EL7046 - Publishing Placement

Contact hours encompass four structured workshops that will prepare you to engage with and evaluate your placement experience alongside specialist hands-on experience in the publishing industry. This combination of experiential learning and reflective practice is designed to maximise the value of your placement. You will learn by reflecting on your own practice in supporting the work of a contemporary publishing team. The main focus of the module is for you to learn under the supervision of qualified staff in a live workplace context. You will complete a minimum of 100 hours of direct engagement on placement. At the start of the module you will learn how to construct and maintain a learning log which you will be able to use to chart and evaluate your own learning. Through the completion of the reflective learning log you will be encouraged to reflect on your experiences and what you have learned from them. You will learn how to accept responsibility for managing your own learning in the workplace and identify and analyse the impact of your work on colleagues, as well as your understanding of options for future employment.

You will be supported through your placement by a series of structured workshops that will prepare you for professional experience, help you to reflect effectively on your workplace learning, engage in critical readings related to your placement and assist you in approaching the presentation and creation of the learning log. You will engage in one-to-one discussions with your module leader to consider the ways in which a variety of roles across the business connect in the wider organisation and how individuals and teams work together and separately on projects.

You will be supported by your module tutor and placement mentor in developing theories of personal development through the setting up and use of a learning log. Through a ‘learning log’ you will manage your own learning making formative interventions and entries as you engage in the placement and analyse and reflect on the networked roles of the publishing industry. This will develop your employability as you articulate your learning from your experiences in the workplace and communicate your processes and the impact you have had in the summative assessed presentation at the end of the module. Formative feedback from the presentation will help to inform the production of the summative assessment of the reflective learning log.

On the placement you will be supported by a Hachette or New Writing North in-house mentor as you engage with various professionals across the organisation. You will use your learning log to reflect on work place experiences and your module tutor will assist in supporting you with assessment criteria. You will have tutorials along with self directed learning resources on Blackboard that will help you connect your self-directed personal development learning to your experiences on placement.

All modules at Northumbria include a range of reading materials that students are expected to engage with. The reading list for this module can be found at: http://readinglists.northumbria.ac.uk
(Reading List service online guide for academic staff this containing contact details for the Reading List team – http://library.northumbria.ac.uk/readinglists)

The assessment for this module will ask you to:

1.Knowledge & Understanding
• Show understanding of the variety of roles in contemporary publishing
• Show understanding of the practices, structures and challenges across different publishing sectors and the socio-cultural and economic contexts of the publishing industry;

2.Intellection/Professional Skills & Abilities
• Use reflective strategies to review professional practice and consider the reality of working in a variety of roles within the contemporary publishing industry, including the wider place of these roles within the context of an organisation and the industry as a whole and the development of interpersonal and professional communication skills and collaborative working practices;
• Demonstrate the transferable skills necessary for employment including independent engagement, team work and reflective practice in regards to continuing professional development.
3.Personal Values Attributes/Cultural Awareness, Ethics Curiosity
• Reflect on experiences on placement and how they develop skillsets including the ability to assimilate and analyse information, negotiate and persuade, work individually and as part of a team, show self-awareness and sensitivity to ethics and values in the working environment

Formative
(Sem 1: weeks six & nine)
(Sem 2: week two & nine)
Learning Log entries of 500 words each offering reflections on roles and responsibilities, knowledge and skills, structures and challenges in the placement working environment and reflective lessons learned for individual professional development. Formative entries will be reviewed in seminars by the module tutor.

Summative
(Sem 1: week 12)
Briefing Presentation (30%) equivalent to 2000 words: one to one briefing on placement roles and responsibilities, activities, organisational size and shape, culture and management, workplace practices and ethics. 5mins on key findings.

Summative
(Sem 2: assessment week 3)
Reflective Learning Log (70%) 3000 words: 6 entries of 500 words each offering reflections on roles and responsibilities, knowledge and skills, structures and challenges in the placement working environment and reflective lessons learned for individual professional development.

Placement (100hours)
(Sem 2: assessment week two)
All placement activities to be completed before Assessment Week 2 in Sem 2 to enable reflection for the final assignment.

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In the Publishing Placement module you will have the opportunity to work in one of Hachette’s publishing offices alongside Hachette employees and associates and/or with New Writing North on literary events and programming. Placement roles will involve rotations within the organisations to provide you with a comprehensive overview of how different parts of the businesses operate as well as a sense of the different organisational management structures. You will be required to engage in 100 hours of engagement to meet the requirements of the module. You will work with Hachette and New Writing North staff under the supervision of an assigned mentor to gain insight into a variety of roles and contexts in the contemporary publishing and literary industries. You will be supported through discussions with your mentor to consider the ways in which a variety of roles across the business connect in the wider organisation and how individuals and teams work together and separately on projects.