Economics Instructions for Essay Assignments – TOPICS are listed at the end 1) Essays may be turned in early but your completed assignment is due no later than the date announced. Submit papers through this page on Canvas. Attach a file in Microsoft Word (preferred) or pdf format. Essays should be double spaced, 12 point font, with a minimum of 500 words to a maximum of 1000 words. Print the word count at the end of the essay. On MS Word, the word count can be found in the status bar in the lower-left corner of the window. Or as an alternative you can type directly into the text box on the assignments page. If you have trouble with submission a printed paper copy can be turned in instead. 2) Find an article in one of the publications listed below (print or online) that shows an example of one or more of the specified topics. Just because it has something to do with economics does not make it an acceptable article. It must relate to a topic listed for the assignment. Articles can be chosen from: The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Bloomberg, The Economist, BusinessWeek, Business Insider, The Washington Post, Fortune, Forbes, Time, NPR, CNBC, AP, Reuters, MarketWatch, U.S. News and World Report, the BBC, or The Orlando Sentinel. These are all available online or through the campus library. Links to some of the publications can be found here: Some Business News Publications. Articles that the professor hands out in class cannot be used. Finding good examples on your own is part of the assignment. 3) Include a copy of the article with your essay. When submitting your file on Canvas, attach a copy of the article or a link to the articles URL. You can also turn in a printed copy of article in class. 4) Begin your essay by listing the class topics it covers. Then go on to describe how the article illustrates the topics. DO NOT SUMMARIZE THE ARTICLE. Your essay should be about the topics, with the article used for examples. The purpose of the essay is to connect the classroom theory to real world events and to help students see the many different situations in which economics and economic reasoning can be applied. This is not a research paper and does not need to be written in that formal, scholarly format. A more conversational approach is better. Write as if you were telling someone a story in your own words about something interesting you just learned. However, any quoted material must be clearly identified with quotation marks. If you have mostly copied from the article, it may be returned to be rewritten because you didnt write it in the first place. Some quotes can be useful but THE PAPER SHOULD BE MOSTLY YOUR OWN WORDS. If these instructions are not followed your paper might be returned for revisions or have points deducted. 5) Essays will be worth 60 points each and are a required part of the class. See the section below titled About the Essay Assignments. 6) Finally, please get in the habit of keeping up with economic and business news. If you wait until the last day to look for an article it may be hard to find. Key word searches on Google might not work because news stories probably wont identify the topic by name. Say, for example, you are looking for an article on opportunity cost. Well, journalists wont be writing articles about opportunity cost. Thats not the point of their articles. Their articles will be about people and events that are happening in the world. But opportunity cost will show up in lots of those stories even though it is never referred to by name. It is your job to find how the topics show up in those real world events. Its about finding examples and then using what you know to make the connection to class topics. If you are browsing news stories every day you will be continually running into great examples as you go. About the Essay Assignments The following is taken from the course syllabus: Writing Assignments: As a Gordon Rule course, writing assignments are a state requirement. But instead of a single large paper, this will be broken up into four shorter 60 point essay assignments for a total of 240 points. Regardless of scores on exams, quizzes, etc., no course grade higher than D can be earned without meeting a minimum writing requirement. In this class the minimum requirement will be completion of at least three of the four essays. The writing assignments are not a large part of the course workload but they are a part that MUST be done. General Instructions Students are to find examples in select newspapers and magazines of topics covered in class or the textbook. Then describe the topic and how it is illustrated by the example. Each essay will be at least 500 words long. Essays are to be written on specific topics from each of the four units. As part of your everyday reading, skim through stories on business and economic news while thinking about the topics covered in class or textbook. Keep in mind that the article doesnt have to use terms such as opportunity cost or supply and demand. In fact, you probably wont see those words in the article. If thats what you are looking for you probably wont find it. You arent looking for those terms. You are looking for a story about something that shows those things at work in the world. Thats much of what you are to learn. Can you see the ideas for yourself even when no one is pointing at it and saying This is supply and demand. For example, if you find a story about people or companies trying to make a decision and where deciding to do one thing means they will have to give up something else then that is opportunity cost! And all you have to do is explain it to me. If you find a story that tells why somethings price has changed that is likely supply and demand! And all you have to do is tell me why. It is not a long paper and does not have to follow formal rules for citations. Just find a real world example that shows a class topic and tell me about it. Keep it simple and to the point. ESSAY TOPICS Essay 1 should cover one or more of the following TOPICS: Scarcity, Opportunity st, Economic Decision Making, Supply and Demand, Efficiency/Equity Tradeoff.
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