Guide to Individual Essay of BU427
Individual Essay – Throughout this course—as you read and observe the world around
you—you should be thinking about what sparks your interest. I’d like you to come up with
a topic that you’re particularly interested in, and eventually turn that into a research
question. These should be personally relevant or meaningful or interesting in some way –
pick something you’re passionate about and want to discover the answer to. The Essay
should be at least 3,000 words in length. The Essay will be graded based on thoughtfulness
and originality of content.
The overall structure of the individual essay
× Introduction
× What -noticed question
× Why -motivation
× How -interpretation to the question
× How about -reflective thinking analysis
× Conclusion
× Reference list
Title: Consumer behavior of Chinese Gen Z (this sample is not a good title)
Title like this is too general, is not a good title. Your choice of title, i.e., a specific focused
consumer behavior, must show clearly the issue you could analyze.
Main structure and contents
What:
In this section, you should introduce clearly the specific consumer behavior, the scope of the target
group of your analysis, for example, the Gen Z with abroad studying experiences in tier-one city.
Your analysis could also focus on one specific case company, analyzing how this company
deliberated applied specific approaches, such as social media marketing, to influence consumer
behavior. In general, you should summarize clearly “what” type question, i.e., what is the specific
issue of your research/analysis?
Why:
You should indicate clearly why you have interest on analyzing this specific issue (i.e., what is
your motivation?). In terms of the “buying, having, being”, you should consider the specific
consumer behavior you noticed as a whole and clarify why the specific consumer behavior you
chose is relevant not only to yourself but also relevant to other beings in broader scope. Here in
this part, you should show your critical thinking on analyzing a specific issue.
How:
In this section, you should introduce in depth the phenomena/question/issue you have noticed. You
must apply correspondent theories/concepts/models to support your analysis. For example, you
should consider various factors including internal and external, micro level and macro level, from
personality to culture, on analyzing the decision-making process of a specific pattern consumer
behavior in a specific context. This is the part to show your deep understanding and capability of
applying related theoretical knowledge in analyzing real issue.
How about:
In this section, after your previous analysis, you should develop some reflective thinking to the
issue/phenomenon you have studied. If the issue you analyzed has some potential negative impacts
to people, society, environment, what about the possibility of changing that kind of consumer
behavior? That means, you should develop some thoughts/suggestions to companies in terms of
how to respond to the consumers’ expectation/demand for more well-being through their
consumption. In this part, you should also pay attention to the potential ethical challenge of the
issue you analyzed. Standing on different shoes, you probably could think reflectively from both
consumers and companies’ sides, how to deal with potential ethical challenge from each side.
References:
Both academic journal articles and news reports from Internet could be accepted. Figures, statistic
data, and other sourced information from business websites, professional associations, consulting
companies are also welcome to be cited in your writing.