12 Tips for an awesome finance assignment essay

Essay writing assignments are among the most common type of assignments you will get at the college level. Since finance is not only about money management but also about the application of the concepts learned in the real world, you will be assigned essays to argue, persuade the reader or describe certain concepts. The essays can therefore be descriptive, argumentative, or persuasive.
As such, it is upon you to write an awesome essay to convince your instructor or defend your assigned topic. While this may be difficult when starting in college, there are many phenomenal tips that can propel you to write an awesome finance assignment essay.
Here are 12 such tips to help you,

1. Choose your topic carefully

Given the choice to select your topic for an essay, ensure that you pay great attention to selecting it. Do not just choose a topic because it is common or because it seems easy to tackle. Instead, explore different finance essays on the web that have previously been done and select a topic that you clearly understand and one that you know you will be able to execute well enough. It is advisable to make a list of the ideas you have and select one to tackle as your topic.

The choice of topic determines how awesome or not your essay will be. For example, you could have a topic say, on which financial investments are best for a start-up company, and instead of just doing a generalized essay, you could choose just one investment option like saying stock options and focus your essay on that. An interesting topic will capture your reader’s attention which is the end goal.

2. Have a plan of attack

Once you decide on a topic to write, make a plan on how you will tackle the said topic. Failing to plan is planning to fail, as such failing to prepare means that your execution of the chosen topic will likely fail. Essay assignments unlike reports may not follow a specific format or layout and mainly depend on your opinions on the topic. Your plan should include your best ideas, submission deadlines, and all the important details of your assignment.

Understand the main themes of your essay topic and plan around that. This will ensure that once you begin researching and writing, no sections will be left untouched or under-researched. Having a plan ensures that you have assigned appropriate time to your essay assignment which also ensures that you have ample time to complete it without feeling rushed.

3. Create an outline

Creating an outline for your essay makes sure that you have an easier time researching and writing your finance work. The first step in your plan above should be creating the outline. Create enough sections in your essay that you will need to fill in so that you can see to it that no section of your topic is left untouched. An outline will also ensure that you do not include a lot of fluff in your essay which is highly discouraged and will instead guide your writing into tackling the most important aspects of your topic.

For example, in our above example on financial investments, having sections on your essay talking about say corporate restructuring makes it irrelevant and useless. An outline ensures that you have direction in your essay both in terms of researching and writing it. Having direction is the best way to ensure that you write a perfect essay assignment.

4. Read and research extensively

For an awesome assignment, ensure that you do proper reading and research on the topic and content needed for your essay. Note that it is very sloppy and highly discouraged to begin researching your topic without reviewing your class notes. The topic assigned is likely related to what you have been learning in class. Reviewing your class notes also ensures that you fully understand the topic at hand and enables you to know which sections of your research are relevant and which ones are irrelevant.

Use credible sources for your work to ensure that any information you put in the assignment is correct and verifiable. You cannot be writing about financial investments using say a personal blog as your source of information. Use textbooks and publications on different ways to diversify said financial investments to get the information you need. This improves the accuracy of your essay making it awesome.

5. Have a compelling introduction

A compelling introduction to your essay will make your reader eager to read on. Make your reader want to read on by using facts in the introduction or interesting statistics discovered in your research. For example, you could say something like; in the emerging markets, 70% of manufacturing firms around the world are choosing debt financing as a way to expand their operations. This tells the reader that you have researched your topic and you have authority over what you are writing.

Your introduction should include the purpose of your study as well as the background of the essay where possible. If your topic was say, discussing how a merger is the best option for restructuring company ABC, your introduction should give a small background on what mergers are and how you will be dissecting this in the essay you are about to write. It is a simple summary of the body of your essay.

6. Argue your points strongly

The body of your essay is where you shine with the knowledge discovered from reading and researching your topic. Use your research to better convey your points strongly. Your essay aims to convince your reader or persuade them as to why your topic of discussion is valid. As such, ensure that you use figures, percentages, and tables where necessary as well as research-backed findings to expound on this.

Make sure to keep your point relevant but not exaggerated. Remember that at college-level writing, we do not use emotive language unless specifically asked to do so. Therefore, your main body should aim at logically arguing your points and strongly conveying the findings from your research. Show your reader why having a merger for example, for company ABC would be better than say having a company buyout. Let you’re the points argued in the body of your essay be so strong that there is no doubt in the mind of your reader.

7. Conclude your essay comprehensively

Have a comprehensive and impressive conclusion to your essay. An impressive conclusion summarizes the main points of your essay convincingly. Remember that if your reader was not already convinced by the findings of your essay, then this is useless. However, an impressive conclusion reiterates the points you strongly argued in your essay.

In case there are any recommendations you need to give, use this section of your essay to give them. A good conclusion is as important as a strong introduction, which means an essay with an improper conclusion is less than perfect. Some instructors may start with the conclusion before reading the body of your essay, just as a way to gauge what it is about. Ensure that it is very well written.

8. Be specific and keep it simple

Ensure that your essay is not just another generic report, instead, let it be specific and get the attention of the reader. For an awesome essay, make sure to keep it simple. Finance assignments can be technical but you can write your essay in a way that simplifies your topic issue. Ensure that you split any long sentences that have complex ideas into smaller bite-sized sentences.

Simple is always better, but take care not to oversimplify finance terms. For the example where you are writing about mergers, use the necessary finance terms to explain your topic and content, but also make it simple enough to be complicated. Remember, you are not writing another finance publication, as such, keep your points specific and to the point. Do not oversimplify terms but do not also overcomplicate your essay to the point where it makes no sense.

9. Proofread, proofread and proofread

Your essay will not be awesome if it is filled with errors, ensure that you proofread your work to get rid of these errors. Submitting an essay that has grammatical errors, wrong punctuations, and poorly constructed sentences is not acceptable. It will quickly divert your instructor’s attention and you may be unable to put the point of your essay across. Run your work through resources like Grammarly to help you check the levels of clarity, and correctness of engagement your essay has.

Go through the financial jargon you have in your essay and cross-check with the jargon in the books used for research. Ensure that the spelling used corresponds to those in the books and that their meanings are not misconstrued. Proofread your work several times to ensure that it makes sense and that your essay puts across the points you intend to put across as simply as possible.

10. Have a proper structure for your essay

To properly ace your finance assignment, ensure that it follows a proper structure as well as the format prescribed in the set of instructions given by the instructor. Ensure that you include in your essay an introduction, which will introduce the topic at hand and give the reader an impression of what to expect in the essay.

Ensure that the body of your essay contains headings and subheadings to better discuss your topic. For our above topic, you could dissect why the merger is the best option for company ABC, discuss why other options are not viable and the timeline for the change to be seen. End your essay with a powerful conclusion and if you disagreed with the topic, give recommendations of another option that would be better like say, acquisitions instead. A properly structured essay gives a good first impression to your instructor which is the end goal.

11. Adopt proper formatting

The first things that will stand out in your essay are the presentation and layout you decide on. An essay that has small fonts, sentences that are too long, single-spaced work, broken links, and diagrams is sloppy and unintelligible. For example, for the topic above, you could decide to use tables to show the different company restructuring methods like mergers and acquisitions that could impact company ABC. Make sure your tables are well labeled and well scaled.

Poor formatting may cause you to get a low grade. For an awesome essay especially in an assignment, ensure that you use the recommended font, and break down your paragraphs into smaller paragraphs for easier readability. Make sure that any diagrams that you use are well scaled about your essay length. Use a good font and double-space your essay for better readability. Ensure proper numbering is done on your pages as well as proper headers and footers are included. A proper structure gives you an advantage over your instructor.

12. Avoid copy-pasted work

Plagiarism in an essay can either cost you your marks or even get you suspended or expelled from your college. Therefore, ensure that all the ideas presented in your essay are not copy pasted from the internet or books and publications. Take care to correctly paraphrase the findings of your research and where necessary, include quotations of the authors whose work you have used in your essay.

Ensure that where necessary, you have included in-text citations as well as footnotes to properly reference ideas and phrases that are not yours. Have a page at the end of your document to include every author and their work that you have used in your essay. Having a reference list also shows your instructor that you have done the necessary research on your topic and that the facts represented are accurate and verifiable if the need arises.