Making research and writing easier.

Felicity’s Study Tips: Making research and writing easier.
This post is designed to help individuals taking the following courses: BUS 475, MKT 421, MGT 300, COM 155, and COM 156. Don’t struggle on the Homework Mountain!

One of the many mistakes that students make when tackling school projects begins when they choose their project.  This mistake happens across many courses including business, English, marketing, creative writing, etc… Any time an assignment asks for someone to choose a fictitious scenario or to choose a topic for research this problem might occur. Essentially, students often make the mistake of choosing the wrong topic when given a choice.

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Let’s first look at writing a research paper. Most composition courses or English courses will ask that the student research and write a paper concerning a topic that in many instances he or she can choose. Often this latitude of choice can lead many students to choose topic which they think is important but often uninteresting to them. One friend of mine decided she was going to write a paper concerning stretch marks and treatment options. As goofy of a topic as this sounds to most people, she thought it would be interesting since this is an area of concern for many women. And while that thought might be true, the problem was that the topic did not interest her that much. The deeper into the research she delved the less interesting it was and the more frustrated she became. She did get a good grade on the paper (luckily) but the effort she had to put into the paper was incredible. As well she wasted large amounts of time because she ended up procrastinating due to the fact that she could not stand the topic.

This is one of the largest problems that I see with research papers. Individuals choose research for all the wrong reasons. While it is good to choose projects that will interest readers, you need to pick a topic you find interesting. Don’t make the mistake of believing that just because a topic is controversial or is an issue that it makes it interesting. For example, many people will choose topics such as abortion or gay marriage. The problem is that these students are often so biased in their belief about these issues that they struggle to find research support or they cannot write in a manner which is objective. My suggestion is that any new student or returning student (who has not written a paper in some time) should stray away from the controversy and instead concentrate on researching things that are interesting and original. For example, there are many topics such as Social Security in which there is tons of information and a concern to individuals as to its sustainability. This is a topic that most people have some level of interest in because it will affect them in the future.

This same pattern of thinking also applies to business and a variety of other courses in which students will be asked to create projects through research. It does not matter what school a person attends, if he or she is a business major, a business project will be required.  Students are routinely asked to create fictitious companies and to perform SWOTT analysis, Balanced Scorecards, and reflect Porter’s Five Forces. More often than not, these projects become an exercise in the mundane as the student fights boredom to get the project done.   Again, the trick here is to choose a topic or business prototype which is original or of interest. By doing so you will make your project fun and you might even discover some business concepts that interest you for down the road. (That is the point of the assignment right?)

It has been my experience that most students will choose business models which already exist because they either like the company or because they think it will be easy to write about. Think about this for a moment…if you choose a restaurant as a business, you now have to create a business that is stiff with competition and difficult to run successfully. As well, this idea has been done so many times that the teachers know exactly what to look for in the assignment to see that the plan is worthy of attempting. The simple fact is that most of these businesses fail and therefore you are choosing a loser concept unless you have a strong niche for the market.  My advice to you is to choose a business concept that interests you and is unique.

Here are some examples of papers that are winners because they allowed the author (me!) to create business plans that were unique and interesting to the audience and me.

BUS 475 Week 2 Individual Assignment: Strategic Plan, Part I: Conceptualizing a Business- In this class the students had to create a business idea that would be an ongoing project. I chose to create a business known as Virtual Office which is an office assistance service for companies that cannot afford full time employees. The company utilizes internet in order to run a virtual office between clients and contractors doing the work. A+ Paper!

MKT 421 Week 5 Learning Team Assignment: Marketing Plan: Phase III Final Paper- In this paper I created the idea of the Electronic Health Biography (EHB) which is a handheld device that could be marketed to individual health consumers. The EHB keeps a person’s complete health history secured in a portable device which healthcare professionals can access when needed. The idea is to speed up the efficiency of healthcare and reduces errors in treatment. A+ paper!

MGT 300 Week 5 Individual Assignment: Marketing Trends Research- In this course, we were asked to research the internet for businesses that have successfully transitioned to e-commerce. I thought it would be interesting to look at retail food businesses and show a different slant on ecommerce and how it can apply to traditional brick and mortar companies. I used Pizza Hut and discussed their online ordering system. Again, A+ Paper!

COM 155 Individual Assignment: Compare-and- Contrast Essay- Here is simple but effective topic for a compare and contrast essay, diets. Easy to find information on and there must hundreds, maybe thousands of diets to compare. In this assignment, I compared and contrasted Low Carbohydrate vs. High Protein Low Fat Diets. Another A+ paper!

COM 156 Final Assignment Modern Technology: Making Life Easier or More Difficult?- This is another simple yet effective essay that discusses whether technology has made life easier or more difficult. This is an interesting topic that is easy to research. A perfect A+ paper.

I think you see my point in how important choosing the topic can be for a successful assignment. If you choose something interesting to you and something that is a little unique you find the process of research and writing to be much easier. The best part is that you might just learn something new.

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