Guidelines for Senior Honors Projects
Beginning your project :
During your Junior Year you should take 7600:398 Honors Project Preparatory. This 1-credit class will
help prepare you for the completion of your project. You will learn the requirements for an honors project,
select your sponsor and readers, prepare and submit your project proposal and get started on your
background research.
Due Dates
Honors Project:
Begun in the Junior Year,
completed in the Senior year
Honors Project Deadlines:
These deadlines represent
the latest you can submit
your work during the
semester you will graduate.
If you do not meet these
deadlines, your graduation
will be delayed.
Junior year, in Honors Prep
class 7600:398
Junior year, in Honors Prep
class, 7600:398
Meet weekly with your
Sponsor when Honors Prep
class is completed
Friday of the 8th week
Friday of the 9th week
Friday of the 11th week
Friday of the 12th week
Friday of the 13th week
Friday of the 14th week
Submit Honors Project Proposal to
Honors College
Select Sponsor, complete CITI
certification, complete draft of
literature review
Submit and revise drafts of your
project sections, discuss issues with
your sponsor
Final draft to your Sponsor
Draft to your Readers, make necessary
revisions
Completed, signed project to the
Honors Advisor
Completed, signed project to the
School Director
Submit abstract to the Honors College
Submit completed, signed project to
the Honors College
Proposals-Due Dates for Honors Project Proposals
The Proposal must be received by the Honors office by the thirteenth week of the semester in which
the student completes 96 or more college credits, which is typically the second semester of your
Junior year.
Projects -Due Dates for: Honors Projects
i) Initial drafts to your research Sponsor: You should plan on meeting with your sponsor weekly while
working on your project. Your sponsor will need to see drafts of all your work. Expect revisions to be
requested! Your completed project (final draft) must be in the hands of your Sponsor no later than 5 PM
on Friday of the eighth week of the semester in which you will graduate. Your sponsor will have one
week to review the completed document and request last minute changes. If you can turn this in earlier, it
would be better.
ii) Subsequent drafts to your two readers: When your sponsor is satisfied with the final draft of your project
it is ready for circulation to your readers. You and your sponsor will receive feedback from your readers.
Working with your sponsor, you will incorporate the revisions requested by your readers and send the paper
back to them for final review. You need to allow a minimum of two weeks for this process.
iii) Draft to the honors advisor: As soon as your readers and sponsor are satisfied with your project, it
should be sent to the honors advisor for review.
iv) Draft to the School Director: As soon as the honors advisor approves your project, it should be sent
to the School Director for review. The School Director requires two weeks to review the project. It is
due on the School Director’s desk on no later than Friday of the 12th week of the semester in which you
will graduate. If you can get it in earlier, it would be better.
v) Submission of an abstract to the Honors College office electronically. The abstract of your project will be
included in graduation materials. Please prepare it according to the guidelines listed below and submit it
electronically. Please send an abstract as early as possible, but not later than the final day of the thirteenth
week of the semester in which you will graduate. If you don't submit your abstract by this date, it will not
appear in the graduation booklet. Please, let your sponsor or the honors advisor see your abstract before you
submit it to the honors college.
vi) Final submission of your project to the Honors College office. Your research project should be
submitted electronically. Scan the completed signature page and append it to the front of your project
file. Your project must be received in the Honors office no later than 5 PM on the final day of the 14th
week of the semester. If you have audio/video documents to submit, send multiple files to the honors
college. The text file is the one that should contain the signature page image.
Courtesy Alert! It is disrespectful to expect your Sponsor, Readers, the Honor's Adviser or School Director
to read and respond to any of your work without adequate lead time. These are very busy people with
many students, classes and administrative duties. You cannot expect any of them to drop everything to
review your project. Two weeks is considered appropriate lead time. If they are able to respond more
quickly, you have been granted a favor.
Research Project-Abstract Format
Your abstract (200 words maximum) should be prepared according to the following guidelines:

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In your first few sentences, define your project indicating its purpose, scope, and limits.
Then describe, as concisely and clearly as you can, what you did, what you found, and what made it
worth doing. In this part you summarize your research methods and design, your major findings and
conclusions, the significance of your investigation and so forth.
If your project has involved creative work (art, music, dance, film, etc.), your abstract should
describe the process and the product, and it should identify the form of documentation you have
submitted with the written part of your project (photographs, videotapes, audiotapes, manuscripts,
etc.).
The final version of the title for your project should include, as appropriate to your field of study,
the subject words with which it would be located through a scholarly index.
The abstract must be perfect in spelling, punctuation, grammar, and syntax. Please type it double-spaced
and forward a copy to HonorsSA1@uakron.edu
The abstract will also appear in the honors graduation booklet.
Abstract Format:
[Name] (in bold) Major: Project Sponsor: Number of credits: [Full title of project] (centered and bold)
Type abstract at this point in paragraph form, double-spaced, 12 point font, maximum of 200 words. Save
as a Microsoft document and send by e-mail to the above address.
Honors Research Project Signature Page Format
Signature Page
Please include this page as a cover page with your project, when you submit your final project to the
Honors College. (Please include lines for signatures and lines for printed names of those listed).
Forms
The forms are available to be downloaded from the Honor's College website at the following address:
http://www.uakron.edu/honors/curriculum/honors-research-project-curriculum.dot
Sponsors
The role of the Sponsor is to guide you through the process of completing your project. Your Sponsor
will:

Help you narrow down your topic and establish the goals for your project.

Review drafts of your project and suggest revisions.

Advise you when your project is ready to be seen by your Readers.

Assign the grade for the project. Sponsors will give the grade to the Honors Advisor when the
project is completed. If you do not complete the project during the semester in which you
enrolled for the project credits, an Incomplete grade can be given provided your sponsor is
satisfied that you have made substantial progress toward project completion.
Sponsors and Readers:
Your Sponsor must be a full-time tenure-track member of the School of Communication faculty. You will
be told who is eligible to serve as a sponsor in the Honors Prep class.
Your Readers may be full or part-time faculty, contract professionals, administrators, or industry
professionals from within or without the School of Communication. However, it is strongly
recommended that you do not use part-time faculty as they may not be available for more than one
semester.
The Honor's Adviser will give final approval for your chosen Sponsor and Readers.
Completing the Honor's Project on Time
You will need at least two semesters to complete your Honor's Project.
You may enroll for your project credits any time after completion of the Honors Prep class, which is a
prerequisite for the Honors Project class.
.
Academic Standards for Proposals
All Proposals submitted to the School of Communication should meet the following academic
standards.
Proposals are short documents, 2-5 pages comprising the following:

Title: this is considered a draft, the title may change by the time the project is completed

In the initial section of your proposal, describe what you intend to do. Describe the project’s
purpose, design, methodology, and limitations. Be specific.


Next, address such questions as these: What do you expect to learn from doing this project?
What will be accomplished by the completion of this project? What makes it worth doing?
What will be the benefits of the project for people other than yourself?
In a third section, describe the final presentation of the project. What will be the written
product of your work on this project? If the project is to be performed or presented, what will
be the occasion and the audience?
Academic Standards for Projects
All Honors Projects submitted to the School of Communication should meet the academic standards
listed below for the specific type of project you are completing. The Honors College prefers to receive
projects in electronic form.
All Projects must include the following sections:

Title

Abstract: This is a brief description of the project. Follow Honor’s College guidelines.

Project: see the Project Specific Standards below for guidance.
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References: This should be a list that contains all of the research studies, web sites, books, and
other materials you consulted, the interviews you conducted, etc. Use APA style.

Appendices: Append any additional materials to the end of your project.
Project Specific Standards
The following are generic guidelines for different types of Projects. These guidelines may be modified
to adapt to your specific Project in consultation with your Sponsor.
Empirical Research:
Empirical research studies follow a standard format that asks you to review past research, identify a
research question, and gather data to answer that question. Your paper should include the following
sections:
 Introduction & Literature Review: Gives background information about the research problem.
It gives a literature review of similar studies, explains the reason(s) for conducting the research
and offers any additional information that might be needed to understand the research problem
or research that is being described in the paper
 Methods: Gives a detailed description of how the research was conducted. Some methods that
could be used include Quantitative, Qualitative and Rhetorical designs. This is occasionally
referred to as Methodology.
 Results: The ‘answer’ to the research inquiry (Hypothesis and/or Research Question(s). The
Results section shows, describes and analyzes the data found by the research.
 Discussion: Discusses the implications of the results found. The Discussion section may also
compare, contrast and discuss the data obtained to other research articles on similar topics. It is
sometimes called the Conclusion or divided into a ‘Discussion’ and a ‘Conclusion’ section.
Human Subjects: Any research involving human subjects must be approved by the IRB before the
study begins. All researchers, including student researchers, must complete the CITI online training
in order to submit a request for IRB review. You will complete CITI certification as part of the
Honors Prep class. Your Sponsor will help you through the process of applying for IRB approval.
Because this can take time to complete, you should plan on completing the process by the end of
the fall semester (if you are graduating in the spring). This would allow you to begin gathering
your data at the beginning of spring semester.
Rhetorical/Critical Analysis
Rhetorical/Critical Analyses follow a logical sequence that asks you to identify the topic, artifacts and
theoretical methodology; review previous studies; apply the theory and draw conclusions. Your paper
should include the following sections:
 Introduction: Introduces the topic and the argument that will be made or issue(s) to be
explored. Identifies artifacts to be examined and methodology (e.g., feminist criticism, neoAristotelian criticism, genre criticism, Marxist criticism, etc).
 Literature Review: Reviews relevant scholarship on the topic.
 Critical Analysis: Provides critical analysis of the artifacts. Interprets the artifacts through the
critical lens identified in introduction (e.g., feminist, neo-Aristotelian, genre, etc).
 Conclusion: Summarizes the project's main ideas, emphasizes significance of the study to the
larger body of scholarship.
State-of-the-Art Reviews
These are research studies that do not gather any new data or engage in hypothesis testing. Instead,
they gather together all the research that can be found on a particular topic and try to make sense of it
with the ultimate goal of saying “This is what we know; this is what we have some evidence for but are
uncertain about; this is what we know nothing about.” These reviews are particularly valuable for
theorists and researchers as they consolidate the literature on a topic and point out the areas that need
more work. State-of-the-Art Reviews may review hundreds of research studies. For a student project,
we would expect the number of studies reviewed to be no fewer than 25-30 of the latest studies. The
Project, therefore, would contain the following sections:

Introduction and Rationale – Describe what the topic is about and why it is important to study
it.

Literature Review – This is a detailed, organized review of the known research on this topic.
You will need to evaluate the usefulness of the research you review. Some research is well
done, other research is not very well done.

Conclusions and Suggestions for Future Research – Describe what we know and what still need
to find out regarding this topic.
Event Planning
Public Relations majors often choose to do a service project for a client where they plan and organize
an event for that client. Such events may take the form of fund-raisers, celebratory dinners, special
meetings, informational booths at conferences, etc. You should plan on providing the following
documentation in your final Project:

Description - Describe the nature of the event and your role. Identify the Sponsor. Describe the
timeline for the event.

Literature Review – Review any relevant literature you used as background materials for
planning your event and setting your goals. You will want to review literature that discusses
how to plan effective events.

Goals - Describe the criteria that were set for success in this event. Did you achieve those goals
(e.g. come in under budget, attract enough participants, etc.)? Why/why not?

Recommendations - Based on your experience, what should future planners of this kind of event
do? What worked and what didn't work?
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Artifacts - Include any and all artifacts you can that demonstrate your participation in the event
(e.g. copies of brochures you created, copies of agenda you created, copies of informational
materials you handed out, copies of letters of appreciation from the client, media reviews of the
event, selected photographs of the event, etc.) You should provide hard copies of as many of
these as possible. You may also burn them onto a CD and include the CD in a plastic sleeve.
Your Project Sponsor can help you decide what to include, how to organize it and how to
present it.
Educational Materials/Training Materials/Media Kits
Some students choose to prepare educational or training materials or media kits that will be of use to
people working in their field. Such Projects typically require background research and the production
of materials and instructions for their use. The final Project should include:

Description and Rationale – Describe in detail what the purpose of this project is and why it is
important. Indicate how it will be of use to its target audience.

Literature Review – Review any relevant literature you used as background materials in
designing your training/instructional materials.

Introduction to the materials and how they are to be used – This is intended for the target
audience. If you want them to organize people into a group and present them with a slide show
or have them go through exercises, you need to explain to the presenter how to organize the
situation and how and when to use your materials. If it's a media kit, provide a table of contents
to the different elements (e.g. brochures, PSA's, press releases, etc.) with recommendations for
their use.

Artifacts – Include all of the materials you've prepared for this Project in hard copy form
wherever possible. These might include print-outs of PowerPoint Presentations, workbooks,
forms, tests, etc. If some of your artifacts are multi-media, then burn them on a CD/DVD and
include a copy in a plastic sleeve.
Media Projects
These Projects are usually video productions, audio productions, or multi-media productions (web
sites, interactive CD's, etc.). In each case expect to provide the following:

Description - Describe what the production is about and your role. If the work was done for a
client, identify that client. Describe the potential audience for this production. Describe the
timeline for the project.

Literature Review – Review any relevant literature you used as background materials for your
project.
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Goals – Describe the criteria that were set for success in this project. Did you achieve those
goals (e.g. come in under budget, produce a quality product, etc.)? Why/why not?

Recommendations - Based on your experience, what should future producers of this type of
production do? What worked and what didn't work?
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Credits – Because media productions incorporate work from many different sources, it is
important to acknowledge those contributions. Your “credits” for this type of project may
include technical assistants, actors, writers, graphic images, music, etc. You should list those
contributors in writing in the paper and they should be acknowledged on screen in the credits
for your video or in appropriate places on your web pages.

Artifacts – For web pages, print out hard copies and include them in your final paper. For all
types of media projects you must burn a copy of the video, audio or web site onto a CD/DVD
and include it in a plastic sleeve. For video productions you should include a copy of your script
and/or storyboard.
Music Videos or any project that portrays gratuitous violence or is offensive to the dignity of the
human person, (this includes but is not limited to, gratuitously offensive language, negative racial
or ethnic stereotyping, gratuitous visual violence, explicit sexual behavior) are not appropriate
senior honor’s projects.
Communication Audit
A Communication Audit uses rigorous auditing tools to examine the communication flow, structure,
and concerns in an organization. Communication audits follow a standard format that asks you to
review past research, identify the topics of concern, and gather data to address those areas of concern.
Your paper should include the following sections:
 Introduction & Literature Review: Gives background information about the areas of focus. It
identifies the literature which discusses the communication concerns, explains the reason(s) for
conducting the research and offers any additional information that might be needed to
understand the communication problem being described for the purpose of both assessing these
problems, as well as providing a theory based foundation for the suggestions to managing them.
 Background: Provides a short glimpse into the organization being audited, the concerns that
form the rationale for the audit, and any additional information that will put the audit into
context. Students should include an organizational hierarchical chart and any other materials
that will contextualize the rest of the audit.
 Methods: Gives a detailed description of how the audit was conducted. The methods section
should include a breakdown of the organization’s demographics (if relevant), a description of
the procedures and audit tools used, and a blank copy of all measures collected.
 Analysis: This section shows, describes and analyzes the data found by the audit. All aggregate
data appears here with descriptions of what was found.
 Findings & Conclusions: This section lays out the implications of the results found. This
section pulls together the individual data points from the analysis and identifies threads of
meaningful results that simplifies the results for the organization. This section should draw
overall conclusions and identify recommendations that correlate with each of the main findings
of concern.
 Implementation Guide: The implementation guide provides a list of resources, services, web
pages and consultants that are necessary to implement all suggestions made in the previous
section. Any recommendation made must have a way to carry it out and provide sources to
make sure the organization can do so
.
Human Subjects: Any research involving human subjects must be approved by the IRB before the
study begins. All researchers, including student researchers, must complete the CITI online training
in order to submit a request for IRB review. You will complete CITI certification as part of the
Honors Prep class. Your Sponsor will help you through the process of applying for IRB approval.
Because this can take time to complete, you should plan on completing the process by the end of
the fall semester (if you are graduating in the spring). This would allow you to begin gathering
your data at the beginning of spring semester.
.