How to Write a Research Paper Outline (2 easy approaches)

How to Write a Research Paper Outline (2 easy approaches) There are many types of research papers.   In this article we’ll discuss two basic approaches.   The first is the general research paper outline.   It consists of the standard introduction, body, and conclusion.   The second is the more rigorous research paper outline.   It breaks down how a longer research paper should look—such as a thesis or dissertation with chapters and headings. Research Paper Format Approach #1:   The General Outline The general research paper outline consists of an introduction with a thesis statement, the body of the paper, and a conclusion with a recap of your main points. The introduction should not be any longer than 200-250 words.   It should provide some background information as well as the purpose of your paper.   Be sure to give an idea of how you will make your points or what sources your information is based on. The body should consist of at least 3 paragraphs.   Each paragraph should focus on making one point to help support your thesis.   Use transition words and phrases to link the paragraphs together and help your paper move from one idea to the next. The conclusion should be a succinct summary of your paper and the main idea.   You can restate the thesis is new words and also provide a rundown of your main points.   It’s also an opportunity to leave your audience with a final thought.   You should not introduce any new ideas or arguments in your conclusion. A basic outline would look like this: I.   INTRODUCTION a.   Use a hook (an interesting fact or idea) or a good question to grab the reader’s attention. b.   Give some background on the topic you have researched. c.   Tell the reader what your paper will do/show—this is your thesis. i.   Include some info on what sources you use. ii.   Also give an idea of the process that your paper will take. II.   BODY a.   Use at least 3 paragraphs to support your thesis (main idea). b.   Each paragraph should focus on one unique point or idea in support of the paper’s overall purpose. c.   Use transitions to link one paragraph to the next. III.   CONCLUSION a.   Restate the thesis in new words. b.   Recap the findings of the research paper. Approach #2:   The Longer Research Paper A longer research paper, such as a dissertation, will typically have chapters that cover a lot more ground on specific subjects within the report.   Dissertations can be dozens of pages long.   For quantitative research (such as in the natural or physical sciences), the following format is quite regular and is typically based on addressing some gap in literature.   For qualitative research, the papers are less dependent upon existent literature and more focused on theoretical approaches.   The following outline is best suited for quantitative or mixed-methods research, though it can also be applied to qualitative research papers as well. There are commonly 5 parts or chapters to the long research paper or dissertation.   Not every paper will be for the same discipline, so the way in which they are set up will vary.   However, typically, there are chapters for each of the following areas:   1) Introduction, 2) Literature Review, 3) Methodology, 4) Findings, and 5) Discussion.   If you locate a scholarly article from an online database, it usually follows this same format—so you can have a look for yourself.   An abstract is also commonly included and so is a reference page where all the sources used are listed.   There are often as many sources used as there are pages and sometimes more! Let’s break it down and have a closer look at the research paper format for the longer report. I.   TITLE PAGE II.   ABSTRACT III.   INTRODUCTION IV.   LITERATURE REVIEW V.   METHODOLOGY VI.   FINDINGS VII.   DISCUSSION We’ll look at each one individually and explain how they all work step by step. Title Page The title page comes first and it will be set up according to APA, MLA, Chicago or Harvard methods.   (These are the most common styles but there are others, such as Bluebook—be sure to check with your professor to see which style you should use if you’re uncertain). The title page will be a standalone page that provides information about the author of the work (you) as well as the school and class for which it is written.   The proper format for this can be obtained Purdue OWL—see some of their examples here. Abstract The abstract is a brief synopsis of the paper that follows.   It should explain what the subject is, what the thesis is, which methodology is used, what the findings are, and what conclusions are drawn.   The average abstract is about 150-200 words long. Introduction The introduction chapter should set the stage.   In it you will want to include several items, each with their own subheading such as: Background (give info that sets up the nature of the study) Problem Statement (identify the problem or gap in literature that needs to be addressed) Purpose Statement (state the purpose of your paper) Hypothesis (if there is one) Theoretical Framework (what theory are you using to approach the subject for analysis) Limitations (what are the limitations of your study) Chapter Breakdown (how will the research paper proceed—identify what is to come in each successive chapter) Literature Review For a quantitative study, the literature review is one of the most important parts.   Your research will be guided by it and your study will attempt to fill some gap in the literature—some problem that has not yet been addressed.   If you’re conducting a qualitative study, the literature review will serve more of a background filling-out purpose.   It will help explain your theoretical approach.   You’ll want to use as many scholarly sources as you can find to make your literature review extra rich and meaningful. Methodology The methodology section should be used to explain the exact method used to collect data for the research paper.   If the study is a meta-analysis of literature, for example, you would explain how you selected the literature reviewed for the paper—what keywords you used, how you filtered articles out, what you assessed them for, and so on.   If you are surveying subjects, you would describe how you found your participants, what your survey consisted of, and how you analyzed the findings. Findings The chapter on findings is where you tell what you found when you analyzed the data you obtained in your research.   You do not give any opinions or present any conclusions in this chapter.   Here you simply say what was revealed when you looked at the information you retrieved.   The next chapter is where you would discuss what the findings mean. Discussion In this chapter you would talk about the meaning of the results from the previous chapter.   Here is where you offer up opinions or conclusions regarding the findings.   You can discuss how they compare with your hypothesis or attempt to explain them in the light of your theoretical framework.   You can also offer recommendations for future research based on the findings and the conclusions you draw from them. Research Paper Outline Examples Example 1 Approach #1:   The General Outline Topic:   The Anti-Federalist Perspective I.   Introduction a.   In 1787, Americans had to decide whether they wanted a central government or a loose federation of states, with each state its own government. b.   The Federalists argued for a central government. c.   The Anti-Federalists argued for state governments. d.   This paper will examine the history of America in the 200+ years that have passed in order to assess which side of the debate has been proven correct. II.   Body a.   The Federalists argued that states would fight among themselves and get the Union entangled in foreign wars without a strong central government to keep watch over them. i.   This has obviously not come true. ii.   Just the opposite has happened: the central government has had the Union entangled in foreign wars almost non-stop for at least the past century. b.   The Federalists mainly consisted of big business types who argued that the Constitution should be ratified to help regulate society, politics and the economy i.   The Constitution essentially served as a means of handcuffing local authority, small business, and rural farmers. ii.   The keys to government were handed over to the Federal Reserve in 1913: they were given the power to print the nation’s currency and lend it to the government at interest. c.   Needless to say, the Federalists favored central banks. i.   Central banks have been the main catalysts for economic crises unlike anything ever seen. ii.   Today’s zombie economy is a direct result of central bank intervention and unconventional monetary policy. iii.   The Anti-Federalists opposed central banks and believed states should be stewards of their own coin and able spend money as they saw fit. III.   Conclusion a.   Today’s problems are the direct result of Federalist ideas. b.   The Anti-Federalists were correct to warn Americans about what would happen should the Federalists gain power. What they have predicted has come true. Example 2 Approach #2:   The Longer Research Paper Outline (for a Dissertation) Topic:   Is social media a good tool for business? I.   Introduction a.   Problem Statement: Social media is a revolutionary new Internet tool that allows people to connect and share information instantaneously.   There is little research available, however, on whether it can be used to support business aims. b.   Purpose Statement: This paper will use the survey method to obtain data for business managers about their social media usage. c.   Hypothesis: It is hypothesized that most business managers will use social media but that the advantage of doing so is not very well documented. d.   Limitations: This study is limited in terms of time and scope.   It was only able to interview six business managers, which is not a significant sample size. e.   Chapter Breakdown: The following chapters include a literature review, a methodology section, a chapter on findings, and a conclusion in which the findings are discussed and recommendations made. II.   Literature Review a.   Studies that discuss business use of social media will be reviewed and discussed in this chapter. III.   Methodology a.   The survey method used will be described. b.   How participants were chosen will also be discussed. c.   The survey questions will mentioned and included in the Appendix. d.   How the survey questions will be analyzed should be described as well. IV.   Findings a.   Findings from the survey should be described here. b.   Tables and graphs can be included to help the reader visualize the data. c.   Any measurements described in your methodology (such as correlation) should also be included. V.   Discussion a.   What do the findings mean? b.   Provide an explanation of why the results show what they did. c.   Offer recommendations for future research—how researchers can build on your study. Conclusion When writing a research paper outline there are a few things to keep in mind: Use your introduction wisely. Whether you are writing a longer research paper or a shorter one, the introduction is where you provide some background on the subject you will be writing about.   Let the reader know up front what your position is, how you will make your points, and where your paper is heading. Load up on resources. The more references you have to show support for your point, the better your research paper will be. Use the body of your outline to go into the particulars of your research subject. Use one paragraph per topic in a shorter research paper, or one chapter per area for a longer research paper. Go over the main points again in your conclusion or discussion section. Offer recommendations for further research if there is space in your paper to do so. Provide an abstract—a brief synopsis of your research—in roughly 200 words (half a page). This is a must for longer research papers but not always needed for shorter papers. Always follow the rubrics you are given by your professor! Your outline is like a road map, so use it as a reference for when you go to write your paper! View a research paper example to see a full completed version and to use as a guideline Helpful Hints and Reminders: Always construct an outline before you begin writing. Produce an outline that is comparable to the scale of your paper. Revise your outline as needed; if you do more research, let it reflect in your revision. Be mindful of your sources when drafting your outline: plug them in where needed and be sure to cite them when finished! If you need further assistance on how to write a research paper, check out this article.

Securitisation Techniques In Financial Markets Finance Essay - Free Essay Example

Introduction Securitisation is a structured finance technique that allows for credit to be provided directly to market processes rather than through financial intermediaries. Securitisation describes the process and the result of converting regular and classifiable cash flows from a diversified pool of illiquid existing or future assets of similar type, size and risk category into tradable, debt and equity obligations (liquidity transformation and asset diversification process). Securitisation was first started in United States after the housing market collapsed in early 1930s. There are three government sponsored agencies which are involved in creation of mortgage back securities, known as Ginnie Mae (GNMA) Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac (FHLMC) (A.Saunders, M. Cornett, 2008 p.815) In simple securitisation is a process where pool of illiquid assets such as long term loans, mortgages, and other illiquid assets are transferred into liquid assets by selling them to outside investors. Securitisation has become very popular with the banks worldwide as it helps the financial institutes to write off the illiquid assets of their balance sheet, helps to reduce the taxes, frees the capital for further investments, and reduces risk. Different researchers have given different definitions to securitisation, (Y. Altunbas, et.al) defines Securitisation as the process whereby individual bank loans and other financial assets are bundled together into tradable securities, which are sold onto secondary market. The other definition given by (C. Cardone-Riportella, et.al ) is Securitisation is a financial technique that allows a batch of illiquid assets to be transformed into a liquid tradable instrument with a known flow of income payments. Whereas (S. Saunderson, 1997 p.359) defines securitisation as a framework in which some illiquid assets of a corporation or a financial institution are transformed into a package of securities backed by these assets, through careful packaging, credit enhancement, liquidity enhancement, and structuring. The other definition given by (Cox, 1990 p.2 and Kendall, 1996 p.1-2) securitisation is the process where pools of individual loans, receivables or debt instruments are packaged in the form of securities, the credit status or rating of the securities are enhanced and distributed to investors in simple we could explain securitisation as a mechanism of pooling of a group of loans and selling them to the investors in the secondary market. This paper aims to understand the process of securitisation, its advantages and disadvantages, and then we will look onto some cases on financial institutes which did failed for too much dependence on securitisation, Northern Rock Bank was one of the bank which collapsed in UK due to overdependence on Securitisation and short term funds. Until 2007 Securitisation was the most favourable process used by banks and different financial institutions but too much dependence on it lead many financial institutes to collapse. Process of Securitisation There are a number of participants in Securitisation process, firstly there is an Originator- which is usually a financial firm, or a bank, the assets of the originator such as mortgages, credit card receivables, automobile loans, etc are pooled together to securities for writing off those assets from the Originators Balance sheet. In second step there is an Issuer- often called as Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV). The SPV is a company or it can be another Bank which is specially set up for the purpose of securitisation. The SPV holds the securities, which are the sole owners of the securitised assets, the SPV issues the notes/bonds to the investors which are backed by the pool of assets, but before the notes/bonds been issued there are several other parties are involved during this process, such as the credit scoring companies, Trustees, Servicer. The rating agency advices the originator on assets, examines the credit quality of the pooled assets, and rates the assets to AAA, or AAB, etc. before the bonds been issued to investors. In some cases the underwriters are involved as well during this process. A servicer in many instances is an originator. The servicer is responsible to collect the interest/instalments on loans/mortgages deriving from the pooled assets and pays it to the Trustees. Servicer entitles for a fee for the timely collection of instalments. Trustees act on behalf of investors and looks onto the performance of the other parties involved in the process, reviews periodic information on the pooled assets and takes any legal action on defaults to protect the investors. The large purchasers of the securities are insurance companies and pension funds. These bonds issued are very much favourable to the investors as they are less risky compared to any other investments. These bonds are protected against the default risk. For e.g. a bond is issued by a mortgage backed security and the property price goes down or the buyer defaults then the bondholders w ould be at risk unless been insured by the external guarantor, or even if the originator went bankrupt then too the bonds are safe, as the bonds are insured and are low on credit risk. Originator (e.g. Bank creates mortgages on Balance Sheet) Sale proceeds (payments) Asset Pool SPV Class A Notes Investors (life insurance, pension funds) Note issue Class B Notes Class C Notes The above chart demonstrates the process of securitisation in simplest mode. As we can see the originator pools the assets and transfers them to a SPV and then the notes/bonds are sold in the secondary market. The sale proceeds are transferred to the originator and can be reused to create new mortgages. (A. Teesdale, 2003, A. Sayman) Case Study To simplify the process of securitisation, we can take one case study of a ABC commercial bank established in the European union. ABC bank is involved in retail and corporate banking sector, and also provides loans to housing consumer sector, special financial services, and investment fund management. The main business of bank is to provide housing finance. ABC bank intends to expand, for which it requires additional finance but banks liability consist of long term B rated debt which it intends to replace with less expensive process and even wants to free a part of regulatory capital. So it could expand in to BB-rated country. The bank could achieve this by two processes. We will look at the initial position of Bank Balance sheet ASSET 1000 Housing Loans 605 Securities 245 Cash at hand 30 Interbank Placement 120 LIABILITIES 1000 Retail Deposits 662 Interbank Deposit 68 BB rated Loans 225 Shareholders Equity 45 The Bank has two option on funding first by taking a collateralised Loan or by Securitisation. Bank wishes to raise Euro 200 million in both the cases. Collateralised Loan: In this the Bank takes a collateralised loan of Euro 200 million whose interest rate is 9.5% which is less expensive then the B rated Bonds. By doing this the Banks asset side of the Balance sheet remains unchanged. A new liability is shown on the Banks Balance sheet. The net interest income is improved as cost of funding is decreased. The bonds proceeds are replaces by a loan. But this process is not that favourable compared to securitisation. The other method which Bank could take is securitisation. In this process the Bank pools the low risk housing loans together and sells them to XYZ company which is a special purpose vehicle (SPV). The ABC Bank has set up a XYZ SPV to implement the securitisation transaction. To min imise the initial capital and tax burden the SPV is registered in Lichtenstein. The borrowers of the loan continue to pay the loan instalments to the originator i.e., ABC company and ABC company then passes them to the SPV. SPV issues either Bonds/ Notes and sells them to investors in the secondary market. The SPV pays the sale proceedings to the originator. So now the Banks Balance sheet has changed. ASSETS 1000 Housing Loans 405 Securities 245 Cash at hand 230 Interbank Placement 120 LIABILITIES 1000 Retail Deposits 662 Interbank Deposit 68 BB rated Loans 225 Shareholders Equity 45 The Balance sheet of XYZ Company appears as; ASSETS 201 Housing Loan 200 Cash 1 LIABILITIES 201 Securities 200 Equity 1 So from the above procedure we could see Securitisation procedure is favourable as it takes off the long term assets from its Balance sheet and makes quick availability of cash and transfers risk to other parties. There are many more advantages to securitisation which are given below. Advantages of Securitisation Securitisation is very much favourable to many of the financial institutes and is accepted worldwide. Banks securitise their assets to free the long term investments and reduce risks. Different researchers have given different advantages to Securitisation, (A. Jobst, 2006, H. Shin, 2008, D. Barnes, N. Warman, 2000, www.rbnz.govt.nz, www.rbidocs.rbi.org.in) like securities which are issued by securitisation have a good credit rating as they are backed by assets and are scored by credit rating agencies, so these securities get sold quickly in the secondary market. The cost of raising fund via securitisation is a cheaper mode then borrowing money on interest, or depending on deposits. The other benefit to the Banks is it helps to reduce or pass on risk to other parties, Banks face many different risks on the loans, such as interest rate risk that the interest rate will move on diverse side and it will affect the Banks profitability or make loss. Liquidity risk that the Bank wont have enough cash to pay its depositors. Credit risk that the borrower will default and wont be able to pay the debt. So securitisation is preferred by the Banks as it helps to reduce or pass on risk to other parties. Securitisation helps Bank to covert the illiquid assets in to liquid funds very quickly which could be reinvested and helps to raise the turnover of the assets on Banks Balance sheet. It also gives regulatory advantage. As per the rules set by Basel II pillar I minimum Capital requirement Banks do need to hold minimum Capital to risk weighted asset ratio. (www.bis.com) By securitisation process the assets are taken off the Banks Balance sheet which helps to reduce the minimum Capital holding requirement which in turn improves the leverage ratio and further improves the Return on Equity. The Income of the Financial Institutes is improved as the Banks charges onetime fee on loans it processes and by retaining the responsibility to service them the Banks income of loan charges are unaffected by any change in interest rates. It even builds up confidence for the Financial Institutes in the financial market. It helps Financial Institutes to diversify to loans portfolio beyond few companies, industries, or geographical location and can increase their sources of fees and interest income. It also helps to invest in to different lines of business and avoid single type of credit risk. Further easy available of funds help the Financial Institutes to compete and even benefits the borrowers to borrow at low rate of interest. Disadvantages of Securitisation Along with the advantages given above there are some disadvantages as well which are given by many researchers. Until 2007 securitisation was the very much acceptable and favourable process used by many Financial Institutes worldwide (H.Shin, 2009) says there are two pieces of received wisdom concerning securitisation one old and one new. The old role emphasise a positive role played by securitisation but the subsequent credit crises has somewhat tarnished the positive image. Easy and cheap available money has motivated the borrowers and companies to borrow and lend more than they should. Many researchers as, (H Shin, 2009. D. Rakesh have argued that the main reason for the subprime crisis was the securitisation, over dependence on it has nailed the fianacial system in many countries. Securitisation is a very complex process with many different parties involved in it such as SPV, credit rating agencies, underwriters, Trustees, etc. So it is difficult for Banks to ensure that all risks arising from securitisation are appropriately managed. The Securitisation process is expensive when the assets to be securitised are not large. The other disadvantage is that Banks would securities all their best assets, thereby lowering the overall quality of assets on Balance sheet, Since the better quality of assets are more likely to be suitable for securitisation. Securitisation Failure Until 2007 Securitisation was the most preferred process used by financial institutes for their growth, but after 2007 due to the credit crunch and too much dependence on securitisation lead the financial institutes to collapse, we could see this from the figures in Europe the total volume of securitised assets grew from 78.2 billion Euros in 2000 to 711.3 billion Euros in 2008, but later it dropped to 414.1 billion euros in 2009, due to freezing of credit market and loss of confidence on asset backed securities. From the current sub-prime crisis we have learned the lesson that even too much dependence on securitisation could even lead the companies to failure, so was the case with northern Rock bank in U.K. it was the first bank in U.K. which experienced a bank run and had to rush to Bank of England as a lender of last resort. Securitisation was the central part of the Northern Rocks overall business strategy (D. Llewellyn, 2008) The main business of Northern Rock was to lend mort gages, and to fund these mortgages it depended heavily on securitisation and short term funding. Northern Rock pooled it mortgages and sold them in the secondary market in form of Mortgage Back Securities (MBS). These MBS were purchased by banks around the world. Securitisation and Colateralized Debt Obligation (CDO) were the two major instruments of the financial market turmoil. Easy availability of funds via securitisation motivated the financial institutes to lend money to sub-prime buyers with low income, credit ratings, etc. (H.Shin, 2009) says As Balance sheet expands new borrowers must be still need to expand, then Banks have to lower their lending standard in order to lend to subprime borrower. The seed of the subsequent downturn in the credit cycle are thus sown. When the interest rates went high almost 80% of the borrowers defaulted which led many banks go bankrupt, further led property markets go down and affected the whole economy. This is when the credit market freezed up especially for asset backed securities, MBS, CDOs. As a result of this there was a loss of confidence on asset backed securities throughout the globe. Although Northern Rock was not exposed to US sub-prime mortgage it become caught up in all this because of its business model: securitisation as a central strategy and reliance on short term money market funding. (D. Llewellyn, 2008) Due to loss of confidence on ABS and freeze in capital made Northern Rock to suffer, as it could not securities its mortgage loan in the funding market and had to hold the assets on its balance sheet. Majority of the assets of Northern Rock were long term residential mortgages so had little scope to reduce the Balance sheet in a flexible way once the crisis struck (H. Shin, 2008) like northern rock there were many different companies worldwide which did collapsed due to overdependence on Securitisation. Conclusion The aim of this article was to indicate how Securitisation process works, what are the advantages and disadvantages of securitisation. A case study is presented to better understand the securitisation process. The example of Northern Rock failure is been highlighted in this article to understand that overdependence of securitisation could lead to failure. From the current sub-prime crisis Basel committee has made some efforts to improve the banking capital structure by increasing the percentage of minimum capital requirement. Besides the current financial crisis Securitisation will continue to play a significant role in future for banks to grow.