Training Interns in Speeches


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The three traits of good speech collection are Thoroughness, Accuracy, and Speed, in that order. This training guide should help emphasize these traits.
  1. Have the new intern read the public statements wiki pages: SpeechesGuide, FieldBoxes, Types, Do Take/Do Not Take, Helpful Hints/FAQ, Intern Expectations. There is a lot in there. They won't get it all on the first read, but they will get an idea of the vocabulary you're going to throw at them during training.
  2. When they're done reading, show the intern the public statements section of our website - "This is the final product." Open a couple of speeches, point out the different aspects: title, type, speaker, date, location, text, and source.
  3. Then pull up admin and point out the location of the same aspects of a public statement they just saw on our website. If you want, you can even pull up the same person and speech. Make the connection between what it looks like on our website and how they enter the data into admin - this may help emphasize the importance of accuracy.
  4. Assign them a low priority schedule - House 1 or House 2 and open it up. Walk the intern through the different columns especially the notes column - super useful. Remember, even though it's pretty clear and common sense, this is new to them. These schedules have a lot of officials, which will be challenging in the beginning. But these officials speak less than others, and their public statements are the least used portion of our website so the intern's mistakes (they will make mistakes, lots of them) will be less visible to our users. They also won't finish their schedules for the first week or so. Expect them to finish a full day of the house by their 8th work day - much later than that and there may be a problem.
  5. At this point, talk to the intern about your routine/procedure. Emphasize how a good routine will help with the important traits of good speech collection. Say:
    6. "When I arrive to the office, the first thing I do is open my email and pull up my schedules in one window. Then I pull up admin in another window, at half page size. In the third window, I pull up my sources. I like to do all of thomas first, and then all the websites. If the current schedule was not completely updated last time, I start with the most backed up officials." And so on.
  6. You've got the schedule and admin open - now show them some sources. Explain the layout of thomas.loc.gov - make sure to point out that they can select different congresses (112th, 111th, and so on). Point out the boxes where you only have to type the first few letters of an official's name, and their name is selected. Point out the date range selection, and the sort by date function. These may help avoid duplicates, as well as display a more manageable list of results. Now is a good time to point out some details from Do Take/Do Not Take.
  7. Let the intern observe as you enter a couple of floor speeches from thomas. Don't go too fast. Let them ask questions.
  8. While you observe, let the intern enter the remaining several floor speeches for that official. Remind him or her to check all of the boxes a second time before hitting "save" or "release to live web". The drop down for type is an easy one to forget.
  9. Move on to the websites. Explain how the websites are all different and can be tricky; mention how familiarity with the different websites on the assigned schedule will help with the three traits of good speech collection. Mention the different types they are likely to find on the websites:
    • Press Releases and Statements are very common and very similar.
    • Letters and PDFs - pretty easy, but they can ruin your rhythm.
    • News Articles and Op-Eds are similar in that they require the media outlet in the title and a by-line in the speech text. "By Unknown" is ok. We want the URL of the original source - watch out for ads.
    • Blogs and Columns get the Statement type - but they have their own formatting for the titles.
    • If they see Hearings or Interviews, inform the person on the Committees or TV Transcripts schedules. According to our rules, some items a press secretary calls an interview may actually be a News Article or Press Release - the intern should enter them as such.
  10. Emphasize thoroughly researching each website - for example, don't forget to check the blog if you've already done the press releases and statements. Now is a good time to point out some more details from Do Take/Do Not Take.
  11. Let the intern observe as you enter a couple of public statements from the website. Don't go too fast. Let them ask questions.
  12. While you observe, let the intern enter the remaining public statements for the website of that official. The drop down for type is easy to forget.
  13. Explain expectations:
    • If they work on public statements full time (8 hours) on their first day, they'll probably be able to enter 20-40 public statements.
    • When a schedule is up to date, politicians average 4-6 public statements per update. Be aware that this implies different frequencies of public statements for different politicians. The president, for example, is updated everyday. Members of the house of representatives
    • By the end of their second week, they should be closer to 80 public statements per day.
    • Even after extensive experience very few interns or staff are able to accurately research 150 public statements per day, but it's possible.
    • If a staff member or intern is really far off from those estimates, there may be a problem.
  14. At this point, leave them to work on their own. Check his or her work thoroughly at the end of the day or beginning of the next day and provide feedback. This feedback is a very important step. Provide some positive feedback for encouragement, as well as negative so they know what to work on.
  15. Through the next few days/weeks, walk over and chat. They will have questions that they didn't know they had until you sat down next to them. If possible, look over at his or her screen to make sure they're doing ok. It's generally good to be really available for the first three weeks, still present through the 6th week, and you can pretty much leave them alone for their last four weeks - but still check their work. Right around their last few weeks they'll be really comfortable, their attention will wander, and they'll make more mistakes.
  16. Stay familiar with Intern Expectations to monitor progress and productivity.

Carrots:
House schedules get old - we know. The work still must get done. Remind the intern that if they do well, they will be assigned to additional and more interesting schedules. If they do well they will be trained on Key Speeches and SQL. Remind them that words are interesting in themselves, and that, as they're collecting speeches, they are involved in the national political discourse and reading the different sides of the arguments on a variety of important topics. They are learning and becoming better informed citizens as well as doing work.
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