Dr. Anupam Jaju
Enterprise Hall, Rm 138
703 993 1786, ajaju@gmu.edu

RESOURCES

As your progress through this course, you will be required to research, analyze and present firm, industry or market-specific information relating to your assignment or term paper. There are many sources from which you can gather the requisite information. These include: annual reports, consultant/industry analyst reports, databases, Department of Commerce publications, trade and academic journals, the business press (Wall Street Journal, Business Week, etc.), and so on. You may be surprised and overwhelmed by the volume of information that is available for many topics, though you may have to do some "detective work" to identify and locate them. The most promising sources are:

Library Resources:

Books (e.g., Hoover's Handbook of American Business)
Popular magazines (e.g., Business Week, Wired, People, Time)
Academic journals (e.g., Journal of Popular Culture, Dress)
Trade publications (e.g., Women's Wear Daily, Advertising Age)

GMU Library Research Guide

Online Source:

You can often find good material by doing on-line database searches (Galileo, hoovers.com, lexis-Nexus etc). Our Library has access/subscription to most of these online databases. Basic business databases available to GMU students are found HERE.

Further your can use a variety of search engines (viz. Google, Yahoo, Lycos etc.) to pull up specific information about companies.

GMU Librarian: Business Ref.

Mr. Michael Killian
Fenwick Library mkillian@gmu.edu,
703-993-2213

Business and Economic Liaison Librarian.

 

 

Institutions:

Most companies have corporate communications departments set up for this purpose. Call them and request an information kit. Sometimes companies also store other information (e.g., letters written to the company over a period of years). In some cases, information is also available from specialized museums or collections (e.g., the Smithsonian Museum).

Consumers/Employees:

Some of your best insights will come from talking to people who have actually experienced the firm. Depending on your topic, you can conduct a survey, do a focus group, do in-depth interviews, etc.

It is important not to rely on one information source exclusively. The more sources you use, the richer the picture that will result. Remember to always document every source you consult, even if it is a conversation with a friend, businessperson, or other expert informants.

Writing Sources:

The following sources provide helpful tips for writing technical papers:

GMU Writing Center

Elements of Style

Purdue's Writing lab

Guide to Grammar and Writing

Nuts and Bolts of College Writing

 

CONTACT EMAIL: ajaju@gmu.edu