1.  Choose a finance topic of particular interest to you or of particular relevance to your work or career goals.
 2.  Using an Internet search engine such as Google (www.google.com) or one of the full-text online databases available to Thomas Edison State University students through the myEdison portal (see Research Tips at the end of this activity), begin researching your topic.
 3.  In Discussion Forum 3, post a short project proposal in which you identify the topic of your research paper, your reasons for choosing this topic, and the online resources or types of resources you intend to use (maximum of three resources). Please title your posting “Research Proposal/[Your Name].” Post your project proposal by the date indicated in the Course Calendar.
 4.  Read and comment on at least two your classmates’ postings by the date indicated in the Course Calendar.
 5.  Continue researching your project. Your final, documented paper is due at the beginning of Module 7 in Discussion Forum 5.

Research Tips

A lot of information is available on the World Wide Web, but, as you probably have already discovered, not everything you find and read on the web is accurate, reputable, and reliable. In searching the web for information, you must exercise discrimination. Use this proposal stage of the research topic to identify possible sources of information and to receive feedback from your mentor and classmates on the reputability of the sources you identify.

Besides using an Internet search engine to find information on the web, consider searching for suitable articles in one of the full-text databases available through the myEdison portal. Two such databases are the ABI Inform database powered by ProQuest and the Academic Search Premier database provided by EBSCOhost. After logging into the portal, locate the My Resources block. Links to EBSCOhost and ProQuest can be found under the Educational tab.

You can also access full-text databases and other electronic resources and online services via the New Jersey State Library(www.njstatelib.org). To do so, you will need a valid NJSL library card, which, as a Thomas Edison State University student, you may obtain online for free. To register for a library card, please click here<http://www.njstatelib.org/research_library/services_for/thomas_edison_state_university/>.

Finally, when writing your research paper, you must use documentation to identify the material drawn from your readings. This is a basic requirement of research writing, to make sure that you give proper credit to your sources of information and do not pass off someone else’s work as your own, intentionally or unintentionally. Failure to use proper documentation is considered plagiarism, a serious breach of academic honesty. Here are some basic documentation rules: