Assignment
Focused on your achieving personal financial success, this research project and paper will require you to identify during your study of Module #1 a meaningful and relevant personal finance topic that is:
- Of particular personal interest to you as being a topic that you want to learn more about,
and/or - One that you are personally concerned about and are looking to find a solution to a current problem or one that you want to avoid.
Once you identify such a topic, you will complete the Proposal Submission Form outlining that topic and project for my approval. Once your project is approved by me, you can then work on completing your research and drafting your paper.
Project and Report Topics
I am flexible on the topic that you choose, as long as it has a personal finance theme to it and you have demonstrated to me you have a genuine interest in learning more about the topic.
You may already have a topic that fits one or both of the parameters that I outlined above. In fact, it may be the very reason that prompted you to take this course. If so, great! Proceed to the Proposal Submission Form and see what all I require in a proposal.
On the other hand, you may not yet have a topic in mind. That is fine, in which case you will want to do some exploration and preliminary research to find something that is both meaningful and relevant and is also of interest to you now or sometime later in your life.
If you are searching for a topic, a good place to start your search is to look is at the various topics that are discussed in our text book, which is very comprehensive on the subject of personal finance. Certainly any of the main topics in the text would meet the requirement of meaningful and relevant, but only you can decide if any of those would be of sufficient interest to you and worthy of your time and energy to research and present your findings in this paper. (See Embedded Librarian discussion below.)
For example, any of the following main topics in the text would constitute acceptable topics upon which to conduct further research and exploration on your part for this assignment:
• career planning
• budgeting
• money management
• credit and debt management
• investing
• major purchases like a car or home
• insurance for your health, life and property
• retirement planning
• estate planning
If you are searching for a topic, your search should certainly not be limited to the topics above. Although those topics cover a broad area, they just skim the surface of personal finance.
Embedded Librarian
A wonderful resource that everyone should utilize in the topic selection, research and drafting of their research paper are the librarians on Miami’s regional campuses. You would be “leaving money on the table” if you did not take advantage of that excellent resource. In that regard, we are fortunate to have a librarian embedded right in this online course. You will find a link to our Embedded Librarian page on the Home page of the course web site, as well as in the Module 1 Term Research Project and Paper Proposal assignment description. On that Embedded Librarian page you will find a wealth of information regarding research techniques, topical data bases, finding tools, and directions to scholarly and other credible and authoritative resources on your topic. As noted in Grading Rubric (see Assessing Your Term Research Project and Paper below) for this assignment, in assessing the quality of your research, the expectation is clear that you will document what reflects a meaningful utilization of the Embedded Librarian in your paper. Therefore, in your Works Cited (see Citations below), you are to note which citations were gleaned from the Embedded Librarian’s resource leads.
Sample Solution