The bold sections are what you need to submit in Step 3.
Word count for Step 3 (this assignment): 2,000 words minimum, no maximum. Your first draft and your final draft should be at least 4,500 words.
Title page: your name, COMM 328, Date, title of your paper
Introduction to and explanation of your topic and the problem or issue you’re examining
Include authoritative statistics, evidence, or examples that help explain why the problem or issue you’re writing about is significant
Research questions about your topic
1-2 questions. If you look at sample papers, you may see these simply listed as bullet points—it’s fine to do that. Some papers build a paragraph around the questions, putting them into context.
Methodology
State what you did in this paper—what media text/s you examined, what you searched for, how many years or publications or sites you searched
Literature Review
The history of the problem or issue that is your topic, using authoritative sources
What other scholars have written about this problem or issue
Findings
What you discovered in your research about your topic, show, film, or problem
Discussion
What you think your findings mean
Why your issue or topic matters; what’s at stake (you might use authoritative sources about why media matters to back you up here)
If applicable to your topic, solutions or strategies you found in your research that you’d suggest to address this problem
Conclusion
Summarize the essential problem and the key points from your paper
Bibliography
List every source that you quote or paraphrase in this report (you’ll have more sources in your first draft and final draft; list the ones you use so far)
Use MLA or APA formatting. There are strict rules about punctuation and order of information. See the OWL Purdue site (link is above) or ask the library for help—there’s an app that assists in this through the library
