marketing 10 pages
Intro to Marketing MKTG 304 01 20882-2018
SPRING 2018
FINAL RESEARCH PROJECT - GUIDELINES
DUE: Completed paper due April 23/2018 11:59 P.M. Project will be submitted via SAFEASSIGN and sent to me directly via UDC email.
LENGTH: Between 10-12 pages double-spaced. This does not include cover sheet, tables, charts, appendices or reference section.
FORMAT: 1” margins on top, bottom, and sides; 12 point Times New Roman or similar type. APA Style Sheets will be used.
VALUE: 25% of your course grade and of inestimable value in the learning process.
1. TOPIC: You can prepare this report on a marketing related topic of your choice, preferably related to something in the area of social media and digital analytics. An example could be “how have Google Analytics impacted the world of marketing research”. It should provide a synthesis of information from a minimum of ten to fifteen different sources. I would like for you to provide me with your topics no later than April 8th. I will review them for suitability and difficulty. There is a list of topics that you can draw from. This is the same list that we used for the midterm paper. I will add 3-4 additional topics. Note: This must be a marketing paper. Papers on Finance or Management should be turned in to the appropriate classes.
2. CONTENT: Prepare a literature review of articles that discuss the topic that you are interested in. A literature review reports on what other authors have to say about a particular topic. When you have done this then synthesize the material and draw your own conclusions from it.
3. SOURCES: Sources for this project may include books, journal articles, web sites, etc.
· The databases most likely to provide journal articles that cover your topic are ABI-Inform and The Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe, but the entirety of the Aladin data base set may be helpful. Check out other databases, such as government documents, which may be available through the Georgetown library since there may be other useful sources, depending on your topic.
· The library has many resources, including:
· Web page on using the World Wide Web to find sources.
· Web page with useful information on its resources.
· Catalogue of all books available in the Georegtown library.
· Make sure that if you cite only authoritative web sources. When evaluating websites to determine whether they are authoritative, try these credibility tests:
· Who is the Publisher? Government bodies and educational institutions can generally be regarded as authoritative. Don’t necessarily reject sites created by individuals – some people are expert in their sphere of interest and have excellent websites. If in doubt about a site try to contact the publisher – a good site should always provide contact information.
· Is the information current? Look for a date somewhere on the page, but be careful that you are not just looking at the date the site was begun. Good web authors will give a revised date each time a page is updated.
· Where does the information in the website come from? Some sites are purely the work of the web author, but many others import data from far and wide. Check that the source of imported data is acknowledged.
· Is the information objective? Many organisations and groups put their views to the world via the Web. This is their right, but remember these views may be biased – look for balance.
· Wikipedia is NOT authoritative. It can, however, point you in interesting directions. It is certainly acceptable and even recommended to use the bibliographies attached to many Wikipedia cites. The same applies to GOOGLE.
4. EXHIBITS: Where appropriate, you may wish to include exhibits within the text of your report, including:
· Tables of data
· Charts
· Graphs
These elements must be integrated into the text of your report, not put in a separate section at the end. The purpose of these exhibits is to help the reader better understand your findings.
5. DOCUMENTING SOURCES: When you consult and refer to any sources on the internet, in books or periodicals, or from any other source, you must document these sources by using the APA style endnotes. Even when you put something into your own words, if the idea or statistic came from some other source you need to clearly indicate the source of the information. Do this using The American Psychology Association style manual. A copy of this should be in the library. There is also a set of videos and a handout in Course Content on APA Style writing. APA is the standard business school format.
6. QUOTATIONS: If you quote more than four words in a row from a report, article, or document, you must put quotation marks around it and clearly indicate the source of the quotation. Do this using the APA style procedure.
7. USE ONLY AUTHORITATIVE SOURCES: Be careful about using internet sources. For example, we have had students who have found another student’s assignment on the internet and quoted this as a source. THIS IS NOT AN AUTHORITATIVE SOURCE! Make sure the internet sources you use are of reputable quality. You may note that I have mentioned this twice. It’s not an oversight! Using non authoritative sources will be looked at unkindly by the grader.
8. FORMATTING REPORT: Your written report should be as professional as you can make it.
· The report must be typewritten and single-spaced with 1" margins on top, bottom, and both sides.
· 12 point Times-Roman type or similar font Cambria is good, Calibri isn’t.
· List of references must be in APA format
· Leave a line between paragraphs.
· Maximum of 15 pages (marks deducted for exceeding the length limit).
· Pages must be numbered. (Do not number the cover page, start with the first page of meaningful text. You need not number the references or other additions)
· Your written project should be carefully proofread and edited.
· I will provide a separate document for the cover sheet, which will be used for all of our projects.
9. SUBMITTING REPORT: When your project is completed leave it in the SAFEASSIGN box within Blackboard before the deadline.
10. Grading Parameters: I will provide a rubric which will provide the grading parameters at a later date.
11. ISSUES that arose from the last round of papers include:
a. Citations-Often not used, or used badly. Please consult and use the style manual of the American Psychological Association.
b. References-Your reference section must conform to the APA style. No exceptions. Some of you had no reference sections at all. The package can’t be a research paper without references. The majority of your references should be double blind and peer reviewed. Remember you are writing for research not pleasure.
c. Headings-Headings are useful for two reasons. First they help the author organize their thoughts. Headings keep you from wandering over the horizon with your writing. Second, they help the reader to understand what is coming.
d. Colloquial terms-Avoid folksy writing habits like “nowadays.”
e. Titles-The title of your paper should always closely correspond to what you actually write.
f. Grammarly-Some of you should use Grammarly or another grammar checker. There are others. Perhaps some of you could go in together and rent a copy for a year. It is expensive.
g. Paraphrase works- Please do not have any 200 word quotes.