ECON 203 Project Description (Term Paper):

Select at least three news articles that discuss the economic concept that you chose as a topic for your term paper.

At least one news article should be dated within the previous two months.

The Term paper should have the following structure:

1. Abstract (0.5 of a page) – the short description of the concepts, problems, questions discussed in the Term paper.2. Introduction (0.5 of a page) (optional)3. Literature Review (about 2 pages) – please compare and contrast the opinions of the authors of the articles, present the important information, data, statistics to support your conclusions. It is important that the Literature review is written in your own words with small quotes from the article. All quotes must have references in APA format. 4. Discussion (about 2 pages) – Your task for this part of the Term paper is to analyze the issue described in the articles using the economic concepts and theory learned in this class. Refer to the course content materials and use specific economic vocabulary within your term paper. The articles you choose may not use these exact terms; therefore, it is incumbent upon you to convert the article language into economic language as is appropriate. Include at least one graph developed in our course. 5. Conclusion (0.5 of a page)

The Term paper should be the title page and sub-titles that correspond to the structure described above.

Please note the Term paper should be written in your own words. You can use short quotes from the article(s) to support your statements. However the size of these quotes should be reduced to minimum. No more than 20% of the text of the term paper should be made up of quotes.(less is better!!!).

Please also avoid copying the materials from any textbooks, including our textbook.

Please be aware that Wikipedia, Investopedia, and other on-line dictionaries and encyclopedias are not verifiable sources of reliable information, and should not be used in the Term paper.Acceptable sources of the information are: research papers, newspaper articles, and books.

Please note that this is the course of microeconomics, so you should choose the concepts related to microeconomics (not macroeconomics).

Possible concepts include:

• taxes and consumer or producer surplus• demand, supply, and equilibrium price of a particular product• elasticity on a particular product• perfect competition and imperfect competition, such as monopolies• labor market, wages, and income inequality• poverty and public policy• another topic selected by the professor

Format of the Paper:

Written projects must be:

1. typed, double-spaced, in 12-point Times New Roman or Arial font, with margins no wider than one inch2. have footnotes or endnotes, with correct citations3. have a bibliography of sources used4. include, for each entry, the author, title, city and state of publisher, publisher’s name, year, and page numbers5. prepared using word processing software (Microsoft Word preferred), in a manner similar to the preparation of a written assignment for classroom submission

The Term Paper must be posted to the LEO Student Assignments as a Attachments are limited to a maximum two files in doc, docx., xls. xlsx., or rtf. formats. OTHER FORMATS ARE NOT ACCEPTABLE, will not be reviewed or graded.

The Term Paper should be about 4-5 or more double-spaced typewritten pages (without tables and graphs)

Please note that hand-written and scanned works, pdf. files, jpg. files, as well as files posted in google drive, will not be accepted or graded.

The paper should be written in APA style Research Paper format.

Please note that Use of APA Citation Methodology is required for the assignment

In accordance with the UMUC Academic Policy, notes taken for papers and research projects should accurately record sources of material to be cited, appropriately quoted, or summarized, and papers and research projects should acknowledge these sources in the appropriate places in the text of the paper as well as in a reference list at the end of the paper, in accordance with accepted citation practices.

All works must be Word processed. Handwritten and scanned work will not be accepted and graded.

The links to APA citation methodology are posted in Content – Course Resources – Writing Resources.