Please write a 20- to 25-page annotated bibliography (double-spaced) on one of the topics listed
below. I have put an example of an annotated bibliography on BlackBoard, but please note that
this
Timothy B. Michael Fall 2018 and later Page 2 of 5
Citation Method
For this assignment you need to choose a citation method that lets you put a page number to
specific ideas and/or direct quotes. Please note that the APA method does not do this, so please
don’t use the APA method for this assignment. There are several other methods you can choose
(MLA, Chicago Manual of Style, Turabian, etc.) but don’t use the APA method.
Sources
Please use at least 20 “real” sources for your paper. Here are some qualifiers for “real” sources:
 newspaper or magazine articles, including those duplicated online, count as “real;”
 newspaper or magazine reporter blogs do not count as “real;”
 Wikipedia doesn’t count – ever – it’s a starting place only – see the “General Directions…
mentioned above;
 CNN, MSNBC, FoxNews, ABC, CBS, NBC or any other organized mass media news or
their online components ARE NOT “real” sources;
 Bloomberg, Reuters, and AP usually count as valid news organizations (but they still may
have their biases);
 blogs and other vague, unsourced Web sites don’t count;
 anything without an author does NOT count, unless it’s produced by a reputable
organization such as the Fed and it has documented sources of its own.
Part of the point of this assignment is to have you think about and recognize what a “real” source
of information is. In the Internet age it’s harder and harder to distinguish whether a source is
valuable or not.
Be sure to cite and document each source properly at the beginning of each summary. Opinion
pieces are OK as references if the writers are actual experts, not just some blogger-type pundit.
If you don’t know how to cite material in a bibliography, you should look at the “General
Directions…” handout.
Executive Summary
After you have written your summaries of each article (for the annotated bibliography part), you
should go back and summarize what you’ve learned in 6-10 pages (the “executive summary”). It
should be the last thing you write, but the first part of what you turn in, and it should contain the
following items (or at least some of them, depending on your topic).
Your summary should
 Define the topic area very clearly and its scope or limitations. Note: You can group your
papers by their subtopic or classification within the topic and even add a section title for
each group such as “I. Weak Form Efficiency” or whatever is applicable.
 Explain what you learned about the topic in your research, as taken from the sources you
read. This is the most important part of the executive summary, so be sure to spend the
most words on this section of the summary.
 Concentrate on organizing and presenting the opinions of others. Your opinion at this
point is only as strong as the sources you’re using, so focus on communicating what your
sources said.
 Avoid the use of first-person perspective. Write this as a report to your boss and figure
that it might be read by her boss at some point. In particular, don’t waste any time
Timothy B. Michael Fall 2018 and later Page 3 of 5
explaining why you chose this topic or what you found most surprising – I’ll take it
for granted that you picked a topic that you were interested in.
List of Sources
Finally, at the end of your paper, after the executive summary and the 20 (or more) article
summaries, you should include a full bibliographic list of everything you read for the project.
This list should include all of the articles you’ve summarized as well as anything that you read
for background to get ready to summarize the articles or decide on a topic.
Your paper should be no longer than 30 pages, including a title page, a table of contents and a
couple pages for bibliographic references at the end. You can go longer if you want to.
Turning It In
You should submit a copy to the “Submit Here” item under the “Writing Assignment” menu
item in BlackBoard. You should submit your paper as ONE DOCUMENT in *.doc or *.docx
format to no later than midnight of the due date in the Course Schedule. I will take 10 points
off per day that it is late – after 10 days it will be 100% late, and the most you will be able
to earn on it is a zero.
Your one document should have the pieces arranged in this order: Executive summary,
annotated bibliography entries, and list of sources. If you don’t order them this way I will take a
minimum of 10 points off of the paper for not following directions (so the highest grade you can
get on it is a 90, and only then if it is perfect in every other way). You don’t have to limit your
annotated bibliographies to one per page – you can finish one summary and then skip two lines
to put your next bibliographic reference and start the next summary if your summaries are
sometimes short enough.
I will add your paper to my electronic database of student papers in SafeAssign, and I will use
SafeAssign to help screen for plagiarism. I will not grade your paper unless I have an electronic
version, and you will receive a zero for your grade in that case.
For F2F classes, you must also turn in a printed copy of this assignment at the beginning of
class on the date they are due. If you come to class late that day, or if you fail to turn it in at the
beginning of class, the paper will be considered “late” and may be subject to a late penalty of up
to one letter grade. You will also need to submit an electronic copy on BlackBoard or you will
not receive a grade for this assignment.
Working Together and Plagiarism
I encourage you to help others in the class by proofreading their work and having them proofread
yours, but I will treat any common writing on any of these assignments as plagiarism, and I will
prosecute everybody involved. Anything more than four words is “common writing” unless you
have a documented source (which has to be cited anyway), and if your paper consists of only a
bunch of quotes strung together, you’ll get a low grade. You must do and turn in only your
own work on every assignment in this class.
PLEASE NOTE: Any questions about plagiarism should be addressed to me BEFORE you turn
in the assignment. “I was planning to ask you about that” will not be an acceptable excuse, and I
will prosecute what I think is plagiarism. If you make a “mistake” and turn in a “rough draft”
Timothy B. Michael Fall 2018 and later Page 4 of 5
without references, I will STILL prosecute you for plagiarism. Even rough drafts have to have
references, and when they don’t it’s a violation.
Acceptable Topics
 proposed solutions to the Fannie/Freddie problem, with a detailed evaluation of how it
became a moral hazard problem to start with
 proposed government changes to regulations on management compensation at financial
institutions and their expected effects
 solutions for the ongoing financial crisis related to Greece and the European Union
 predatory lending practices by “subprime” consumer lenders and their economic effects
(not mortgage lending)
 the CFPB and its failed plan to regulate auto lending
 the growth & history of the subprime consumer lending industry (payday loans, title
loans, etc.)
 provisions of the Dodd/Frank Act and its expected consequences for the banking industry
 the impact of the subprime lending crisis on consumer mortgage availability since 2008
 proposed government changes to regulations on management compensation at financial
institutions and their expected effects
 the importance of fair value accounting and its role in bank and GAAP reforms
 the history and anticipated impact of the “Volcker Rule”
 the inflationary effects of “quantitative easing” and the expected consequences of
discontinuing it
 the role of J.P. Morgan Chase in the Bernie Madoff scandal and consequences
 the causes and resolution of Washington Mutual’s failure
 the causes and resolution of Wachovia’s failure
 the causes of BB&Ts success and growth
 the fastest-growing banks in Texas (by assets, deposits, loans, etc.) and what makes them
successful
NOTE: You must choose from this list for your writing assignment topic. You cannot make up
your own topic. If you do not use a topic from this list for your assignment, you will receive
a grade of zero on your writing assignment, with no exceptions.
One other thing about sources: Your paper must use at least 20 different sources. Chapters from
a book don’t count as separate sources – a book is ONE SOURCE for this assignment, unless it’s
a book of readings written by different authors. (I never thought I’d need to point this out to
college students, but it came up.)