How to Write a Finance Research Paper: Guide You Can’t Skip

Feeling frustrated because you have no idea of how to approach your complicated finance research paper? Finance is the art of managing money and it is very important in the economic world because every business activity depends on it. Students who take courses in finance in college or university are commonly required to complete different types of academic papers as a part of their coursework. Essays, case studies, business reports, term papers – all of them have specific peculiarities. Now, we are going to discuss the most challenging assignment for any student who studies finance – a finance research paper.

Go on reading this finance research paper guide and you’ll learn:

• how a finance research paper differs from other types of assignments;
• approaches to choosing a winning research paper topics;
• typical finance research paper structure;
• how to organize the writing process;
• tips on editing and proofreading your finance research paper.

What Is a Finance Research Paper?

Finance research paper is actually an extended essay that involves the process of research, evaluation of sources, analysis, critical thinking, organization, and composition. As a student, you need to explore, interpret, and evaluate primary and secondary sources related to a specific financial topic, for example, international finance.

When writing a research paper, you have a good opportunity to extend your knowledge in finance as a field of studies and demonstrate your analytical and critical thinking skills. The goal of a research paper is not just to inform the audience about a certain topic but to present that other experts say about the subject and use sources to provide a unique perspective on a specific issue.

There are 2 major types of research papers:

• In the analytical research paper, you need to offer a critical interpretation of different relevant sources throughout the paper. You don’t have to persuade your audience that your ideas are right and the ideas of other people are wrong.
• Argumentative research paper, you need to introduce your topic and inform your readers what stance you are going to take that is you have to present a thesis statement. Your goal is to persuade your reader that your point of view on a certain financial issue is correct.

How to Choose Winning Finance Research Paper Topics: Creative Ideas from Our Writers

The first step in writing a finance research paper is to completely understand the assignment. If you fail to do that, you may waste a lot of precious time and get lost in many dead-end roads. If you don’t understand something in your task, don’t hesitate to ask your instructor for additional information. Having a clear understanding of the subject, you will be able to devote your time and efforts to other important aspects, for example, choosing paper topics.

Often, instructors provide students with a list of suggested paper topics. Use this option for choosing the most appropriate one. If you have just begun to take classes in finance, you will appreciate this approach because it can save you tons of time when searching for an interesting topic and making your own decision about the choice.

But there are situations when an instructor simply gives assignment sheets with a description of the logic of a research paper in finance and common requirements to the final paper but the students are given an opportunity to make the choice of the appropriate topic on their own.

Are you on a lookout for a topic that you may be interested in? In this case, when choosing your finance research paper topic, you should keep in mind that your topic must be relevant to the course you study. Every course you take in college will end with a research paper so if you just started attending classes in finance,

You should start looking for your research paper topic early because it is a rather arduous procedure. An effective way to choose topics for research is to use brainstorming techniques. You should make a list of possible topics ideas that may come to your mind during the day. This technique is especially effective when you have chosen your research paper topic but have to narrow it.

You can repeat this process several times and keep in mind that eventually, your final research topic may be different for the initial topic you have chosen. Wondering where to find ideas for your inspiration? Have a look at our short list of possible finance research paper topics and feel free to use any of them for creating your own projects.

• Banking System of The UK;
• Opportunities of the Eastern Stock Market;
• Key Reasons why Financial Markets Are Regulated;
• Strategies for Economic Reforms in Modern China;
• Key Drivers of the Economic Growth in China;
• Estimation of Inflation Risks;
• The Role of Financial Activity Indexes;
• Financial Results of The USA Banks in 2017;
• Analysis of The USA Real Estate Market;
• What Is the Effect of Interest Rates on Stock Markets?
• How Does Corporate Social Responsibility Affect a Company Financial Performance?
• Factors That Influence Corporate Liquidity;
• GDP and the Public Debt;
• Analysis of The Influence of Monetary Policy on Inflation;
• Education and Unemployment Rate;
• How Does Debt Capacity Impact a Firm’s Growth?
• Inflation and the Labor Productivity;
• What Impacts the Systematic Risk of Common Stocks?
• Foreign Direct Investment in Poland (Or Another Country);
• How Does Monetary Policy Affect Inflation?

Pre-writing Strategies

When you know what your assignment is, you should plan your actions in advance. Writing is a process and you will be more productive if plan ahead your assignment by doing pre-writing. When doing pre-writing, you should keep in mind the purpose of your writing task. It can be

• analyzing;
• evaluating;
• summarizing;
• observing;
• investigating;
• arguing or persuading etc.

When creating a finance research paper, you may need to use several of these writing strategies.  For example, when writing about the role of the stock market in the economy of a certain country, you will need to summarize available current and historical information on your subject, analyze the current situation in the particular stock market, and argue what changes should be made to improve the situation.

When you performed some research and gathered enough material to formulate your thesis statement you should start pre-writing. At this stage, there is no need to care about format issues. Just write down everything related to your subject that comes to your mind and don’t worry about grammar, punctuation, spelling, and writing in complete sentences. You will revise your text later and make improvements. Now you have to brainstorm your ideas and generate as many of them as possible. Reread what you have written and cut out bad ideas to focus on good ones.

When you have gathered useful ideas to approach your thesis, you can start making a basic outline for your finance research paper (alphanumeric, full sentence or decimal one) and think about organizing your ideas. If you have experience in writing academic papers, you may not need a detailed plan before you start writing a draft but you can make at least a list of headings and sub-headings to guide your writing process. An outline will provide you with an overview of what you are willing to cover in your paper and will ensure that nothing is left uncovered. You should be flexible and be ready to refine your original ideas if better ideas come to your mind as you are working on your project.

How to Write Your Finance Research Paper Chapters

When you have gathered enough material and formulated your research question or thesis statement, writing research paper becomes easier. First, you have to ask questions in your paper and then answer them. Why should you care about the paper structure? Because it is a key to successful writing.  Let’s discuss a typical finance research paper structure and effective strategies for writing chapters.

The basic structure of a research paper includes several chapters with different objectives – Introduction, Methods, Results/Findings, and Discussion (IMRAD). As an author, you state:

• the problem you are going to address in the Introduction;
• what you did to provide an answer to your question in the Methodology chapter;
• what you observed in the Results chapter;
• what you think your findings mean in the Discussion.

In the Introduction, you need to set the scene or lay the foundation or background for the finance research paper. You need to explain why the certain problem you address is important, summarize or discuss relevant prior research, and identify the objectives of your study or the research question.

In the Methods chapter, you have to describe the context of your study, provide details about the study design, identify the key study variables, explain the study procedure, and outline methods of analysis. In other words, here you have to provide details of how your study was performed.

In the Results chapter, you need to explain what you actually found. You have to describe the data that you have collected and show in detail the key findings that relate to your research question.

Being the final major section of the text in your research paper, the Discussion chapter gives you the most freedom and that’s why this chapter is the most difficult to write. In this section, you have to interpret your results. You have to give a summary of the main findings of your study, discuss them with the reference to prior research, analyze implications of your findings and their limitations, and address the directions for future research.

In the References section, you need to provide a list of all books and articles cited in your finance research paper. You should list all your sources in an alphabetical order. Follow the specific style guidelines when including the information about author names, dates, article titles, page numbers, book publishers etc.

If your finance research paper is long, you may need to include the Abstract section which gives a brief overview of your research. It is usually no more than 250 words in length and, in many cases, it is even shorter of about 100 words. Here you have to state the objectives of your study (research question), the methods you used to gather evidence, and the key conclusions. You should write this section last after you have completed other chapters of your finance research paper.

When you complete all chapters, it means that your first draft is ready and now you have to revise it and edit to make improvements in the content, logic, grammar, and style and ensure that your finance research paper is perfect. Read on to learn what you should do.

How to Edit and Proofread a Finance Research Paper

You should leave your paper at least for a day before you can do the final editing. You may also need a fresh pair of eyes to help you perform editing – you can ask one of your family members or a friend to help you.

Editing and proofreading are absolutely crucial to the success of your written project. Here are some tips on how you can do it right.

• A finance research paper is rather a long document so you should perform editing at least at a chapter level, rather than at a sentence or a paragraph level. Resist the temptation to edit your paper paragraph by paragraph.
• When editing, you should use different techniques such as checking for a logical thread running throughout, identifying and removing unnecessary duplication, checking for consistency of voice, tenses, and referencing style, signposting and linking.
• If you find out that some sections in your finance research paper are too short, you may need to extend them and increase the number of words. For example, you can take one idea contained in a sentence and develop it into an entire paragraph. But you should make sure that the words you add improve the academic quality of your finance research paper and not just fill the space.
• The last stage of the editing process is proofreading that you should perform thoroughly and systematically. You’d better use a printed copy of your research paper and work with a pen to eliminate minor grammar mistakes, and typos.

Writing a powerful finance research paper is not easy but if you practice a lot you are sure to become a confident online research paper writer. Use our finance research paper writing tips as a guide for the writing process and you are sure to achieve success.