Sample Essay the standard economic argument

Coursework topics

1)      Fair Trade – how good is fair trade?

Attached to the back of the module guide is an article:

The Economist (2006) “Voting with your trolley”, 9 December, pp81-3 (the Fair Trade section on pages 82-3 only)

This article criticises the effectiveness of fair trade. Your work should answer the following questions:

a)      Why is fair trade necessary? (you need to think of the role of multinationals in trade and which countries dominate world trade)

b)      Explain how the idea of Fair Trade works and use a supply and demand diagram to illustrate this

c)      Explain “the standard economic argument” against fair trade mentioned in the article, using the above diagram

d)      What other objections are there to fair trade?

 

Reading

You have been given these articles to start you off, but these should not be the only articles you use.  Look at the reading list (and use it) and use the lecture/seminar information and reading list which similarly is designed to help you.

 

Coursework 1 – The individual coursework – the article for the Economist

The article should be

a)      a maximum of 1,500 words in length (otherwise the Editor will be forced to take a red pen to the article and stop reading at the 1,500 limit).   Only TWO diagrams can be included and you can include a separate explanation with them of a maximum of 50 words each which is not included in the 1,500 word limit (so they could be like a boxed element in the article which you see in the Economist sometimes).

b)      properly referenced throughout (the Editor insists on this)  but the references should be done as either footnotes or endnotes NOT IN THE TEXT.  This is the British Standard System – not the Harvard because it is the numeric system.  This is NOT normal Business School style but is useful for this context.  Don’t use it on other modules without checking with the Module leader first.  To help you with this, the library handout is towards the back of this module guide.

 

There should also be a full reference list (to prevent legal action for plagiarism).  The referencing must be the BSS system (see above) and MARKS WILL BE DEDUCTED for poor referencing. 

NOTE – the Editor has written articles on this topic herself – she can EASILY spot plagiarism as she has read most things in this area!

c)      in a similar style to other “Economist” articles – i.e. academic but readable.   NOTE – you will see from the Criteria for Assessment grid at the end of the guide that “attention to purpose” is a marking criteria and part of the purpose is it MUST be in the correct style for the journal!

Advice – look at the style of other Economist articles – a number are used in the seminars and are contained in this guide.

d)      needs a “punchy” headline and possibly sub-headline (the latter is optional) of no more than 5 words for main and 8 for sub.

Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com