Abstract 1 Guidelines

Spring 2001

Your first abstract is due in class on Tuesday, February 6, as indicated in the course outline and as announced in class. Please make sure to have your papers ready to turn in at the start of class that day. My policy is not to take any late papers unless there are circumstances sufficient to justify an excused absence from an exam. Please make arrangements to turn your paper in early if you need to miss class on February 6.

The requirements for the paper, as indicated in the course outline, are 3-4 (maximum) typed pages, double-spaced. You should use an acceptable font and type size for academic papers like Times Roman 11 or 12 point. The paper should be written in an academic, scholarly style with good organization and grammar. Writing in the first person (I think, In my opinion, etc.) would not be appropriate for this assignment.

You will be assigned a case study from Chapter 4 of your textbook, Ethics in Media Communications: Cases and controversies. The purpose of the paper is to provide a concise abstract or summary of the case study’s content, the most relevant ethical issues, and your critical analysis. Please use the SAD Model of Reasoning as the framework for your abstract. See chapter 3 for a complete description of the SAD Model. (I encourage you to read ahead and become familiar with Chapter 4 because the material may be helpful as you write your abstract.) You will want to use concepts and theories from the first three chapters in your textbook as potential discussion points in your analysis. You must define what the SAD model is and tell the reader you will be using it to analyze the case study. Follow the sample application of the SAD model in chapter 3 to be sure you include all aspects of the model in your abstract. Please assume that your reader is not familiar with the case, so you’ll need to include enough detail to explain the points you raise. However, please note that it is not necessary to recount every point and detail in the case you are assigned – you won’t have the space. Just focus on the most significant ethical issues and points raised.

Basically, this is a summary of the comments I’ve made in class about this project. Hopefully, this will help you focus your papers. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to let me know.

*Note: I wish to acknowledge and thank Dr. Michael Hoefges for allowing me to use the basics of this assignment in this course.

© B.L. Yates 2001