Students will demonstrate an understanding of what will be expected of them as graduate students in journalism and mass communications in terms of workload, quality of scholarly work, protocol for working with graduate faculty, and timely completion of program requirements.

Students will understand and explain the structure of the academic community, the structure of academic/scholarly organizations, academic conferences, scholarly publication submission requirements, etc.

Students will demonstrate preparation for more in-depth exploration and advanced study of research methodologies and research designs within the discipline and identify faculty who may be able to serve on thesis/project committees or with whom they may be interested in conducting research.

Students will examine the structure of a research proposal and be able to write a manuscript that conforms to APA style.