Studying finance is a great start to your career as an analyst or set you up slightly better than the average trader.
However, when doing so, there will be a lot that needs to be done to ensure that you actually finish your studies. Although maybe not in the first year of studies, you will be expected to write a number of research papers, the largest one being your thesis. Let’s go and see how to ace your exams when studying finance.
What is a Finance Research Paper?
A finance research paper is an extended form of an essay that deals with managing financial resources, with less wiggle room and less space for you to express your own take on multiple topics. As experts at Topessaywriting like to say, writing a research paper demands a deep knowledge of a topic, relying on others’ work and using that work to support your own idea - a single idea, to be precise. In reality, writing a research paper can be a hassle and take a long time, so if you think you may need some help, contact these professionals.
How to Write a Finance Research Paper?
Still, by the end of your school, you will be expected to know how to write a fully developed research paper on your own. To do this, you will need some practice and some (both positive and negative) feedback. As with any other writing task, writing a finance research paper has steps that should be followed and monitored, with appropriate skills to be practiced and improved upon over time.
Choosing the Type of Essay/Paper
The obvious first step is choosing what type of essay/paper is the best for you. Even if you have perfect writing skills, not being able to choose the paper format you need will end up in you failing an exam - something not everybody can afford to do. Luckily, there are only two main types of essays you should choose from: analytical research paper and argumentative research paper.
Analytical Paper
The analytical paper is just as it says it is: it is an analytical piece of writing that uses existing models and theories of the market, finance, and analysis to analyze a phenomenon and present the results to a wider audience. An analytical paper does not persuade, and it does not argue - it simply offers a financial profile of a phenomenon.
Argumentative Paper
So, while an analytical paper analyses and presents results, an argumentative paper provides your own comment on your or others’ findings. It deals with your arguments on why and how something should be done, or why one option is better than another. This paper may be easier to outline than an analytical paper, but the sheer effort to support your argument may make this paper difficult to conceive. Nothing is impossible though, so let’s see what the next steps are.
Pre-Writing
Pre-writing includes doing your own research, analyzing your topic and brainstorming. During this stage, you will be dealing with a lot of ideas. Write them down and connect them afterwards. This grouping or categorizing of ideas will prove to be very useful in later steps.
Outlining
Once the brainstorming is done and you have categorized the ideas into groups and subgroups (depending on the size of your paper), it is time to deal with the outline itself. An outline is a rough progression of your paper, starting with the introduction, methodology and research flow. It ends with your own findings and a conclusion. If you’ve done the brainstorming part correctly, you will be able to make an outline fairly quickly.
Writing
The writing part takes a considerable time. If you think of the outline as a skeleton of your essay or a research paper, by writing, you infuse the skeleton with muscles and enable it to communicate your idea. Never forget that you should always include others’ work, cite them properly, include graphs, tables, and charts and to be critical. One sign of academic maturity is this criticism - including a separate chapter on problems you’ve run into during your research is a sure way to gain some extra credits.
Editing/Proofreading
Editing and proofreading are a neglected part of writing a paper. In reality, they take a lot of time that you may not have. Ask your friends to help. You can all read your paper and see what else can be added to make it sound more confident, academically better, or simply more deep and thorough. Make sure to check grammar and spelling too.
Final Considerations
Writing a finance research paper takes time, but is sure to reward you with a good grade if you manage to finish all the steps by yourself. You can always rely on others to help you - either with planning, writing or checking. With this in mind, head over to the nearest library and start looking for your secondary sources as of today!