Marketing Students: 5 Guidelines For Your Final
Paper
Otilia Otlacan
Get motivated! ('Why do I write this paper?")
This is a basic question with a not-so-basic answer. In order
for a job to be done well and your dissertation paper is, in
fact, a job to be performed you should give yourself time to
figure out why you will do it and get yourself motivated. No
motivation no job quality, any professional can confirm that.
Here are some possible answers to the motivational question:
- Because it is a must if you do not do it, you do not
graduate;
- Because, if done with responsibility, it is an excellent
opportunity to stand out from the crowd and your peers the
Marketing job market gets busier with every day;
- Because you can practice your research skills while being
directed and supervised by professionals (eg. your university
professors);
- Because it could be a starting point for your career.
We all know the more you think about it, the more answers you
can find. Once you have your motivational level raised, you
will surely want to start your paper right away.
Choose your subject ("What should I write about?")
Allow yourself plenty of time to think what subject you would
like to pick for your paper. In some cases, your professors
already have a list of subjects from where you can choose one
but sometimes they would happily accept your own subject,
providing it is of interest and you convince them of your
reasons. Consider the following, before you go for a subject or
another:
- "Marketing" is a broad field which of its aspects do you
feel more interested into, and more comfortable discussing
about? Do you recall any particular course / chapter / subject
that raised your interest at a time?
- Why would your subject be of importance and who would be your
auditorium?
- Is your subject researchable? Is there any academic
literature base on the subject?
- Do you think you can come up with a personal contribution to
the subject?
- Do you see yourself developing that topic further on?
- Can you name at least a couple of persons who can guide you?
Would they be willing to do that for you?
Documentation, documentation and... documentation
"Documentation" is a magic key for any successful paper.
Student or acknowledged professional, once you made up your
mind about the subject of the paper, most of your efforts will
be directed (or should be directed) towards documentation.
Depending on your subject, on your knowledge and your search
capabilities, you might want to start with this even 1 2
years prior to graduation date, in order to have enough time to
collect and review as much information as possible.
Major information resources: libraries, bookshops, internet,
newspapers and magazines (consider subscribing to main
specialized magazines in your field!), university printings,
company exhibitions and presentations.
Build your paper
You do not have to review the whole documentation before you
start to lay the bricks of your paper. Usually, such works are
done using the "top-down" strategy, meaning you start with the
major lines and then you develop the minor ones. You can
compare this strategy with the action of drawing a tree: you
might want first to draw the tree trunk, then the major
branches, you will draw then some smaller branches growing from
the big ones, and at the end you draw the leaves and flowers.
Therefore, once you are clear with the subject and the basics
of your paper the trunk of the tree, you can start organizing
your chapters the major branches. Generally, you wont have
less than 3 main chapters and more than 6 7: remember your
paper has to offer a valuable content but in the same time it
has some space limits (for example you could be told not to
exceed 70 pages including the appendix and graphics).
As you go on with your documentation, you will probably feel
the need to reorganize the chapters and subchapters several
times this is the way of any good writing, so don't be afraid
of doing it as long as you stick to your subject and your
chapters are part of a whole, "flowing" one from each other.
Consult with you supervisor for any major changes, and ask
directions if you feel the documentation is overwhelming, it
becomes difficult to discern from the large amount of
information and you feel like losing your coherency.
As a future Marketing professional, creativity is a basic skill
as well as analytical thinking: you should prove them by
including your own comments, opinions and conclusions upon the
subject and not limit yourself to present only what other
people said. Be critical to yourself and to others. Don't be
afraid to bring out your own vision that's what counts the
most!
Writing style
Your paper is an academic piece of work, and so it should look
and feel like. Give a lot of attention to your writing style:
- language issues keep an academic and formal style, with no
colloquial expressions and no slang terms. Be very precise and
avoid hypes (yes, yes, we know it's hard to do it especially
when you're a Marketing or Advertising professional-to-be) and
irrational use of superlatives ("the best", "the greatest",
"the most"
).
For a professional look, avoid using vague expressions such as
"some authors say
", be specific and precise! A common mistake
is to assume some things are obvious or known: no, they're not
obvious to everyone, so you have to justify your statements
(okay
except maybe if you're saying that "1+1=2"...)
- grammar issues nothing can cut enthusiasm for a paper more
than poor spelling and grammar! Check check check and check
again your grammar before submitting your work: make use of the
grammar facilities included in the word processors, ask your
friends to proofread your paper, use dictionaries and grammar
books every time you're unsure about something.
- layout and other issues: keep a professional clean simple
layout, and stick to one font type (eg. Arial, Times New Roman
or Verdana). Unless you're asked to submit your paper in
another layout, you might want to leave 3 cm (1,2 in) edges on
both left and right side, use line spacing at 1.5 and font
sizes 10 to 12 (depending on the font type) for normal text,
with chapter title sized at 14. Double check your quotations to
be acknowledged, and make sure the tables and drawings are
numbered correctly.
Take a final look at your work and ask yourself if you're
feeling proud of it. If the answer is a strong "yes!", youre
probably ready to present it.
Presentation the final torment!
Let's not forget these guidelines were written especially for
Marketing students. For you, the presentation of your paper
should count much more than for other students, since it is a
way to promote yourself and your work. If you fail at marketing
your own person, how can you be successful in marketing
something / someone else? This is the reason why you should
dedicate a lot of time and energy to this apparently
insignificant last issue.
Don't fall into the trap of thinking that since your paper
content is great, it will speak for yourself. It will not! You
have to bring out the strengths of the paper and try to
minimize its weaknesses, if any. Treat your paper like it is a
new product that needs to be launched, and your teachers are
the consumers. Make them "buy" your paper, make them
enthusiastic about it!
Start your presentation with an introduction of how the paper
subject attracted you, then shortly point the elements of
novelty you bring in. After that, you can proceed with the
content briefing: keep short and very objective. Talk loud and
clear and note people's attention level: try to keep them awake
but if you see them drowsing, you can refresh the atmosphere by
changing your tonality or inserting a joke.
At the end, don't forget to conclude: a paper with no
conclusion is an unfinished pointless paper!
Sustain your speech with a proper visual support: in most
cases, a projector would do a great job. Be careful of how you
build your slides: use 80% drawings and figures and only 20%
text, as the human eye and brain respond much better to
suggestive drawings instead of regular boring text. Pay
attention to coherency: your presentation must flow and your
ideas must have continuity. Practice your speech at home or in
front of your friends, ask for comments and critics.
Good luck!!!
About The Author: Otilia is a certified Marketing consultant
with expertise in e-Marketing and e-Business. She developed and
teach her own online course in Principles of Marketing
(http://class.universalclass.com/emarketing). You can contact
Otilia through her Marketing resources portal at
http://www.teawithedge.com
<<--------- End of Free Reprint Article --------->>
Find More Free Articles
See Also:
All Free Articles About Advertising
All Free Articles About Marketing
Index of All Free Reprint Articles
