Emma Overmaat: Demand Intern 2016 
Placement as: Publications Assistant at DEMAND Centre
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/emma-overmaat-a46516118
“At the moment, I am working at the DEMAND research centre, which focuses on the social practices connected to energy use. Their research aims to find out what energy is actually used for in the lives of people. My role in DEMAND is to prepare two books for publication. So far, the first book is finished and has been sent to the publisher. I will start working on the second book next week.
As a publications assistant, it is my job to proofread the book chapters, making them consistent in spelling, punctuation and layout. Furthermore, I format all the references correctly and collect them in an overarching bibliography to be printed at the back of the book. This also requires finding missing information about references online and corresponding with authors to retrieve missing information. I also correspond with the authors to check any changes that I have made. Lastly, I have to format the book manuscripts in accordance with the guidelines provided by the publisher.
So far, I have completed 80 hours of the 140 hours of my placement. I feel that the placement has been helpful for me in different ways, some of which I had not expected. I did expect to learn more about English and the rules regarding punctuation, hyphenation and capitalisation, and this has happened indeed. However, an unexpected skill that I am developing is communicating by email more easily. Whereas in the beginning, I would ponder emails to authors for ages, I am more comfortable now with approaching them and asking for their help or opinion. What I really value is that I feel the people at DEMAND trust me. I have prepared the first book to be send to the publisher on my own, without anyone checking my work. Their trust helps with feeling more confident in the work that I do.”
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