International Advertising
COMM 480: Seminar: International Advertising (Summer 2021)
Research Proposal You will work throughout the semester to create a research proposal, in which you propose what you are going to do to test your hypotheses. The purpose of this assignment is to give you the opportunity to demonstrate your understanding of social-scientific research. You are NOT going to collect data or analyze data, nor are you going to present results from your study. This paper can build from the research question and articles cited in the annotated bibliography OR you can generate a new research question and annotate relevant articles. The project consists of two parts: a research proposal paper and a research presentation. Research paper (100 pts.): Although I do not like to provide a definitive answer about how many pages you will have to write to complete this assignment (because quantity and quality are not inherently related and because the goal of any good paper is to make a compelling, well written argument [regardless of length]), I understand that providing a general estimation of the length of a typical research paper is helpful. Therefore, you can expect to turn in a final product that is somewhere between 12 and 15 pages long (including a title page, abstract, introduction, literature review, methods and discussion, and references) (double-spaced pages, in Times Roman 12 font size, 1 inch margins on all sides). Papers not meeting these formatting requirements will be sent back for revisions. The late submission will result in a 10% deduction per day. Title page: This is a separate page that includes the title of your proposal (e.g., Identifying global and culture-specific dimensions of humor in advertising: A cross-cultural analysis) and your own name, the course number, and school affiliation. Abstract: This section should be in a separate page that summarizes the purpose of your study, theories and hypotheses, proposed method, and discussion. Introduction: In this section, you should introduce your study, and state the significance and the purpose of your study. Literature review: In this section, you are going to review the existing research on your topic, explain theories adopted for your study, define the variables in your study, provide the rationale behind the hypothesized relationships between variables and suggest the hypotheses and/or research questions to be addressed. Method: This section continues from Literature Review. In this section, you are going to state the proposed method (e.g., experiment, survey, content analysis) to test your hypotheses and/or research questions. You need to be specific about research sample (i.e., who will be in the study or what will be analyzed in the study), measures (i.e., what variables will be measured), and procedures of your study (i.e., what will be prepared prior to the study and what will happen in the study).
COMM 480: Seminar: International Advertising (Summer 2021)
Discussion: This section should address what your expected results of research mean in relation to the theoretical body of knowledge on the topic and your profession, and for communication professionals in the field being examined. In other words, what are the study's theoretical and practical implications? It may be one of the most important sections because it answers the “So what?” question. Also, in this section, you should suggest directions for future research investigations. References: References should be placed in separate pages following the “Discussion” section. Includes a minimum of seven references of scholarly journals or books. All intext citations must appear in the reference list; likewise, each entry in the reference list must be cited in your text. Please consult the sample APA papers I posted on Blackboard and the Purdue site (https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/2/10/) for formatting questions. In addition, to help you better understand what a research proposal is, I have post a sample research proposal, as well as completed research papers, on Blackboard, which may provide you with some ideas as to what a research proposal is. Research presentation (50 pts.): You will make a presentation of your paper at the end of the semester. Prepare for presentation slides that can be taken up to 15 minutes. Following your presentation, you will provide discussion questions. NO LATE PRESENTATION IS ACCEPTED WITHOUT A PROOF OF OFFICIAL EXCUSE.