How to work on team projects and prepare reports

1
How to work on team projects and prepare reports

• Benito Arruñada

2
Preparing the project
3
Case study

• Whats it about?
• Assume a client and a position
• Identify the main task (i.e., question, problem)
• What theory and concepts can be applied?
• To describe, explain, predict, solve
• Development
• Counter-arguments
• Nuances, explanatory hypotheses, testing
• Additional information needed?
• Summarizing is not analyzing, just a first step
• Revise, revise, revise

4
Information sources

• Theories previous courses
• Empirical info
• Data bases
• EconLit scientific studies
• EBSCO professional publications
• Financial press, The Economist
• SABI co. financial statements
• Personal contacts
• Internet ???
• Pros and cons, risks

5
Basics of info processing

• Maintain a critical, selective attitude of
  buying ideas
• Often, there is no point in gathering
  contradictory arguments of unequal value

6
Basic recommendation for reports and presentations

• This is not an exam ?
• The reader / audience is not your captive ?
• They have not obligation to listen to you or read
  what you have written
• Do not waste their time

7
Recommendations for preparing reports(1)
Substance

• Focus on the subject? Selection Answer a single
  question
• Focus on the audience? Address a specific
  audience
• Advice assume you are working for a specific
  client
• Use theory
• Essential for drawing up a map of the problem
• Needed at least for organizing the info
  explanations, solutions
• With no theory, we are just bad journalists
• Proper use of visual aids only convincing if
  pertinent
• Excise, excise, excise do not be committed to
  your creatureit does not deserve it less is
  more

8
Recommendations for preparing reports (2) Form

• Executive summary should allow readers to
  understand the main points
• Allow multiple levels of reading
• Sources state them correctly and fully
• Wording read aloud several times
• Correct spelling? use the spellcheck
• ? watch out for mistakes not detected by the
  spellcheck, e.g. affect instead of effect

9
Presentations

• PowerPoint
• Consider not using it
• Do not overuse numbers, colors, figures, photos
• No more than what? 10 slides?
• Relevance, understandability, legible color
• Oral presentation
• Wait for silence before beginning
• Essential Speak without papers ? be prepared for
  mistakes
• Participation by all? logical structure,
  introductions, etc.
• Discussing and answering questions
• Participation by all
• Do not reveal failings unnecessarily

10
Hints

• Legibility
• Contrast between text and background
• Lighting in the room
• Not many words on each line
• Activate automatic restrictions on PPT
• Simplify
• These may seem obvious hints, but
• For example

11
(No Transcript)
12
(No Transcript)
13
Reviewing the project
14
How to review projects (1)

• Define the argument
• What question is being asked?
• Of whom?
• What weapons can be used? What is the basic
  framework?
• Stick to the argument. This requires
• New content
• Elimination of much content that has already been
  written
• Elimination of contradictions between arguments
• My comments
• Do not follow them strictly
• They are only suggestions after a quick
  read-through? much more has to be changed,
  especially in line with the discussion
• Briefly explain the changes in a short note on
  the executive summary page

15
How to review projects (2)

• Receiving criticisms requires
• (1) being open to understanding them, and
• (2) accepting criticisms productively
• They often just point to a problem but do not
  give a solution, or the solution is no solution
  at all
• We have to find the right solution
• We must avoid thinking we do not deserve the
  criticism because the critic didnt give a
  solution

16
Writing the report
17
Metaphors

• We are seeing wolf pack behavior in the markets,
  and if we dont stop these packs, they will tear
  the weaker countries apart.
• Anders Borg, Swedens finance minister, about
  the financial crisis of the Euro in May 2010,
  http//www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f96a6c14-5b48-11df-85a3-
  00144feab49a.html.

18
How to write clearlyA golden rule avoid
nominalization (forming nouns from verbs)

• Examples (bad ? good)
• The police conducted an investigation into the
  matter ? The police investigated the matter.
• There is a need for further study of this program
  ? The staff must study this program further
• Our discussion concerned a tax cut ? We
  discussed a tax cut
• There was first a review of the evolution of the
  dorsal fin ? First, she reviewed how the dorsal
  fin evolved.
• Moral We are telling a story. Therefore we must
  focus on the characters and the action but
  without being too colloquial

19
Some typical faults

• Footnotes
• Place them before a comma or full stop, not in
  mid-sentence
• Avoid
• Excessive use of adjectives
• Exaggeration
• Colloquialisms
• Excessively formal language
• Double emphasis
• Value judgments
• References
• Follow a single, professional system
• Give thorough information, to facilitate location

20
Examples of wording
21
Title How should second year business science
or economics students manage their career?
22
How should we manage a professional career?
23
How we should manage a professional career
24
How to manage a career
25
Titles

• Requirements
• Short
• Informative
• Attractive
• Because they are fundamental
• We should devote a lot of time to them
• We should rewrite them many times

26

• It can therefore be concluded that the labour
  market faced by graduates in economics or
  business science when they leave university is
  currently at a high point for number of workers.
• Ambiguous
• ... at a high point for number of workers.
• Impersonal, repetitions
• It can therefore be concluded that the labour
  market faced by graduates in economics or
  business science when they leave university is
  currently at a high point for number of workers.

27

• We conclude that the market for new graduates in
  Economics or Business Science had a surplus
  supply / demand.
• Lessons
• Do not avoid using the first person
• It can be concluded ? Who concludes?
• Precision is fundamental ambiguity must be
  avoided
• is currently at a high point for number of
  workers.
• Are there too many or too few workers?
• Avoid repetitions
• is currently

28

• Job offers can be found on specialized Internet
  portals (such as Infojobs, Monster,).
• Job offers can be found on specialized Internet
  portals like Infojobs and Monster.
• Ellipsis (suspension point)
• Reveals lack of information and of interest in
  the reader
• Can often be eliminated without affecting the
  meaning (as in our case)
• Sometimes, more examples should be found
• Should be used very rarely

29

• To what extent is the market prepared to reward
  students for something extra in their education?
  The question can be converted into what is the
  return on education, covered in the section on
  econometric models.
• Too many questions
• To what extent is the market prepared to reward
  students for something extra in their
  education)?
• The reader wants answers, not questions
• Abuse of the impersonal
• The question can be converted into... Who
  converts it?
• Do not leave out words it slows down reading
• ... (which will be) covered in ...

30

• Good career management requires analysis of the
  different options a student has during the close
  of their studies.
• Good career management requires analysis of the
  different options a student has when they finish
  studying.
• For good career management, students coming to
  the end of their studies should analyze all their
  options.

31

• The purpose of this study is to explain how to
  solve the problem of water shortage. For this
  purpose, we have studied the causes of this
  shortage, focusing on the management of water
  resources. For this purpose, we have analyzed
  four possible mechanisms to solve the problem,
  weighing the pros and cons in order to reach the
  optimum solution.
• The purpose of this study is to explain how to
  solve the problem of water shortage. For this
  purpose, we have studied the causes of this
  shortage, focusing on the management of water
  resources. For this purpose, we have analyzed
  four possible mechanisms to solve the problem,
  weighing the pros and cons in order to reach the
  optimum solution.

32

• Our objective is to solve the problem of water
  shortage. After studying its causes and examining
  how it would be possible to manage the shortage,
  we analyze four possible solutions 1, 2, 3 and
  4. We defend solution X because Y.
• After studying the problem of water shortage, we
  analyze four solutions 1, 2, 3 and 4. We defend
  solution X because Y.
• Lessons
• Word order is fundamental
• We give the necessary information the options
  and, above all, our recommendation

33

• The causes considered initially when we start to
  analyze the problem
• The first causes that are analyzed

34

• Regarding what are known as first-world
  countries, it can be stated...
• Regarding developed countries, we consider
  that...
• Lessons
• Avoid circumlocution (roundabout expressions)
• As stated by Mark Twain (who was paid by the
  word), do not write metropolis if you can use
  city
• It it can be stated, prove it by stating it.
• In general, do not waste readers time by
  describing your problems or how you write.

35

• This is because the fact that we are dealing with
  an essential good makes it necessary for a body
  supervising development of the mechanism to be
  adopted to act.
• This is because the fact that we are dealing with
  an essential good makes it necessary for a body
  supervising the development of the mechanism to
  be adopted to act.

36

• This is because, since it is a basic good, it is
  necessary for a body to supervise implementation
  of the chosen policy.
• Lesson
• Check, then check again, then check once more.
• Then, at the end, when we think everything is
  ready, forget that everything is ready, and check
  again.