Journal Writing

Many professionals in different fields use the personal journal as a tool to encourage thinking, analyze and evaluate new experiences, clarify values, deepen self-knowledge, and solve problems. Reflection is an important component of work-based learning through the Cooperative Education Program. As you work and learn in your pre-professional co-op placement this semester, you will encounter new situations, meet new people, learn new skills, formulate new conceptions, and change previously held ideas about what it means to be an engineer

Some Co-op employers ask their students to maintain a journal to document their training and work experience. The journal will also provide you with a record of the significant experiences and accomplishments and the network of new contacts, which will be useful in developing your resume and showing employers concrete, specific achievements when interviewing in the near future.

E-mail Journal Format:

Subject heading - "Journal for week of _______ "
Message body:
- Weekly Activities
  - 1-2 paragraphs of the week's major activities, assignments or observations
- Comments/ Reactions
  - Personal reflections, opinions, gut-level feelings, and questions.

Questions to help you get started on writing your journal:

Weekly Activities
- What are the primary duties you performed this week?
- What new skills did you learn or receive training in this week?
- What was your major accomplishment this week?
- With whom did you meet or conduct business and how can they be contacted?
Reactions/Comments/Feelings
- What experience and/or training would you like to have?
- What goals have you identified and set for yourself?
- What problem did you encounter and how would you solve it if you had the authority to do so?
- What beliefs and knowledge do you have about being a civil, electrical, or mechanical engineer and how have they changed?

Example:

Weekly Activities
- 2/12 Worked in the design section. Completed one week of training on AutoCAD. Was introduced to engineers and support staff in survey section.
- 2/19 Worked on a simple redesign of a portion of Kamehameha Highway.
Reactions/Comments/Feelings
- I liked the training session. It was long and tiring but I came out of it feeling like I can use the software to do simple design work for the office. Seems like this is something all engineering students should learn before graduating since it seems to be widely used by professional engineers.
- Had to study plan of existing road and think about what I learned in the transportation class. I never realized that it took so long to move a project from the design phase to the actual construction phase. Engineers need to really be able to plan years ahead.