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to Dr. Olsen's Curriculum Page The purpose of this handout is to indicate more completely exactly what I expect for the outline of your paper which must be handed in by October 6. I require that each student hand in a paper topic and outline for two reasons. First, the paper is 30 percent of your grade and should be taken seriously. I find that requiring a paper topic and outline at an early date helps students to get going. Second, the assignment gives me an opportunity to comment on each student's proposed topic and outline. In fact, I am one of your most important resources in writing your paper. You should feel free to come and discuss your paper with me throughout the semester. Many students do come and see me. For those who don't, this assignment allows me to give warnings and suggestions to each student. Since this is the main intent of the assignment, you will receive more helpful comments from me the more specific you are in discussing your topic and outlining how you will address the topic.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE OUTLINE
I. Paper topic. This should be in the form of an interesting question you are planning to answer in the paper. You should plan on adding a paragraph or two explaining why the question is interesting. Of course, the topic must be related to health economics in some way. Your topic will be more interesting and doable the more specific you are in the question to be answered.
II. Paper type. Recall that you are to do your research paper on a synthesis of research already done on a particular topic.
III. Paper Type 1 should include the following sections in the outline (in addition to the two sections noted above).
Literature Review. Since this type of paper is mostly talking about research already done, the literature review is very important. At this point you need to include a bibliography and a short synopsis of what the literature has to say on the topic.
Synthesis. In this section, you need to identify the major conclusions in the literature. At this early stage you should be able to identify major trends in the literature and answer relevant questions. For example, are there opposing views on the same questions? Has the state of the literature changed substantially in the recent past? What is needed in research in this area in the future? You will need to add some economic analysis when you write the paper.