Animal abuse

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You will need to incorporate at least one article from a reliable source in your paper.  Any articles you use to refute or to support the points you are making should be submitted with your first draft.  Remember any information you include from an outside source needs to be cited, both in text and in full bibliographical form following MLA style on a separate Works Cited page.

The main point of your argumentwhat you would like to see changed or more seriously consideredshould be clearly stated in your introduction.  In order to establish credibilityappeals to ethosyou should also state your connection to the topic: What makes it important to you?  What familiarity do you have with the subject?  Appeals to pathos and logos should also be made throughout the body of your essay.

Africa Article

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Each student will write two (2-4 page) papers on a news article. Students should find a students should write a two page paper. Use a recent article and establish a question about the information in the article that they want to learn more historical context about.  Based on the question, students should find two peer-reviewed academic sources (not Wikipedia) that discuss the history related to their question. Class sources may be used but the news article and at least one source must come from outside class.  Students must use at least three sources for their paper.

Good sources for news on Africa:

https://allafrica.com/ (Links to an external site.)

https://www.aljazeera.com/topics/regions/africa.html (Links to an external site.)

https://www.theguardian.com/world/africa (Links to an external site.)

https://www.bbc.com/news/world/africa (Links to an external site.)

Most U.S.-based sources of news are fine but tend to have limited stories and from a very U.S. perspective.  Your news article must have been published NO EARLIER THAN January 1, 2017.

Approaching the paper

    Find a news article on a topic about an issue in Africa (and about Africans not Americans in Africa) that interests you.
    Read the article and consider what questions arise for you when reading the article. What issues, ideas, etc in the article do you not understand or would like more information about? Consider why did the people/institutions/govts/etc in the article acted in particular ways?
    Pull out keywords that you can use to conduct searches for more information.
    Go to the LIBRARY website (library.tulane.edu) and use a combination of keywords in the SEARCHALL box, use the pulldown menu on the book to search in articles. Once you have search results, on the left side of the page choose peer-reviewed articles option. This will help narrow down your choices.
    Read two peer-reviewed articles that you find from the library website (in some cases reports from the United Nations and related organizations can count as a scholarly source. Please check with me if you want to use one of these kinds of reports as a source).
    Write an essay that introduces to the reader a topic/issue that is of interest in the present-day but has historical roots. Explain how the history in the region/time of Africa you are considering continues to shape aspects of life/policy/etc for people in that particular region of the continent.

Mutual Fund Due Diligence Assignment

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What do you need to include in your paper?

All papers in this class are single-spaced. (2-point deduction if this rule is not followed)

All papers in this class should be professional in appearance as if you would be willing to show it to your boss or to a client.

This paper should be 1-2 pages in MS Word format only.

Make sure that you put your name in the document header as I do not count document header information toward length requirements.

You need to include a labeled section for each numbered item (1-9) above. Detailed discussions are required for all topics.

You also need a section labeled “Learning” in which you need to tell me what you learned from this assignment.
Do not use target dated funds (like the Fidelity 2055 Fund), long/short funds, or managed futures funds for this project.

Navigate to www.morningstar.com. https://www.morningstar.com

At some point in the process, you will be asked to sign up for an account. You DO NOT NEED PAID ACCESS TO COMPLETE THIS ASSIGNMENT. However, you will need to sign up for the free access account. Select the “Menu” expander on the right of the screen, which will reveal a Tools submenu. Choose the “Basic Fund Screener” option and check the box next to the 5 stars. Use any of the other search features on the page that interest you. I recommend selecting, under the “Cost and Purchase” section, the option for “no-load funds only.” Once you have made some screening choices, then select “Show Results” at the bottom of the page. I do not expect you to be an expert mutual fund screener…just play with it and see what you can learn through exploration. You may need to adjust your screener multiple times before you fine-tune it as desired…the important component is to ONLY USE 5 STAR FUNDS. You need to pick a long-only actively managed equity fund (i.e., no index funds, no bond funds, no target dated funds, no long-short funds, etc.) Do not just relay data… you need to interpret it if you want a good grade. Assume that you are buying this fund in a taxable account.

Now, on the pull-down menu next to View, select Performance. You can sort these 5-Star funds by clicking on their column heading, such as the 1-Year Return, and the funds will re-sort in rank order. Look for consistency across time periods. This is one way to find a list of funds that may deserve further attention. Pick one fund to analyze and pay special attention to all of the following:

Performance: Current and Trend (HINT: check the top of the Performance page…Against what should you compare returns?) Build a table below your discussion of this topic with your fund and your comparison points in the rows (horizontally) and the time periods of consideration in the columns (vertically). Your discussion should reference this table.

Top Holdings Risk: Are there any apparent risks in the top holdings? (HINT: Look on the “Portfolio” page… focus on “concentration” risk… search the textbook for this keyword)

Sector Weightings: (HINT: Look on the “Portfolio” page). For your fund relative to its benchmark. This is a test of active share. Build a table below your discussion of this topic with your fund’s exposure, its benchmark’s exposure, and your calculated “Active Share” in the rows (horizontally) and the various sectors in the columns (vertically). Your discussion should reference this table.

Style Map consistency: (HINT: Look on the “Portfolio” page) What can you tell about your fund’s portfolio? Is there any drift?

Risk & Return vs. the category: (HINT: Look at the top left of the Risk page). Morningstar gives you an easy button…

Fund Management: (HINT: Look on the “People” page). What can you discern from considering the fund manager’s tenure, the number of fund managers, the educational backgrounds of the managers, and any other funds that the managers might oversee? Click each manager’s name for more details on the person. 

Tax Scenario: (HINT: look on the “Price” tab). What is the tax scenario for your fund? Check out this link  (http://www.morningstar.com/invglossary/potential_capital_gains_exposure.aspx)
and this link (http://www.morningstar.com/InvGlossary/tax_cost_ratio.aspx).

Expenses: (HINT: look on the “Price” tab). What does the expense picture look like? Make sure that you discuss every item presented in class, and be very specific.

Capture Ratio: (HINT: Look at the top left of the Risk page). What trend do you see in upside capture, downside capture, and the capture ratio (http://www.morningstar.com/InvGlossary/upside-downside-capture-ratio.aspx)
for your fund? How does this compare with the industry? Focus on the three-year capture data, and be specific in your comments.

Final Analysis of Stanford-Binet Scale of Intelligence

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Final Analysis of a Selected Test
This assignment is a culmination of the previous assignments you have completed during this course. In this assignment, you will synthesize your previous research as well as conduct research on the final element in the Code, Element 9. Element 9 states that a test user, “evaluate(s) the available evidence on the performance of test takers of diverse subgroups . . . determine(s) to the extent feasible which performance differences may have been caused by factors unrelated to the skills being assessed.” Together, the previous course assignments and this current one involving Element 9 will provide you with the data, research, and literature reviews across all nine elements of the Code to assist your decision-making process about the appropriate selection of a test.
For this final assignment:
    Locate reviews or research related to how Element 9 applies to your selected test. If the research or reviews do not address this element in any way, then you will need to cite the references you reviewed and note that they were lacking in in addressing this element, drawing appropriate conclusions for when a test is lacking such evidence.
    Synthesize all of the data and information you gathered on your selected test throughout the course and identify highlights, both positive and negative, both advantages and disadvantages, according to all nine elements of the Code. See the link in the resources about the Meaning of Synthesis.
    Evaluate your selected test based on these data and draw a conclusion about whether it is a test that you would select, recommend, or even defend, if necessary in practice. Note: You should not merely copy and paste your earlier assignments for the final paper. Instead you will be synthesizing the research you completed for each element into a summary of that element that you will offer in support of your final evaluation. (For example, note that the technical quality element (that is, Element 5) will be only a synthesis and evaluation and not a repeat of the annotated bibliography you completed in Unit 5.)
o    Identify the strengths or weaknesses for each element, and determine if the information about that element supports (or opposes) the use of your selected test in the field and population to be served.
o    Incorporate recommendations about ways to improve the selected test.
o    Review all of your evaluations for each element and recommended improvements to the test, and write an overall evaluation and determination about the use of your selected test. Would you recommend this test to a school district or business that you are employed as a consultant? Would you be able to defend the use of this test in a court proceeding?
Instructions for the content of the paper are in the template located in the Resources. Write your assignment using the u09a1 Assignment Template [DOCX].
Additional Requirements
Your paper should meet the following requirements:
    References: A minimum of nine references. These may include journal articles, literature reviews, MMY reviews, and publisher websites. At least five of the nine references must be from professional journals. It is likely and appropriate that many of these references and citations were included in one or more of your previous assignments. Alternatively, you may want to supplement your paper with current, peer-viewed journal articles you located after completing an earlier assignment. Those inclusions would also be acceptable.
    Length of paper: At least six pages (not including title page, abstract, or references).
Note: The articles you need to complete this assignment should be available inside the library collection. In future courses, you may use the Capella library’s Interlibrary Loan service to obtain articles outside of the collection, but you should not have to use the service for this course. In the event that you cannot find articles covering a newer test edition, please refer to the List of Tests by Type document in the resources. Note which tests have been designated as acceptable for searching prior test editions.
Note: Your instructor may use the Writing Feedback Tool to provide feedback on your writing. In the tool, click the linked resources for helpful writing information.
Reference
Joint Committee on Testing Practices. (2004). Code of fair testing practices in education. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/science/programs/testing/fair-testing.pdf
Resources
    Final Analysis of a Selected Test Scoring Guide.
    u09a1 Assignment Template [DOCX].
    APA Style and Format.
    Code of Fair Testing Practices in Education [PDF].
    Database Guide: Mental Measurements Yearbook.
    The Meaning of Synthesis.
    Writing Feedback Tool.

The paper needs to be on APA format so as the reference page. I do not want to paasive voice, intricate sentence, incomplete sentences, text inconsistences, and please be careful with using words. Please no plagiarism.