RESEARCH TIPS
Money matters
Get up to speed with understanding money and finance as it applies to your writing, with advice from research expert Tarja Moles
Tarja Moles
Animal skins and fur, salt, coins, bank notes, cheques, IOUs, credit card payments, cryptocurrency – money can be understood to mean anything that’s used to make payments and to account for credits and debts. This kind of broad definition means that the topic of money can be approached from multiple angles. Here are some ideas for how to get your research started.
Basics
As with any subject area, money-related topics often contain specialist terminology. If the material you’re reading looks like gobbledegook, consult a good subject-specific dictionary. They are available in libraries and bookshops. There are also online resources, such as The Economist’s Economics A to Z (www.economist.com/economics-ato-z), which can help you with unfamiliar terms. If you want to study further, start by reading textbooks. They explain concepts, theories and principles in a way that help you assimilate new information more systematically. Depending on what your interests are, you could choose textbooks, for example, from the fields of economics, economic history, accounting, banking, political economy or business studies. You can find such books in local and research libraries shelved under 330s of the Dewey Decimal Classification system. Once you’ve acquired a sufficient foundation, it’s easier to continue studying more specialised material.