What It Really Means To Learn By Doing: Unexpected Lessons From My Internship Experience

My experience as an intern at The WayOut Media has been an interesting journey. It has pushed me out of my comfort zone as a person and as a writer, and also helped me hone my research, writing, editing, and communication skills. Prior to this internship, I had little idea on what content writing entails and I thought blog writing was as simple as keeping a journal or a diary, only that you share it with a lot of people on the internet.

One of the first things I learned during the internship was how to write for the media and the techniques and styles that were essential to know. I also learned about a process that was just as important as the writing itself, which is editing. Beyond this, I learned about the activities that take place before you write. For example, when you have a topic to write on, before you start, you want to be clear on who your target audience is , that is, who you are writing for, and the writing style that would most effectively communicate your message to them. 

A new concept that became clear to me during this internship is the concept of personal writing styles. While articles are written according to brand voice, tone, and style, every writer has their own individual style of writing, either out of habit or preference. Some writers tend towards a more formal tone, while others may adopt a conversational and informal style of writing. It is good practice to identify and be aware of your personal writing style because it could point you to where your strengths as a writer lie. 

For me, the activities that made me feel like a fish out of water were the artsy projects. Making paper crafts has never been my strong suit, so it took some guts and determination for me to do the artsy projects. The second one was even more difficult because I made multiple attempts before I finally made one that was alright. Despite the time it took, I learned that I could do anything I set my mind to, whether I was good at it before or not. 

During this internship, I have worked on articles that I am really proud to have in my portfolio. One article I am very proud of is the one I wrote about Bitcoin Pizza Day. We were asked to write on a topic that trended within a week to the date and I recall searching different blogs and coming up empty. A simple exploration of X (formerly Twitter) led me to this topic, but I seriously debated submitting it. I was not sure I would do justice to it. The single bold step of going ahead with it helped me discover the importance of research in writing content.  

The boldest project I worked on during this internship was the media interview, for two reasons. One, when I selected niches to write on at the beginning of the internship, I chose business, lifestyle and religion. My articles since then fell into the business and lifestyle niches. I did nothing on religion and honestly, I was okay with it. My topic for the street interview was different from the others. It was an explicitly religious topic, one that was also controversial. 

It took me weeks of planning, failing, and asking boldly to finally get started. There was the issue of instruments, then I had to think about where to get people. After sorting all that, I asked people if they would do the interview, and many of them declined. When I got my first positive response, I was elated but even that fell through. I thought I was going to throw in the towel because I had tried different ways. Eventually, I decided to take one more audacious step and alas, everything fell in place. Apart from getting the videos done and having a great time editing them, I also learned the real importance of community. 

While activities like these made the internship experience interesting and engaging, there are a few things that I will not miss after it is over. The most significant of these would be the arts and crafts projects. Although I have learned that I can do whatever I set my mind to, paper crafts is not my area of strength. Writing is, and I would prefer to focus on it. Also, one thing I did not enjoy much was looking for trending topics to write on. Though it was challenging and a good experience, I prefer writing on classic topics in the business and lifestyle niches as opposed to trends. This is part of the reason I did not choose the entertainment niche.  

When I started this internship, I came in as a creative writer curious about the world of content and blog writing. Now, I am leaving this internship as a competent and experienced content writer with a body of work in the business and lifestyle niches. It has been a journey of becoming, one that I am immensely grateful for.