Questions we Can Help you to Answer

Paper Instructions:

Format for a current event: Search online for a current event article that is closely aligned with the topic of the week. Then write one paragraph explaining the article, paste a link to the article page, and then write "My Take" on why the article is important using your critical thinking skills to read between the lines and tell us what else might be going on. Here’s an example.

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USA Today reported that Amazon has bought a smaller company, GoPago, and intends to go into the mobile payments business. The article suggests that this will be important to close the loop with customers. This means they will have control over the purchase from the initial intent to buy all they way through to the payment processing of the final sale.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2013/12/17/amazon-gopago-closing-loop/4059285/

My take:

Amazon will face competition in this area as Square card readers are already being used on mobile phones and Paypal is putting "Beacons" into stores to allow two way communication between shoppers and retailers. So while they may hope to close the loop, this is a response to a battle they are already losing. With the size of Amazon, they will win some business in the mobile payments processing, but I don't think they will do as well as they do with online shopping. Also, this signals a further move toward using mobile devices to process payments, which should make it easier for everyone to make purchases. 

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Be sure to do all three things separately so it's clear what is the article summary and what is your take on the article - and don't forget the link so we can read the original. 

That example should get you started, but if you have any questions, you can reply here.

This week covers an overview and financial statements so the news article from a reliable source could be anything related to finance. This could be a variety of things this week. In future weeks, it will be more precise such as stocks or bonds.

Opening week is pretty wide open. So pick something that caught your eye that you think other people can learn from or is interesting to you.

When writing your take, focus on using your critical thinking skills. Try to read between the lines, bring in other information - potentially conflicting information - and use your own mind to identify things that might give others insight into what really might be going on. Basically, look for reasons why we shouldn't accept the article on face value