Assignments

The following elaborates a bit on four of the class requirements.

Market Study
Comparative Strategy Critique
Research Paper
Oral presentation

Market Study

You will pick a country or target market. Please do not choose your native country or the US (OK to do non-English speaking audiences in the US, as long as it's not your native culture or language).

1. You can use the Market Study Template to guide you. To help you gather the relevant market data also consult the links provided in the Resources section of this site.

2. Write a culture analysis, referencing cultural models and schema.

3. Research and discuss some of the recent and most notable technology and communication trends in this culture.

No more than 5 pages, please.

Top of Page

Comparative Strategy Critique

Choose a company and organization with an international business component or product. This could be a company's global web presence, or an adaptation of a product for other markets (e.g. Coca-Cola's product assortment in Japan).

Discuss the perceived deliberateness and effectiveness of their localization approach. You can either use your own analysis based on the information we've discussed in class or you can do additional reading on the topic.

Summarize yoru findings in no more than 5 pages. Illustrations are a good means of showing difference.

Top of Page

Research Paper

In conducting research on your chosen topic, try to rely more on primary research articles than on armchair discussions of the topic. That is, as must as possible rely on empirical studies, not meta-analyses of empirical studies. That said I admit that for some topics original research may be hard to find, so you may also need to use discussion articles at times.

After reading sufficiently, construct a thesis and then organize your interpretation and synthesis of the readings into a coherently organized presentation with your thoughts leading your argument. Avoid simply reciting information about one article after another. It is boring to read a paper that simply states that one paragraph is on what Mr. A did, one paragraph on what Ms. B did, ... one paragraph on what Dr. Z said, and so on for another 50 paragraphs. Make sure that if you use any wording from your source materials that you use quotation marks and cite sources appropriately. A research paper presents an opportunity for you to synthesize your ideas and judgments about what you have read. For more information about research papers, consult http://staff.washington.edu/writesoc/PDF_Files/ResearchPaperDefined.pdf

As you read articles, organize your presentation by grouping them based on some categorization principle. For example, articles A, B, F, and H are related in some way and therefore will be grouped under a relevant heading with a relevant topic sentence that relates to the overview and any subheading before it. Then start discussing what article A contributes to your thesis. If you have questions about what constitutes your words versus those of an author you should cite, please talk with me or consult the TC Plagiarism Policy http://www.uwtc.washington.edu/resources/docdepot/plagiarism.htm.

The paper should have an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. The introduction should probably start with a bit of background on the topic and quickly move to a purpose statement (perhaps) and to a thesis statement (definitely). The introduction should end with an overview of the major subsections of the body of the paper, announcing the first-level subheadings.

The following illustrates a structure that works well for presenting the type of information you will find for your paper.

Enlightening Concrete Title

Introduction

Background; Purpose (maybe); Scope (maybe); Thesis (definitely); Overview of A, B, C

Heading A

Overview of subtopic Aa, Ab, Ac

Subtopic Aa with topic sentence, mores sentences, and perhaps transition to subtopic Ab

Subtopic Ab with topic sentence, mores sentences, and perhaps transition to subtopic Ac

Subtopic Ac with topic sentence, mores sentences, and perhaps transition to major heading B

Heading B (same method as heading A)

Heading C etc.

Conclusions--pick up major issues from A, B, C, etc. that allow you to reiterate your thesis more emphatically (absolutely no new information should be introduced at this point, particularly no new studies). Some of you might also make recommendations for future research in this section (in which case, you might entitle it: Conclusions and Recommendations).

End the paper with a regular bibliography (not the annotated one described below).

Within the paper use whatever citation style you like. I find the style of "(Author, date)" to be very convenient (for both the writer and the reader). Use "et al." for more than two authors once you have mentioned all authors' names the first time. Proper punctuation is "(Jones et al., 1986) or (Jones et al. 1986)." Notice that there is no comma or period after "et."

I will grade the paper on content, organization, style, grammar, and--most importantly--what you finally say.

Tips on Writing Style and Correct Mechanics
I assume that you already know how to write very well, but a few reminders are listed below.

Do:
Place figures/tables only after you have discussed them, telling your readers what is important to notice in the figures or tables.
Use titles on figures and tables.
Make pronouns clearly relate to their antecedents. The pronoun "this" creates a particular problem for many writers. The reader should easily be able to find a single word or short phrase that the pronoun "this" refers back to. Do not make your reader figure out what the whole previous sentence or paragraph adds up to and how it works as an antecedent (e.g., unclear pronoun reference example: Chinese and Japanese are known to use many illustrations in their user manuals, particularly cartoons of line-drawings. This is common. . . . ----- What does "this" refer to??? How about: This practice, This trend, This pattern, This finding, This phenomenon, etc.)

Don't:
Wallow in metadiscourse where you keep talking about your thought processes and activities involved in researching your topic and writing the paper (e.g., I found very few books on the topic so I went to another library and then I asked a few friends. I spent a lot of time perusing the materials and was surprised to find. . . . Then I decided to categorize. . . . So I enumerated. . . ). Such writing is boring and off the point!

Note: Your paper (discussed above) should contain a normal reference list, not the annotated bibliography. BTW, you may find the following helpful for correct citations of electronic media. http://www.apastyle.org/elecref.html

Top of Page

Oral presentation

You will have 20 minutes for your talk. Plan on 15 minutes of formal presentation, allowing a few minutes for getting set up and a few minutes for questions from the audience. Make sure to review the Oral Presentation Grading Sheet (I will use it during your presentation).

Good presentations are similar to well written papers. Your audience should first hear a little background, then a thesis, and finally an overview of the major points you will develop. Then you should tell the audience that you are addressing the first subtopic. Transitions, overviews of sub-subtopics, and so forth are all helpful. The same organizational strategies that you use in a paper are valuable for an oral presentation.

If you want to reproduce materials for the class or use transparencies, feel free. If you use handouts or overheads, follow these guidelines:

Keep the information at the superordinate level. Extremely detailed handouts distract your audience.

When possible, use bulleted or numbered phrases instead of sentences. Whole sentences (particularly long ones) or paragraphs in handouts or overheads also distract the audience. They will spend their time processing the syntax instead of listening.

On transparencies, use fonts large enough for your audience to read easily.

Turn the overhead off when not using it so that the audience pays attention to you and not to the screen.

I will grade the talk on its content, organization (logical approach and how you reveal it), language, and general presentation (your physical manner, voice, visuals, poise, and so forth).

Top of Page