OK, so I know this is a little late, but here's the basic summary of what I'll be doing for my capstone.
I've been working in the Department of Physics under Dr. James Lewis since May 2007. He has this grant money specifically for hosting an international symposium here in West Virginia. As part of my capstone, I'm developing schedules, portfolios of curriculum vitas and abstracts, and other necessary documents for the event. Behind the scenes, I will be e-mailing the conference planners, group members, and participants daily. It's important for me to utilize my skills from English 304 (Business and Professional Writing) in the e-mails.
On top of that, I will edit any grant proposals for Dr. Lewis and maintain a website on his research group - The Lewis Group. The group consists of undergraduate researchers, graduate students seeking their doctorate, as well as post doctoral researchers. There is a large percentage of international people in the group. So as part of being an English major, I feel that communication with people whose native language is not English, will be an experience to build on. Any knowledge I have retained from English 221 (The English Language) will help me understand how non-English speakers develop our language and why sometimes it is difficult to understand them or vice versa. (In all honestly, I didn't think I would find any purpose for using what I learned in that class in real life.)
Of course English 302 (Editing) will be very useful in any writing or designing I do with the documents. I have practiced analyzing the audience, purpose, and message of documents, manuals, websites, even creation of all of these things. I know two major things about my audience: physics and other science related intellectuals and most of them are not from America. With this in mind, I must consider the word choice and design layouts of everything I do for the event itself. I have to watch for American-English idioms that might confuse or upset the participants.
Overall, this capstone will be fun. I get to be creative and use my previous classes to my advantage. Whoever asked "what do you do with a B.A. in English" never opened his eyes to the possibilities right in from of him. (P.S. Avenue Q is great, minus the opening line. Hint: It's directed at people like us.)
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Thanks for this outline of the work that you're planning to complete this semester. I especially appreciate your effort, at this early stage, to connect your various projects to the different courses you've taken in the English major. Making those types of questions throughout (what have I learned as a PWE student, and how am I putting it to use in this internship) the semester can be a good way to focus your weekly reflective writing.
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