Functional Outline

Introduction

A. Introduce the study- in this part, I will provide a brief overview of the study
B. State what the goal of the study is
C. State the rationale for the study
D. Contract with the reader providing the preview for the paper

Case Study: 2009 Fargo Flood
A. Overview of the events of the flood
B. Provide timeline of the flood (Figure 1)

Transition: In order to compare how an organization, MPS, and the media used blogs during the Fargo Flood, we must first understand how they have been previously used.

Conceptual Framework
A. Overview of the conceptual framework
B. Blogs and Information-Sharing
1. Describe how blogs have been used by organizations to share information
2. Examples of how organizations have used blogs
3. Describe how in the Fargo Flood there was an incredible need for information

C. Uses and Functions of Blogs
1. Describe how blogs have been used as a crisis management tool
2. Describe the effectiveness of using blogs during crisis situations and tie to Fargo Flood
3. Explain how blogs have been used as a way to bond communities and tie to Fargo Flood.

D. Seeger’s Best Practices
1. Explain how Seeger’s Best Practices of remaining open and honest with
the public and accepting uncertainty and ambiguity help illuminate this study
2. Describe each of these best practices

Transition: The following research questions guide this study:

RQ1: How did organizations use blogs during the 2009 Fargo Flood?
RQ2: In what ways, did organizations use blogs to employ Seeger’s Best Practices?
RQ3: How did the media’s blog compare to the organization’s blog?

Method
A. Explain why the use of a case study
B. Explain the two blogs I analyzed
C. Describe the procedure I conducted for the analysis

Transition: Five overarching themes emerged from the data (I think there will be five, but I am not sure yet)

Results
-the goal of this section is to describe the results and provide examples of the themes

A. Briefly describe the goal of the research and outline the themes that emerged from the data.
B. Theme 1
1. Describe theme
2. Examples of the theme in data
C. Theme 2
1. Describe theme
2. Examples of the theme in data

D. Theme 3
1. Describe theme
2. Examples of the theme in data

E. Theme 4
1. Describe theme
2. Examples of the theme in data

F. Theme 5
1. Describe theme
2. Examples of the theme in data

Transition:

Discussion
A. Overview of the results
B. Connect the themes to theory.
C. Explain how these themes answer my research questions
D. Give Practical Applications for organizations and media when using blogs in crisis situations
E. Contributions/Limitations
1. Explain the theoretical contributions of this research
2. Explain the practical contributions of the research
3. Discuss limitations and future research

Transition

Conclusion
A. Restate the goal of my research.
B. Provide summative conclusions and reemphasize the so what
C. Reemphasize future research