It is not required, but if you want to, put a one paragraph summary here. This summary is NOT an introduction. The summary is one (1) paragraph that states your key findings. In this case you will state whether or not media bias kept you from finding the facts. (No analysis, no opinions, no sweeping statements about the importance of the mass media to the history of mankind ... just a brief summary of your most important finding.)
The first paragraph should state the issue that you are researching. (You can copy it directly from the assignment page if you want to ... in which case there is no need to cite it.)
The remaining paragraphs should summarize the facts that you found. Each fact or set of facts should be cited ... for example, like this: [1] . Your references should come at the end of the paper. Instead of using numbers, you can link to them if you wish ... like this [ask.com].
Organize the paragraphs somehow. Do not organize them in order of when you found the fact - you will do that in the chronology. Instead organize your paragraphs by categories that are used in arguments about the issue. I cannot tell you what these categories will be because you will find them yourselves as you do your research. The way you organize your paragraphs is important because it shows me how you have been thinking about your data ... random is bad, organized is good.
Do not give your opinions in this section. Do not analyze the issue in this section. Simply summarize the facts that your research found.
This is a list of items arranged in order of time. I will use it to estimate the amount of work you put in on this project. The list may take up a page or two. Citations are not needed here.
In your personal log you will probably have notes relating to what you found. You should not present those here. (You will use them to write the other sections.)
02/26/06 2:15-:30 PM Google - chronology
02/26/06 2:30-:45 PM Ask.com - "what is a chronology?"
03/01/06 4:50-:5:20 PM Everything You Need To Know About Chronologies - definition
03/01/06 5:20-6:00 PM Chronologies for Dummies - how to take notes for one
03/01/06 6:00-7:00 PM BuildingYourChronology.com - sample chrons and how to make one
… and many. many more.
I will use this section to estimate the amount of time you spend doing research on your issue. So please make a complete record. If you do not include the times, in hours and minutes, this section will fail.
(If you were a professional consultant, these "log" entries would determine how much you would be paid for your work. All professionals today need to be able to track the time they spend on the various parts of their work.)
I expect to see a minimum of about 5 hours of research for a "C" grade ... more for an "A" or a "B". As you know, in any research paper a great deal of your time gets wasted in looking up things that turn out not to matter, or not to be there. Nonetheless, you need to be thorough, so you do the work. What you want to do is prove to me that you looked at a wide range of sources and tried to find all of the facts.
This section will tell me whether or not you were able to get a complete factual understanding of the issue.
If not, it will tell me what facts you needed but were not able to find, and where you looked for them.
This section will not comment on the topic of media bias at all. It will just tell me what facts you believe that you are missing. Use citations if you refer directly to missing or existing facts at a specific source. [3]
This section will discuss the presence or absence of bias and its impact on your search. If you have no missing facts, then there is no bias.
If facts are missing AND you can show that the media purposefully kept you from finding them, then there is bias.
If facts are missing, but no one knows why, then there is not bias but just ignorance.
Since you cannot be sure of why facts are missing, this section will necessarily include your opinions -- but as much as possible, these should be based on the facts that you have presented in the EFFECTIVENESS section.
[1] Ask.com, search term: "chronology"
[2] Everything You Need To Know About Chronologies, Smith, Little & Brown, 2004, p. 102
[3] Chronologies.com, search term: "length of list"
[4]
... more ...
Put all your sources here, even if you do not use them in the report. Use the numbers in this list as your citation references.