Due 1/30/03.
The point of this progress report is not to find a term paper topic. The point is to find out where the term paper topics are to be found.
In Econ 185, we follow standard business practice when it comes to copies of paperwork. That is, when you give me a document, that is my copy and I am going to keep it. If you might want a copy of a document that you turn in, then make your own copy. For example, I am going to keep your progress reports.
We also follow standard business practice when it comes to fasteners. If you turn in more than one sheet of paper, I expect the sheets to be stapled together. Standard business practice dictates that work with one corner folded over and, optionally, torn is the work of a child. Standard business practice regards work held together with a paper clip as unfinished.
For Progress Report 2, you are going to turn in two Research Reports stapled together. Paper copies of the Research Reports will be available in class, but you can print your own copy at Research Report.
Your first step (which you have completed already!) is to read your textbook. In doing so, you have undoubtedly discovered some ideas for term paper topics relevant to this course. You do not need a topic at this point, but it will help to have a few sample key words for your trial searches described below. (Hint: I am totally bored by the topic, should banks be allowed to sell insurance.)
1. Read Free Term Paper Ideas at the EconModel web site.
2. Congressional publications are fertile sources for debates about issues.
We will begin by going to Davis Library, which is in the vicinity of the student union and the bookstore. (It's the tall building with all the books.) After you enter the library, proceed to the Government Documents and Social Science Reference area down the lobby and to the left. Locate the Congressional Information Service (CIS) volumes.
You are going there to explore the primary sources we will be using to do our term papers. There is no need to do anything about your particular term paper, but we do want to get prepared to take action later this semester. Eventually, you will need an issue with at least two sides.
Please look through a few volumes of CIS to see how it is organized, noticing that there are indices by subject and by committee. Pick a likely looking reference and copy down its index number. Look up that index number in the abstracts volumes. Notice that the committee's publications are gathered in one place and you have probably stumbled on other material about the same subject. Take the citation to the reference desk, show the copy to the librarian, and ask him/her to retrieve that material from the closed stacks in the basement. Complete a reference report.
3. Electronic bibliographic systems are fast.
We will now compare this old technology with electronic bibliographic systems. We will use the electronic version of CIS plus ABI-INFORM and ECON-LIT. To find these, go to library.unc.edu and look for the heading "E INDEXES AND DATABASES." The electronic version of the CIS publication is call LexisNexis Congressional. ABI-INFORM is oriented toward general business and trade publications. ECON-LIT is an electronic version of the Journal of Economic Literature, which is oriented more toward academic economics. If you find other useful indices, let me know and I will add them to this document.
The basic idea, once you get into CIS, ECON-LIT, or ABI-INFORM, is to learn how to search by keywords. Try "mortgage". Then see if you can figure out how to select out citations listing both "mortgage" and "testimony". Once you get the number of citations down to a manageable number, see if you can find the button to look at one and the button to print a list. Complete a reference report for one electronic database citation.
3. Search engines.
Go to www.google.com. Search under mortgage. This is fast, but the depth of what you find can be limited, and there is a lot to sort through.
Vanity Searching
Go to google.com and enter your name. The world has two classes of people: those who show up on search engines and those who do not.
Check out the #1 Google rankings for EconModel.
Posted by bparke at January 22, 2003 09:40 PM