Assume that you have been asked to build a presentation to be given to a group of recent college graduates who majored in non-business related subjects and therefore know very little about economics or finance. These are intelligent and educated individuals, but they know little about the academics of business.

Create a dynamic and engaging PowerPoint presentation in which you explain the nature of the business cycle and its relationship to the performance of the stock market, as measured by the DJIA. Begin your presentation by defining the stages of the theoretical business cycle and identifying what happens in each stage to output, employment and inflation. Then, discuss and illustrate actual business cycles in the U.S. economy since 1900 (see http://www.nber.org/cycles/cyclesmain.html for U.S. business cycle data). Next, explain the similar cycle trend in the stock market as noted by bull and bear markets. Then, discuss and illustrate actual bull and bear market cycles displayed in the DJIA over time (consider the data you examined in your week 1 assignment located at djaverages.com website). Conclude your presentation with observations and associated inferences that can be drawn from the presented data.

Be sure to properly target your presentation to your audience. Incorporate appropriate animations, transitions, and graphics as well as “speaker notes” for each slide. The speaker notes may be comprised of brief paragraphs or bulleted lists. Think of the speaker notes as an outline of what you would verbally say to your audience concerning each slide.

Note: You have to analyze the financial statements of IBM. To create the required common size income statements for IBM, see the following links:

Writing a Case Study

“News is what you don’t want to tell me. Everything else is public relations.” –David Brinkley, journalist

The case study is an excellent way to help prepare students and managers to be prepared to face real-life business situations—analyzing all the relevant data, making efficient decisions, and taking appropriate action. The writing of a business case study is an important skill that demonstrates communications and analytical skills. Case studies are, in essence, narratives that tell the story of the business problem or issue at hand. These narratives, or stories, do not provide answers directly; rather, they offer as much background and situational information as possible to present the situation in as unbiased and thorough a manner as possible, writing from the viewpoints of as many of the parties as reasonably possible.

Writing and analyzing case studies allows students to demonstrate proficiency in many facets of business education—especially, in this case, in business communications and analysis. The case study is therefore a tool to offer students the opportunity to explore business communications issues in a complex manner—not simply deducing or memorizing the answer, but thinking deeply about the issues involved and how to approach a solution.

A library case study—the kind involved in this Portfolio Project assignment—does not include information that cannot be found in the public record by anyone with internet access, a library card, and rudimentary research skills. A wealth of information is available to such interested individuals, including TV and newspaper stories, blogs, government documents, federal court proceedings, and sometimes other resources—especially for organizations that are publicly traded, such as IPOs or other public disclosures.

1. Follow the instructions completely do not deviate from these instructions 

To write your case study:

First select a topic that is interesting both to you and to your intended audience—in this case, your instructor. Try to find a subject that is relatively timely, that is or has been in the public eye, at least until recently.

Then, do some preliminary research on your topic, using the internet and/or online library databases. Next, consider the perspective from which you will tell the story. Who is the primary decision-maker in your scenario? Nail down the beginning and end dates of your narrative, and think about the level of detail that you want to write.

Then, build a timeline of events that are important to your case, in chronological order.

Identify key characters in your narrative; and identify the key issues that you’ll write about, in order of importance.

Next, prepare your first and second drafts, keeping in mind the importance of capturing your audience’s attention with a quote, a crucial event, or an anecdote in the opening paragraphs. After grabbing your reader’s attention, offer a brief explanation of the company’s history, its industry, and its size (such as annual revenues, number of employees, market share, etc.). Introduce your reader to the key players and decision-makers. Keep in mind the “who, what, when, where, why, and how” of your story. Be sure to enumerate important assumptions; and use quotes from key players where possible. Finally, read your drafts for flow, grammar, and syntax. As much as possible, be sure that your writing is lively, accurate, and cogent. Consider any tables, graphs, figures, stock charts, maps, or other graphics to include in the appendices that will help your reader to navigate the narrative. Be sure to indicate the source of anything you use, unless you build it yourself.

Your well-written paper must include the following considerations:

7 pages in length, including reference page(s) (not including appendices).

Formatted according to APA Requirements.

Be clear, concise, and focused on the assignment.

Utilize approximately six different outside sources that will help to support your assertions and strengthen your arguments

Meet the requirements of the assignment.

Below is an example of the title and précis of a (rather lengthy, with the appendices) student-written business case study, to give you an idea of the tone and scope of your case study.

Example

American Apparel: The Plus-Sized Problem

Categories: Apparel and Textile, Brand Management, Conflict Management, Customer Communication, Manufacturing

Authors: Garg, P.; Fan, K.; and O’Rourke, J.S. (Editor)

American Apparel, a multinational fashion retailer headquartered in Downtown Los Angeles, looked to target the plus-size clothing customer segment in an effort to grow its stagnant sales. It launched “The Next Big Thing,” a marketing campaign requiring contestants to submit modeling shots for American Apparel’s online audience to vote on. Little did they know that their ad copy, which utilized several puns as adjectives to describe larger women, would invoke a negative response by media outlets as well as inc

Unit VIII Final Research Paper Draft Follow the directions below for the completion of your Research Paper Final Draft for Unit VIII. If you have questions, please email your professor for assistance. As always, you may also seek out the guidance of the Success Center; the tutors are always there to assist you with your writing and comprehension. You may submit writing assignments to the Success Center by using a “Writing Center Request form” located on the myCSU Student Portal. To submit a “Writing Center Request form,” log into the myCSU Student Portal, click on “Success Center,” and then click on “Tutoring.” If you have questions concerning APA or your writing assignment, you can contact the Success Center at teamsucceed@columbiasouthern.edu or by phone at ext. 6538. Purpose: The purpose of this final draft is to finish the paper you have been working on throughout the course by adding a conclusion and an abstract. Description: In this assignment, you will assemble the final draft of your Research Paper you have been working on throughout the course. Your Research Paper Final Draft should include the elements listed below. Elements: The grade of your Research Paper Final Draft is largely based on your inclusion of these elements and the overall quality of your writing. Your paper must contain the following elements. 1. Cover page and APA formatting: You should include an APA-style cover page for your Research Paper. See the example on page 16 of The CSU APA Guide (6th edition). Your cover page should include the following: the title of your paper, your name, and the name of your university (Columbia Southern University). The running head should include up to 50 characters from the title of the paper, along with a sequential page number in the upper right-hand corner. 2. Abstract: The abstract is a 150-250 word summary of your Research Paper, and it should be written only after you have finished writing the entire paper because how your abstract is worded largely depends on the development of your paper. Your abstract should be accurate, self-contained, concise and specific, non-evaluative, coherent, and readable. Your abstract may be modeled after the theoretical paper model or empirical study model. For information or an example of an abstract, see p. 12 of The CSU APA Guide (6th edition) and p. 511 of Strategies for Writing Successful Research Papers. Note that the abstract presented references MLA, but yours should be in APA style. The abstract should be the second page in the paper, after the cover page, and the abstract should be on its own page. The text of the paper itself should begin on page 3. Your abstract must meet the following standards: EH 1020, English Composition II 14 • Be 150-250 words • Be located on the second page of your final draft • Have a heading of Abstract that is centered at the top of the page. 3. Introduction: There are some pitfalls to writing an introductory paragraph, and you can avoid some of them by reading through the Checklist: “Avoid Certain Mistakes in the Introduction” on p. 495 of Strategies for Writing Successful Research Papers. 4. Review of literature: The review of literature should be a smooth transition from the introduction of your paper and should present a controlled summary of the conversation surrounding your topic. 5. Body paragraphs: Each paragraph of the body of your Research Paper should be a cohesive unit. It should be tight, but developed. It should serve a function, and its purpose should always be to bolster the thesis. Therefore, you should use the following order for each paragraph in the body. a. Topic sentence: This sentence summarizes the entire paragraph in one strong, well-written sentence, and it directly supports the thesis statement. b. Explanation of topic sentence (1-2 sentences): Often times there is more to be said about the topic sentence, more explanation that is necessary in order for it to be a clear idea, so there are usually a few sentences that follow the topic sentence that explicate the idea more for the reader. These sentences not only “unpack” the topic sentence, but they also anticipate the evidence that will be used to support the topic sentence, usually indirectly. c. Introduction to evidence (1-2 sentences): No piece of evidence (quotation, example, paraphrase, etc.) should be dropped into a paragraph without first introducing it. An introduction might include the title of the source, the author, and/or a short description of the source/author’s credentials. In this way, no evidence is presented without a context because it is this context that makes the evidence meaningful. d. Evidence: The evidence that you present backs up your topic sentence, and by extension, supports your thesis statement. The evidence that you supply can be a number of things: a quotation from a source; a reasonable, illustrative example; a statistic; commentary from an interview; etc. e. Explanation of evidence: No piece of evidence stands on its own or is convincing on its own. Although it may seem to draw a direct line to your topic sentence to support it, often the reader needs you to make the connection between the two. Further, the general rule is that for each sentence of quoted material, your explanation should be just as long, so if you include a block quotation, the block quotation should be met with an equally long explanation. f. Transition (1-2 sentences): Transitions are essential for research papers because body paragraphs, especially, are written as units, and it is the transitions that allow for these units to be linked together. Take a look at the list of transitional expressions on pp. 44-45 in The Little, Brown Compact Handbook with Exercises. 6. Conclusion: Your conclusion should pull together your entire paper. Do not consider the conclusion a summary of your paper; your abstract is the summary of your paper. Instead, your conclusion is your opportunity to suggest what might be done with your findings. A good conclusion will restate the thesis, place a judgment on the issue discussed, discuss the implications of your findings, issue a directive or call to action to the reader, and close out the paper with a strong final thought. However, depending upon your topic and your treatment of that topic, the conclusion may take different forms. Your conclusion for this paper must be at least 150 words. If the conclusion is less than the word count, it is likely you have not fully developed your conclusion, and this lack of development can severely impact your grade for this assignment. For an example and explicit instructions on how to write a conclusion, see pp. 501-506 of Strategies for Writing Successful Research Papers. If you wish to take another look at the completed example paper that you saw in Unit

1. A frequently asked question is “Can structured techniques and object-oriented techniques be mixed? In other words, is it possible to do structured analysis and then object-oriented design of the application or vice versa?” In some situations, it may be possible to mix and match, such as when designing and implementing the interface using OO after completing traditional structured analysis. In two paragraphs explain.

2. How secure is 802.11 security? Give examples to support your views.

3. Research a unique news story or article related to Information Technology. Post a summary of what you learned to the discussion thread, please also provide a link to the original article. Source is your choice; however please fully cite your source.