Looking for experience? Join our internship

Hallmentum manages several websites for our communities: Technically We Write is an open community about technical and professional writing and Coaching Buttons focuses on organizational leadership. These are article-based websites for an open community; everyone is invited to contribute an article to share their expertise. We do not run ads or sponsored content, and we do not pay for articles.

We have a strong volunteer author community for both websites. We strive for a welcoming and rewarding atmosphere where we appreciate our community members. For example, we may highlight certain contributors through interviews, and invite our community to respond to "roundtable" discussions or participate in "round-up" articles around a theme or topic. In the past, we've also provided free gifts to some community members, to thank them for their time in sharing articles with us.

This year, we want to recognize our community by publishing several free collections of popular articles as books. These will be available as free PDF "ebooks," with a low-cost print-on-demand option for those who prefer to have a printed book. Like our website, the books will be available under a Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike license.

An internship opportunity

We need your help. We are offering an unpaid internship opportunity to collect, organize, arrange, and edit these books. This is an excellent opportunity for a university student who wants to gain experience. Because students are returning to campus, we wanted to share this opportunity for any technical writing students who may be interested.

The project will be in three parts:

1. Collecting and sorting

Hallmentum will provide a list of URLs to all published articles that we would consider for inclusion in the books. You will need to click into each article and get a sense for what it is about. Then you will recommend articles to include in the books, and a "theme" for the article. (For example, we might decide to publish separate books around themes, such as one book around "markup" and another book around "desktop tools.")

We have around 300 articles to review for Technically We Write, and around 150 articles to review on Coaching Buttons.

Time estimate: about 40 hours

2. Technical editing

The articles already went through copyediting before they were published on the websites. However, articles accepted for the books will need additional technical editing. For example, articles may refer to other articles; this cross-linking is appropriate on a website, but we want the books to stand on their own. We expect that each article will require some editing. We will collaborate using Google Docs.

Also, many articles were initially published on the website using "straight" quotes and apostrophes, and "space hyphen space" instead of em dashes, but we want to consistently use correct typography, and will need to be corrected during editing.

Time estimate: about 80 hours

3. Final review

Hallmentum will create the books based on the edits, described above. When the PDF ebooks and PDF pre-print book interiors are ready, you will also need to provide a final review to catch any formatting errors.

Time estimate: about 2 hours per book (probably 5 or 6 hours total)

Additional details

This is an unpaid internship, but you will be listed as a co-editor for the ebooks and print books that we publish from this project.

Note that generative AI (such as Copilot or Gemini) will not be allowed during this project. We have a strong "no AI content" policy for both websites, and that extends to this internship project.

When you have completed the internship, we invite you to write an article about it for Technically We Write. This is an optional part of the internship, but would be an excellent opportunity to add an 'author' credit for your resume.

Learning objectives include:

• Evaluation and determination. You will sort through articles and recommend themes where we can collect similar articles into ebook themes. We will review the results together.

• Technical editing. The articles have already been edited prior to publication, but some minor errors may still exist. Your goal is to review each article, providing technical editing for grammar, spelling, style, and flow. Edits will be performed in a copy using Google Docs.

• Technical review. You will need to review the PDF copies for correctness and to identify any formatting errors or other issues.

• Communication and organization. You will work remotely. We will check in via virtual meeting during the semester at least once per month, or more as needed, and exchange emails to report progress.