Marketing Research
Expectations for the Research Papers
Students are expected to write a 3-4 page position paper (single spaced). This position paper should either support or refute the current marketing model or the Ries and Trout chapter. Your instructor is NOT seeking a balance between the advantages and disadvantages, pros and cons, and other comparisons. Take a position and support that position with expert opinions from the literature. Students are required to choose to focus on a narrow (even tangential) aspect of the model and explore aspects of theory and practice. Integration and linkage with previous assignments or the alternative assignment for the day is also required and will aid in efforts to truly understand the material. At least four outside sources are to be used of which at least two must be from academic, peer reviewed journals.
Guide to Grading Written Materials
Acceptable sources for the student papers are peer-reviewed journal articles and substantive, published articles from newspapers, magazines, or online business or academic journals. In short, your chosen articles MUST have a publication name, an author's name, and a date of publication. The following are not allowed as primary sources: personal blogs, Wikipedia, or information posted on company websites.
Subheadings within the paper (about one per page) to aid in organization .
APA style is to be used for in-text citations and References.
Avoid the use of nonspecific pronouns (them, their, they, etc) unless directly quoting a reference. Each occurrence AUTOMATICALLY reduces your grade The reader should be able to read ANY sentence out of context (or in isolation) and know exactly to whom each pronoun is referring. If the object of a pronoun is unclear, your grade will be reduced.
Misspelled words - Each misspelled word AUTOMATICALLY reduces your grade.
Misused words (i.e. their vs. there) Each misused word AUTOMATICALLY reduces your grade.
Subject-verb agreement - Mismatched subjects and verbs reduce your grade.
Improper use of (or omission of) an apostrophe reduces your grade.
it, its, it's, itself or ANY form of the word "it" is STRICTLY FORBIDDEN (unless quoting a reference), each occurrence AUTOMATICALLY reduces your grade.
"in order to" this overused phrase adds little and is to be omitted. Grading Rubric For Papers
Editing 20 The first editing error automatically reduces your score by 8 points, subsequent errors are 1 point each up to the max of 20 points.
Integration of material 20 Find ways to link the current paper to previous course material, or to the alternate assignment.
Variety and quality of sources 20 At least four outside sources with a mixture of quality academic journal sources, popular press, and other sources. At least two sources must be from academic peer reviewed sources
Critical Analysis 20 Effort should be devoted to critical analysis rather than simply stating the author's (model's) contentions. Students should take a clear position on a topic and support OR refute the topic.
Interesting Angle 20 Students should focus on an interesting (even tangential) aspect of the material
Total: 100
