From Workroom to Classroom

According to the website, “ DEPCO exists to challenge the idea of a general education model that marches students through a uniform curriculum. Since 1982, DEPCO (Dependable Education Products Company) has successfully furnished thousands of schools, community centers, and organizations all over North America with curriculum, software and equipment designed to suit their individual learning needs. DEPCO's approach to educating today’s youth stands to revolutionize the education environment by offering engaging curricula that takes the intimidation and confusion out of the learning for both students and instructors.”

Essentially, Depco makes alternative curriculum for interested students. In aiming to educate mostly middle and high school students, Depco offers software programs and software manuals that instructs students on how to achieve various types of technical and scientific trials. As the sole copyediting intern, my job was to evaluate these manuals to make sure that they matched the software that they were designed for. When updating the webcam manual, I was able to determine the features of the webcam that had been changed when the version updated. Updating the CorelDraw manual was by far the behemoth of my internship. When making these changes, it was vital to be able to communicate with my supervisors in order to understand what needed to be done. I would consult the example pages that my supervisor had made me, and reach out if there was any confusion. Once, I could not find the images I needed to import into the program. As it turns out, the images were never uploaded. I had to come visit the headquarters in order to have the images uploaded so that I was able to effectively do my job. In this workplace, there were only two members (my supervisor and myself) who had an education background in writing (Driskell 59). However, the margin for error was much smaller. In the classroom, you can miss several points or questions and still receive an A in the course. In an internship, there is much less room for error. When I was going through the manual, it was important that I finished it so that it was absolutely perfect. If I make a mistake in the classroom, I get a 98 instead of a 100. If I make a mistake at Depco, it gets published. This is why it is so important to have working experience along with classroom experience. The classroom is a perfect, lower-stress environment that allows students to grow in their areas of interest while building their skills. In an internship, it allows students to get a glimpse at the high-pressure environment of work performance.

Anson, Chrisand Lee Forsberg. “Moving Beyond the Academic Community: Transitional Stages in Professional Writing”

Driskill, Linda. “Understanding the Writing Contexts in Organizations”

Katz, Susan. “A Newcomer Gains Power: An Analysis of the Role of Rhetorical Expertise”