Synthesizing Practice

A First Practice Exercise

Read the following excerpt from a literature review and pick the sources cited from the list.
Social media are a great way to get the word out about community gardens, given previous
success in various case studies (Jones, 2011). For instance, the Bells Wells garden in New York
was promoted successfully in New York state through a combination of Twitter , Instagram, and
Facebook activity (Jones, 2011; Macy & Gray, 2013).
Jones, P. (2011). Social media case studies. PR Journal, 12, 22-42.
Jones, L. (2011). Theory and PR. PR Studies, 13, 33-43.
Macy, T., & Gray, Y. (2013). Bells wells garden promotion: Success in the grass. Marketing and
Communication, 66, 12-30.
Macy, T., & Gray, U. (2013). Twitter use for promoting 80s throwback parties. Marketing
Mirror, 33, 10-40.
Another Practice Exercise
Try to write out the basic structure of one of the example student literature reviews on our course
page. (For instance, Introduction, Point/claim 1 [and write out the point/claim briefly],
Point/claim 2, Conclusion)
INTRO: what motivates change/growth in our society?
CLAIM 1: it is the emotions surrounding that heart that must be the target in any kind of
marketing, including the marketing of a cause; empathy motivates individuals to act.
Another Practice Exercise
Suppose you have to write a literature review about the best ways to promote a new walking park
in a small community. You look up some promotional practices and strategies in communication
and marketing journals at the library. You find one article that reports on a study that found that
social media channels are useful in reaching young people regarding new community resources
(like walking parks), and paper materials like direct mail are more effective for senior citizens.
You also find an article reporting on a successful campaign for promoting a new garden and park
in New York state, which had a plant your veggies day event. You decide youll cite these
sources in your paper as three ways to promote the new walking park.
Heres the article that discussed the social media and direct mail strategies:
Jones, L., & Myers, T. (2010). Getting the word out on walking: Successful strategies for young
and old. Journal of Planning and Promotion, 23, 34-45.
Heres the article that discussed the plan your veggies day event:

Avers, Y. (2011). Veggies are good for you: A case study of a successful community garden
promotional event. Marketing Communication, 50, 23-33.
Put the ideas above together as ways to promote the walking park, using the citations above to
back up your claims. Use APA parenthetical citations (Author, Year) or (Author, & Author, Year).
Another Practice exercise
The Research Situation/Scenario--Maybe I want to do a study testing a campaign to get college
students to exercise. I want to use theory to make a better message for my campaign. So, I look
up articles on different theories I think might help me design a good message and articles on
campaigns using these theories in health areas, as well as campaigns on exercise (maybe with
these theories, maybe some without the theories).
(a)I find several articles that basically show that telling stories (using narrative) is often more
persuasive (gets people to do what you want them to do) than using factual information, and this
has been shown in a lot of different health campaigns. There is also a theory that backs up using
narrative and examples for better persuasive power. These are the articles that basically show
this:
Slater, M.D., Buller, D.B., Waters, E., Archibeque, M., & LeBlanc, M. (2003). A test of conversational and
testimonial messages versus didactic presentations of nutrition information. Journal of Nutrition Education
Behavior, 35, 255-259.
Weber, K., Martin, M.M., Members of COMM 401, & Corrigan, M. (2006). Creating persuasive messages
advocating organ donation. Communication Quarterly, 54, 67-87.
Zillmann, D.(1999). Exemplification theory: Judging the whole by some of its parts. Media Psychology, 1, 69-94.
Zillmann, D. (2006). Exemplification effects in the promotion of safety and health. Journal of Communication, 56,
S221-S237.

(b)I also dont find any research that has been done using stories to persuade people to exercise.
(Sometimes a good reason to do a study is because some approach has been shown to work well
in various situations, but not in the one youre thinking of studying. You are doing something
different and new, but with previous research that backs up this new idea. Its worked in other
situations, so theres a good chance it will work in the new oneyoure testing this out.)
Try to write up a sentence or two that sums up ideas (a) and (b) and use the citations for (a)
within your response.

**(You can take a look at a study I did thats very much related to the ideas above, which is a study I did. The
handout for this exercise, and my study, are posted on our course page.)