context, method, result

For each important task, a structure built on four questions avoids a mere chronological account.

• Context: why did this task exist, at whose request and with what deadline?
• Method: which tools, which steps, which people consulted?
• Result: what was produced, approved, corrected or rejected?
• Analysis: what went well, and what would you have done differently?

This last question is what sets a good report apart from a simple account. A sentence such as "I entered orders" becomes "I entered around forty orders a week, noticed a recurring anomaly in the product references and suggested a check before approval". The second version shows reasoning, not just execution.

Illustration: an inventory task told in a few lines

Here is a fictional extract, with rounded figures, to show the level of detail expected. It is not a text to reuse as it stands.

"During the second week, the shop manager gave me the stocktake of an aisle of about 300 product lines. I first printed the list from the management software, then physically counted each item, noting the differences on a tracking sheet. Around twenty lines showed a discrepancy: after checking the delivery notes, half were explained by a data-entry error on receipt. I presented these findings to my supervisor, who approved the correction of the stock figures and the introduction of a double check when parcels arrive. Looking back, I should have checked the delivery notes sooner, which would have saved me a second count."

The extract contains a context, a method, a figure-based result, a decision by the supervisor and a critical look back, all in under ten lines. It is this density that readers appreciate.

Keep a logbook from the very first day

The report is written after the internship, but the material is gathered during it. A logbook, even a simple one, changes everything: each evening, note in three or four lines what you did, what you learned, the technical terms you met and the questions left unanswered.

• Date every entry so you can rebuild the timeline.
• Note the names and roles of the people you deal with, with their agreement to be mentioned.
• Keep the instructions you were given, because they show how your independence grew.
• Record difficulties as they happen: reading them weeks later, you will have forgotten them.

This logbook feeds directly into the review section, which is often the hardest to write when you lack precise memories.

Writing the personal review honestly

The review answers one question: how did this experience move your studies and your plans forward? Distinguish what you observed (how a department works, a way of working) from what you accomplished yourself (a task carried out, a tool mastered).

Mention at least one real difficulty and how you dealt with it. A report in which everything went perfectly looks unconvincing. Conversely, avoid judgements about people or about the organisation: set out factual observations and ideas for improvement, with moderation. Finish with the skills you want to strengthen and, if your course allows, the link with your next internship or your career direction.

Confidentiality, permissions and anonymising

A report gets passed around: it is read by a teacher, sometimes by a panel, and sometimes deposited in a library or kept by the institution. The internal information of the host organisation, such as prices, contracts, customer data or processes, does not belong to you.

• Ask your supervisor what may appear in the document and what must be hidden.
• Anonymise the names of customers, patients, pupils or colleagues where necessary.
• Get permission before reproducing any internal document placed in an appendix.
• Prepare, if the organisation asks, a shortened version intended for the institution.

Some institutions provide for a confidential report that only the panel can consult. The question is worth asking before writing, not afterwards.

Proofreading, layout and common mistakes

Set aside at least two days for proofreading. Read aloud, check the numbering, the consistency between the contents page and the headings, and the spelling of proper names. Have someone from outside the internship read it: if they understand the task, the text is clear.

• An unbalanced outline, with ten pages on the company and two on your tasks.
• Sentences in the "we" form or the impersonal, which hide what you actually did.
• Copy-and-paste from internal documents or websites, with no quotation marks or source.
• Technical vocabulary used without a definition.
• Appendices that are never mentioned in the text.

Finally, respect the submission date and the format requested, because a delay or going over the page limit can be penalised.