Amanda Rodriguez

Internship in Editing
3 December 2015
Self-Reflection
Before my internship with Travel Research Online, I had some skills of basic online
research based on the handful of publications that I have written for during my college semesters
at both Miami Dade College and Florida State University. I was already well aware of what was
considered a good source, and what was considered a bad source. My experience writing for
Travel Research Online, however, has definitely allowed me to grow and add to my skill set as
both a writer and researcher.
The moment I began my internship with the company, I was immersed in researching
about different places around the world that I have never before traveled to. This part was
thrilling for me because I have always been interested in traveling around the world, so this
internship provided me the opportunity to research on certain places on the world that I had been
considering to put on my bucket list. I was assigned a different city around the world at least
once a week, and the research I had to complete entailed looking up a citys landmarks,
attractions, children attractions, shopping, nightlife, food, climate, events, and day trips. This
research was very extensive because I had to make sure that the facts I was finding were accurate
and something that travelers would enjoy seeing on their visit to that specific city of interest. A
lot of my research took more than six hours in a day just to make sure that all of the places I was
writing about was filled with fun facts about the specific place I was writing about, detailed
descriptions of the specific landmarks and attractions to visit, suggestions that travelers should
consider when going to a specific area in the city, and the history of what that landmark was
initially built or used for. It was through this internship that I learned how to be an expert about a
place I never traveled to before. I basically had to immerse myself in the city and its culture for a
whole week to be able to accurately depict the types of experiences that people may encounter
there. This experience at Travel Research Online, however, was tough to adjust to at first. Even
though it was a bit bumpy when it came to producing my first guide, (I had to re-send to edited
drafts to my editor before he approved it for publication) writing guides became easier for me as
my internship progressed.
Each guide took about a week for me to complete. During this week, I would separate the
different sections I would need to write about and research 4-7 landmarks or topics of interest to
describe to my readers. I had difficulties with being descriptive about these landmarks and
attractions in my first couple of guides. One of my main critiques that I received from my editor
was that I used similar word choice throughout my guides. I would overuse the words
beautiful, explore, and enjoy. I had a tough time being able to explain a specific location
in so much detail, that the reader could easily imagine the place I was describing. This critique
came as a shock to me at first because I enjoy writing descriptions and creative writing in
general. Through track changes on Word, my editor advised me to use different words and
descriptors. Once I realized that I had trouble describing the place because I have never seen it
for myself, I found that one of the easiest ways to be able to view the attraction in my mind as I
was writing about it was to search up videos about the given city and attraction I trying to
describe.

With time, I became a pro at describing a place I have never before seen in person. Other
critiques I got was based on basic sentence structures and simple grammatical errors that I would
miss from not reading out loud.
I have written and revised over 27,000 words for Travel Research Online, covering Delhi,
Istanbul, Madrid, Melbourne, Salzburg, Verona, and Zurich. My editor advised me in the
beginning of the internship, that each guide I would produce for the company would have to be
at least 2,500 words in length. Even though I wrote more than what was required to fulfill the
requirements of my internship course credit, I have been able to get a true feel for what its like
to write travel guides for a company that does extensive research and editing. I have expanded
my vocabulary, and I have learned how to write evocatively to capture the interests of travelers
looking for interesting places to travel to. I have also been able to improve my skills in general
on Microsoft Word based on track changes. I have always written for writing publications, but it
wasnt until recently that I had been exposed to editing my own articles through track comments
on Word.
Throughout this internship, I would work from home the majority of the time. Despite
never being in the office, I always had a constant communication with my editor. If I was not
able to complete a guide after a week or if I became stuck on a specific part in my current guide,
my editor was always very responsive through emails and eager to help. He even offered
multiple times that if anything was ever unclear through email, I could pass by the office and run
by his line edits. It was through my editors detailed instructions and track changes on my
documents that I was able to expand my writing skills for these travel guides so quickly.
The only suggestion I do have for the company for future interns to improve the learning
experience for them, is to have a face-to-face meeting when you complete the first guide. I
suggest this because I only needed guidance for the first guide that I wrote for this company
because I had never before written a travel guide. I was not very clear on how the company
wanted my draft laid out, or how they wanted me to cite my sources. My first draft for the first
guide that I wrote looks completely different when compared to my drafts for the final guides I
wrote. The learning curve took a while only because I was working from home, and this caused
me to make errors that I would have probably not made if I had someone in the room next to me
to go to with my questions. This suggestion, however, is a small one because despite not meeting
in person, my editor was very helpful and was always in the office when I needed to speak about
something. Having interns meet with their editors in person to review their first guide will only
allow for a better learning curve. I was very consistent in emailing my editor when I had a
question, but a lot of mistakes I made such as including pictures when I didnt need to or the
overall structure of my guide, could have been avoided with someone making actual pen marks
on my first draft.
Despite this small suggestion, my experience interning for Travel Research Online has
inspired me to continue to pursue a career in writing. I have always been very interested in
pursuing a writing career in the field of both food and travel. This internship has allowed me to
get my feet wet and write a bit about all aspects about a city. I had to learn about specific foods
people in the country like to eat, and what types of activities that those people do on the
weekends or during the yearly festivals that the city would celebrate. Writing for this internship
gave me a lot of freedom to express myself and feature the types of places and events that I
found interesting about a given city. I could not have been more thrilled to have been chosen to
be an intern at such a remarkable company that strives to bring the joy of travel to others.

Total word count for all revised guides: 27,000

Melbourne, Australia total word count: 3,451
Madrid, Spain total word count: 5,419
Zurich Switzerland total word count: 3,257
Delhi, India total word count: 3,911
Verona, Italy total word count: 3,246
Istanbul, Turkey total word count: 4,239
Salzburg, Austria total word count: 4,476