Paper Format for the Final Client Paper

Use this outline when you are constructing the compiled, final document for your client. Bring any questions about this to class next week.

The paper itself should be 20-30 pages double-spaced (1.25” margins, Times style font size 12). You may exceed the page length to provide references separately, e.g. you might have 28 pages of text followed by 3 pages of references. In any case you should not have more than 40 pages.

I. Executive Summary and Situation Analysis -- What is the issue facing the client? This is where you succinctly provide an overview of your document. It is an abstract on steroids (2 page maximum).

III. Statement of the Problem--Describe what precisely you intend to show/argue and why (i.e., address the ever-lurking "So What?" question).

IV. Methods--Describe the sample employed and the variables used to test your hypothesis. One should give just enough information here so that others can replicate your procedures (and hopefully come up with the same findings and conclusions as you did).

V. Results/Findings--In this section you present those results that specifically address your hypotheses. First present and discuss the descriptives, that is, the percentages of respondents falling into each response category of all of your categorical variables. Then discuss the relationships.

VI. Conclusions and Recommendations--Summarize your major findings. Make certain that you directly connect this section to the introduction you wrote and to what you said you were going to do in this research. Look at the introduction and make sure that you have clearly stated in that section what you intend to do in this work.

VII. References--At the end of your paper include (alphabetically by first authors' last names) all materials cited in your paper. Recommended format: APA.

You will have several appendices. Your appendices will include all of your client media monitoring memos, your focus group protocol, your interview protocol, your surveys and your raw data.