AG900 Financial Markets, Financial Institutions & Banking - Assignment-

Some tips for writing your essay

This is not a comprehensive guide to writing an essay. Rather, it gives some guidance on issues that tend to cause problems for students. Researching the topic: In researching the topic you should read widely across a range of references and resources. If you base your work around the arguments given in one paper, you will probably receive quite a low mark. Higher marks will be given where you have successfully combined material from a number of sources. Try to make sure that the sources you use are reliable. There is a vast amount of material available on the web and much of it is very useful. However, there are few quality controls. Do make use of published academic papers. These have all gone through a refereeing process designed to ensure the analysis and conclusions are robust. You can then supplement material from these papers with examples from more informal sources. Writing up your work: The nature of most essay topics is such that there is no single correct answer. What we are looking for is relevant and logically argued discussions, supported by appropriate evidence. Evidence includes statistics, examples and arguments from previously published research. Consider the following two pieces of text, making similar points: One idea is that investment banks use their superior information to exploit issuers. They underprice issues to make their own jobs easier. However, I dont think this is very convincing because it is hard to believe issuers would let banks do that. and Baron (1982) argues that investment banks use their superior information to exploit issuers. They underprice issues to make their own jobs easier. However, Muscarella and Vesuypens (1989) cast doubt on this theory by showing that investment banks also underprice their own IPOs. Which text is more powerful and convincing? The second one makes use of previous published research in order to support the argument and, as a result, is quite strong. The first text relies on personal opinion without giving supporting evidence and, as a result, can appear quite weak. It is important to check that your essay meets the brief that was given. There is merit in approaching the topic from different angles and being creative. However, you need to make sure that you have actually answered the question. Look carefully at the active words in the question. Were you asked to explain or evaluate something? If so, merely listing and describing wont be enough. Also, please make sure you have produced work in the correct format. This is 1

AG900 Financial Markets, Financial Institutions & Banking - Assignment-

especially the case for length stick to the word count you have been asked for. Papers are usually improved by editing and it may be easier to start with a long first draft and then edit it down to the required length, cutting out weaker material and duplication.

References: Please make sure that you provide full details of the references and resources you have used. Your assignment should conclude with a list of references in the following format: Ando A., & Modigliani F. (1957). The life cycle hypothesis of saving: Aggregate implications and tests. American Economic Review, 53, 55-84 Blake D., Byrne A., Cairns A., & Dowd K. (2004a). The stakeholder pension lottery: an analysis of the default funds in UK stakeholder pension schemes. Working Paper, The Pensions Institute, London. Friedman M. (1957). A Theory of the Consumption Function. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press. NAPF (2003). Annual Survey 2003. London: National Association of Pension Funds. In the text you should note where you have derived views, quotes and data from published work. For example: Blake et al. (2004a) argue that This may be explained by Ando and Modiglianis (1957) lifecycle hypothesis. Most defined benefit pension schemes in the UK are now closed (NAPF 2003). Warning: If you wish to use material not published in the English language please contact me PRIOR to submitting your assignment! I may require you to provide not only a copy of the original source but also a full translation for short texts (up to 300 words) or a summary translation of main points from longer texts. In any case, there is sufficient material on the assignment topic available in English that you should not have to rely on other sources.