Internship Report Writing for Law Students

Now that almost the internship season is over, you might be wondering about ways to write an internship diary/Internship Report to submit in your University. This article will help you with a few tips and steps to writing an Internship Report, especially for law students.

Disclaimer: The following elucidates a few ideas and there is no necessity that you should follow exactly the same; you can pour in your effective ideas and creativity.

Internship Report Writing for Law Students

Step 1: The Front Page

Some universities expect you to create a front page with their logo and your details while some expect you to create it with the signature and details of the organisation/firm/advocate. To be on the safer side, consult the Internship committee of your university

Step 2: List out your Activities

For this, you can create an excel sheet and enter your activities. This can be done during your internship period or after that period. This will help you to remember the tasks done. Ideally, have three columns: date, day, and work done.

Note: In some internships, the seniors ask you to submit task reports on a daily basis for them to evaluate. Make sure to ask the concerned person if they have such formalities.

Step 3: The Daily Progress

Ideally, spare some time in the evenings after your internship hours and write down the tasks done. If you are tired, you can write down the keywords so that you can develop them later.

When you are writing an internship diary, make sure you add the following. This may help in the accurate presentation of what you’ve learned.

1. Give a maximum of a page introduction of the institution, whom you interned under, number of internship colleagues etc.
2. Mention the tasks assigned.
3. Elaborately explain the tasks you completed. For example, your internship officer assigned you to visit the local government office to collect the answers for the RTI filed, followed by 5 other tasks. Due to acceptable reasons, you were able to complete 4 tasks. Write the same in the diary. At the end of the day, if possible, get written or oral remarks from the officer and mention the same in the diary. As mentioned above, there are firms/institutions which expect you to get your progress sheet signed on daily basis and do ask beforehand to score brownie points and to get a good impression.
4. At the end of every day’s report, mention whatever you’ve learned.

Report Writing Sample for Law Students

The following can be taken as a sample to record every day’s report.

Name:

Organisation Name:

Position:

Internship officer: This can include name, position or optionally their qualification.

A brief introduction: Today is the fifth day of my internship. So far, I’ve been enjoying the work assigned to me and is helping me grow towards my goal.

You can add more using your creativity. Tip: make sure your internship diary sounds positive; for, you shouldn’t sound sulky and disinterested in your internship experience. For example, you had a bad day at your internship because your senior shouted at you for your work. You can reframe it and write like, “I guess I need to improve my work because my senior trusts me and has high expectations which I should live up to.” This also helps you psychologically to be more positive and grasp only the good things in mind which helps in maintaining a peaceful mind.

Tasks assigned: For example, if you are working under a lawyer, you may be asked to visit various courts in a day. When I was interning under an advocate, we used to visit many courts and I used to write it down on a notepad or on phone. For example, on a day, we were supposed to visit different courts in the same complex and I noted it down and it was easy while writing the internship diary. Also, it will come in handy at times when you are stuck somewhere in a new place or in a different place in the court complex.

For quick reading, write it down in bullets. This will also ensure a neat presentation.

Tasks completed: Some days you might complete the tasks in half a day and some days you might need an extension for completing the tasks. On such days, add a line or two to report the tasks you’ve done, the pending tasks and the reason behind them, expected time of completion.

For example, during my internship period in a popular NGO, I was asked to get the received answers from government offices. I was asked to visit 6 places out of which I completed 4 and the remaining two were almost an hour’s travel from the 4^th place. Calculating the approximate time I could reach the place, it was after the closure of the office. So, I noted it down and informed my senior. After receiving her acceptance, I resumed work the next day.

So, you can write the following whenever there are pending works.

I was assigned (so-and-so) work by (this person) and I was able to complete (this much work) since the office was closed and I would definitely complete this work during the next working day of the institution.

You can also the tick option and cross option in bullets and numbering to mark the finished and unfinished works of the day. This appears very neat and creative.

Things learnt: This can include moral values too. For example, during one of my internships, I was taught various methods to connect within ourselves for success in our life. Thus, I jotted down as, today in addition to learning to draft a petition, I learnt the art of connecting with oneself. You can mention a line or two or add as a tip in your diary.

In my recent internship, I listed out the number of things I needed to learn and struck them down one by one as I learned them throughout my internship period. You can do the same as it will help you focus more on the things you actually want to.

If you feel you are progressing daily, make a note of that and towards the end of the internship, you can rate your work. In addition, ask your internship officer to rate your work. Compare both of your ratings. This will help you to grow constructively.

Step 4: Attach Documents

After completing the report, attach necessary documents like internship certificate etc.

If possible, get it signed and evaluated by your internship officer.

Hope this article helps! Good Luck!

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