How to Write Finance Term Paper: Guidelines for Students

Effective written communication skills are of great importance to anyone at university and in a future career. That’s why academic writing is an essential part of the education process and typically, college and university students are assigned lots of different papers in practically all college subjects and finance is no exception.

There are different types of written assignments you may need to complete as a part of your coursework in finance, for example, business essay, business reports, case studies, research papers etc. In this finance term paper writing guide, we will concentrate on writing a finance term paper but the principles we discuss here may be applied to other different types of communication. You will learn:

• what a finance term paper is;
• how to choose a winning topic;
• how to structure your finance term paper and organize the writing process;
• how to edit and proofread your term paper in finance.

Besides, you’ll find here a short list of impressive term paper topics that can serve you as great ideas for your inspiration. Keep reading.

What Is Finance Term Paper?

A finance term paper is a research paper that students who study finance in college have to complete and submit at the end of the term. Term papers typically account for the major part of student grade in a certain course so you need to approach them seriously. Your assignment when writing your finance term paper may be to describe a concept, an event or argue a certain point. You have to discuss a specific finance topic or issue in detail and your term paper must be several pages in length. It goes without saying that this work must be absolutely original and demonstrate your good understanding of the topic and your analytical and critical thinking skills.

The key to the success of your finance term paper is getting its structure right. Let’s outline the structure of a basic term paper.

The basic structure of a typical finance term paper is the sequence of certain parts:

• The Title page includes information about the paper title, its author, and the educational institution;
• The abstract is a very brief summary of the entire paper; it is one paragraph of not more than 250 words in length (often it is even shorter);
• The introduction sets the scene or lays background or foundation to the term paper. You need to explain what your topic is and why it is worth studying;
• Methods section gives details on how the research was conducted;
• Results section describes the paper’s findings;
• Discussion section gives a summary of the results, their interpretation and explains why the findings are significant;
• References include a list of books or articles cited in the paper.

Your instructor may offer you to complete your finance term paper in a different format so you need to read the assignment guidelines carefully and follow them in your writing. Now you have an idea of what a finance term paper is so let’s discuss another important question – how to select a winning topic.

How to Choose a Great Finance Term Paper Topic

Typically, the topics for term papers are assigned by instructors but sometimes, students are given the freedom to select a topic on their own. If you are a beginner in studying finance, it can be rather tricky. Here are some easy tips on how you can successfully do it.

• Pick a topic you are interested in. You are likely to enjoy writing your term paper and your audience will appreciate your enthusiasm and your passion when reading your work. The writing process is long but it is always easier to do something and overcome difficulties if you like what you are doing;
• You can look for finance term paper topics ideas online, in authoritative newspapers and journals, in databases of your university library etc.;
• Choose a topic your already know something about. It will be easier to perform research and evaluate your sources;
• The majority of topics are too broad to cover them in a limited format so you should always narrow your finance topic to a manageable size that will fit your word limit. For example, the topic ‘profitability of banks’ is too broad for a term paper format so you can narrow it to ‘influence of interest rates on the profitability of banks’.

Lack ideas for writing your finance paper? Here is a short list of interesting finance term paper topics that can be useful for brainstorming your own ideas. You can also use any of these topic ideas for creating your own term papers in finance.

• Compare Capital Markets of China and The USA;
• Future of The Global Financial System;
• What Was the Effect of The Global Financial Crisis on the Financial System of the United States?
• Drivers of an Economic Growth in The European Union;
• How Can We Predict Speculative Asset Bubbles?
• Analysis of The Profitability Of The USA Banks;
• How Does Interest Rate Influence Share Price?
• Aspects of Financial Performance in The Baking Sector;
• How Does Capital Structure Affect Profitability?
• Risk Management in an Enterprise.

Doing Research

If the topic for your research paper was given to you by your instructor, you have to analyze the prompt for keywords that explain the issue or topic, for example, argue, evaluate, discuss, prove, analyze etc. Before you start doing the research, you need to know precisely what you have to do and what content is required. Then, you’ll be able to make an informed choice of your primary and secondary sources.

First, you have to plan your research and consider what sources you can use to cover your topic. You have to consult the materials that are available in your university library. You can use books and articles in printed journals or in electronic format, statistics reports, and databases.

Create a preliminary list of sources and start reading. To improve your productivity, you can use scanning and skimming techniques. You should also always keep your research question in mind that will help to concentrate only on relevant sources.

Reading broadly can help you get a general understanding of your topic and formulate your perspective on the topic. After that, you can focus your reading on more detailed works. You can search for texts that provide details on the issue using library databases and catalog and reference lists in journal articles.

When you finish your reading, you should have a strong position on the issue that will help you create a convincing argument and write coherently. Now you can make an outline and start writing the first draft. An outline will help you keep your writing organized so you won’t miss anything and effectively present all the information you have gathered during your research.

Writing Your Term Paper

When you have gathered the substantive information for your term paper, you should start writing, taking into account 4 critical elements of writing – organization, documentation, style, and revision.

We have already explained that all the components of a finance term paper are divided into sections – introduction, literature review, methodology, findings, discussion, and conclusion. You need to use headings and sub-headings in sections to help your readers follow your presentation.

As for the style, your writing should be clear and organized. You should present facts, analysis, and theories using simple declarative sentences. You’d better avoid complex constructions that are hard to follow.

As for the documentation, you must attribute all quotations and paraphrasing to the original author. You need to precisely specify data sources to help your readers find them if they would like to read more on your topic. There different formats for documenting sources – APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard etc. When writing your project, you should follow the format specified by your instructor. Typically, the author-date-page method is used to reference in the text because it is rather simple.

Revision is the final key to the success of your finance term paper. You should always reread your first draft with a critical eye and make changes to improve it.

Start writing your first draft to get ideas from your brain onto paper and pay attention to these critical elements while working on the term paper sections.

Tips to Writing Finance Term Paper Sections: Pieces of Advice from Our Writers

• In the introduction, you have to state the main research problem and the thesis argument. You should identify the topic of your research and explain why it is important. You should also outline the key points that you are going to present.
• In the Methods section, you have to discuss the specific research methodology you have used and how you gathered data. In finance, researchers use a variety of qualitative and quantitative methods and you need to explain why you have chosen specific methods for performing your research.
• In the literature review, you need to provide the context of the existing knowledge in your field. You have to discuss what is known about the subject of your finance term paper.
• In the Results section, you have to report on data collection and present the main findings.
• In the Discussion section, interpret your results and discuss your findings by comparing them with the previous research.
• In the conclusion, you need to give an answer to the research question and offer perspective for future investigation.
• An abstract is written after you have completed the entire text of your finance term paper and is required when your paper is long and complex. Its length is between 100 to 300 words. You have to describe the essence of your paper and include information about the research question, methods, and key findings. Your instructor will read this part of your term paper first so you should do your best to impress him/her.

How to Edit a Finance Term Paper

No matter how much outlining and planning you do before you start writing, your first draft just presents raw material and you need to spend some time to make improvements in content, logic, flow, and style. Effective editing of your finance term paper could mean the difference between a good grade and an excellent one so you should devote enough time to editing your term paper. But before you start doing it, just puts your paper aside for some time so that you could edit it with fresh eyes.

Editing your own paper is not easy because you have spent so much time doing research and writing your draft that you got used to your term paper and may experience the so-called writers’ blindness. But editing is a vital step in creating an impressive term paper that can get you a high grade. Here are some useful editing tips to help make your finance term paper perfect.

• Start the editing process by looking at your finance term paper structure. You may need to rearrange your paragraphs to make your structure more logical;
• Edit long sentences and paragraphs because they are more difficult to read;
• Improve your word choice and check overly complicated language. Try to use simple words and phrases and aim for clear and concise language;
• Fix the repetition of words in the same paragraph or sentence. You can rephrase them or use synonyms. Common words should be used only once in a paragraph;
• Don’t rely on the spellcheck because it can highlight some misspelling and typos but it can’t detect using the wrong words;
• Omit unnecessary words that just add to the word count to your term paper but they don’t provide any meaning;
• Take measures to ensure the consistent spelling of the words that have more than one correct spelling;
• Check the sentences and put commas where you would pause when speaking aloud;
• Get rid of ellipses and remove tautologies;
• Ensure consistent formatting that can make your paper look professional.

When you edit your finance term paper and make improvements, read your paper aloud. This technique is often used by experienced writers who use it to find and fix some typical mistakes and typos.

Use our easy finance term paper writing tips to achieve better grades and results. As an option, you can find a professional term paper writer who will handle your request.