ECO336 Formal Writing Assignments
ECO336 is a writing-emphasis course at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. In order to fulfill this requirement, we will be doing both formal and informal writing. Informal writing is just that: informal. This may consist of notes to yourself or to me about readings as well as comments, personal reviews, questions, thoughts, etc.
Formal writing assignments will be much more structured and have many more requirements. For our formal writing assignments, I want you to consider the reader to be someone outside of the course. Someone who is not privy to the discussions we have had and may or may not understand economics more generally. As such, you will need to be clear in your explanation of concepts as well as in the organization of your paper. Consider your paper an argument that you are making to convince your reader of a particular idea or thought. In doing so, you need to be organized and clear, leading your reader down a logical path of thought to a conclusion.
First, however, you need to collect data. During the first two weeks of class you will be conducting interviews of two couples. Please find two couples that are living together as a couple, not necessarily married. Interview each individual separately using the Household Survey. Then enter the data into an Excel Spreadsheet and email it to me. I will compile the data into a larger data set that we will use for the Formal Writing Assignments.
The following links are to the Questionnaire itself and the household data:
Household Survey Questionnaire
Example Excel Spreadsheet to use to enter your data and send to me:
Data to be used in your Formal Writing Assignments:
Formal Writing Assignments and Due Dates:
Formal Writing Assignment 1: DUE OCTOBER 7th
Formal Writing Assignment 2: DUE NOVEMBER 2nd
Rubrics to be used for grading FWA2
Formal Writing Assignment 3: DUE DECEMBER 9TH
Guidelines for Writing and using SPSS:
A Short Guide for Citations within Formal Papers