Choose a topic related to organizational communication that you are interested in. Now narrow that topic to a specific question whose answer you think will be useful in your professional life. Find three scholarly articles related to this question, at least one of which must be in a communication journal listed on pages 10-11 of Bourhis, et al. (2009) or clearly indicate that the author is a communication scholar. You now have two tasks in the paper: 1) explain the answers these articles give for your research question and 2) critique those answers. That is, do those answers make sense to you in terms of your own lived experience?   You will hand in your three articles with your final paper.

OPTION A: Choose a topic related to organizational communication that you are interested in. Now narrow that topic to a specific question whose answer you think will be useful in your professional life. Find articles related to this question in scholarly communication or management journals. You now have two tasks in the paper: 1) explain the answers these articles give for your research question and 2) critique those answers. That is, do those answers make sense to you in terms of your own lived experience?

OPTION B: Analyze and critique a workplace in terms of one of the metaphors we have discussed in class or a metaphor of your choice.  The product of that approach should be an ethnography as one of Van Mannen’s three kinds of “tales,” or as a critical tale, as discussed in class.  This option also requires you to identify a specific question whose answer you think will be useful in your professional life and answer it in terms of how the workplace you choose enacts the metaphor you choose.

To select a topic

Begin by asking yourself what aspects of organizational communication or communication situations in the organizational setting you find particularly problematic or interesting. The assignment will be most useful to you if you can use it to help solve a real-life problem.  The question you seek to answer should be:

• Focused and specific, not a broad area of research like “how do you motivate employees?” or “how do you deal with conflict?” Instead, you would choose a more focused question related to motivation or conflict.

• Clearly linked to communication in the organizational setting.  That is, topics that aren’t about organizational life are inappropriate, as are topics that aren’t explicitly linked to communication.  I can help you shape your topic to meet this requirement.

Your topic proposal should:

• For graduate students: Say whether you are choosing Option A or Option B.  If you are choosing Option B, you should identify the organization you’re studying, your link to that organization, and the metaphor you’re choosing
• State the question you are seeking to answer.  If you are a graduate student choosing Option B, you should briefly explain the link between your organization, your metaphor, and this question
• Explain what makes this question so problematic
• Provide an annotated bibliography in which you cite, in APA style, at least five potential sources you’ve actually read and, for each source, provide a detailed paragraph in which you describe what the article/book/etc. is about, how you might use it, and display that you’ve actually read it.  At least three of these five sources should be from communication journals and/or by communication scholars.  Please note that you’re not yet writing a literature review, but rather an annotated bibliography with brief abstract entries as described on pages 25 and 26 of Bourhis, et al. (2009). of Bourhis, et al. (2009).  There is a sample annotated bibliography on pages 82-87  of  Bourhis, et al. (2009).  Abstracts should be of articles you have actually read and in your own words.  Copying an abstract from a database or article is plagiarism and will result in an F for the course.

Upon approval of your proposal, graduate students will produce a 10-12 page paper suitable for presentation at a regional or national communication convention and undergraduate students will produce a 7-10 page paper suitable for presentation at an undergraduate research conference.

Your paper:

• For undergraduates and graduate students choosing option A, should begin with a paragraph or two in which you introduce the question you are considering and its particular relevance to you, identifying the articles you are analyzing.

• For graduate students choosing option B, your introduction will identify your question, the metaphor you choose and the organization you choose.

• In all papers, your introduction should also have a thesis statement in which you provide a one-sentence summary of the argument you will make in the paper. The body of your paper will consider the questions in paragraph marked “OPTION A” or “OPTION B” above. Of course, you will conclude with a paragraph that summarizes and gracefully ends the essay.

The best papers will also be grammatically correct, free of spelling and punctuation errors, and will follow APA style (5th ed., 2001).  You will find Bourhis, et al. (2009) useful for its easy-to-use treatment of APA as well as for its research advice.

All of your work for this project should be typed (double spaced, margins of 1" all around, font no larger than 12). It should also be stapled. Be sure and keep a copy of all of your work for this project.

• Make sure you do everything called for in the directions.
• Start now, take your time, and use the services of the Writing Center in Kettler G19 if you need to.
• You are invited to show me a draft or discuss potential paper topics in office hours or by appointment.

Also useful, from the Helmke Library’s "Find Resources By" collection (from anywhere you can access the web):
ABI/Inform Suite, PsycINFO,  Sociological Abstracts

Of course, use IUCAT to determine whether Helmke Library owns a periodical

To determine whether full text for a given periodical is available online, go to the E-Journal Finder on the main Helmke Library web page

Denise Buhr is the subject librarian at Helmke Library assigned to the Communication Department.  You will find her helpful if you run into challenges doing your research. To make an appointment, e-mail her at buhrd "at" ipfw.edu or phone her at 481-5759

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