Welcome!

Welcome to the Griffith University Economics Blog! Glad you could find it.

For those who don’t know me, my name is Stephanie Parsons and I graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce (Economics and Finance) from Griffith University (Gold Coast) in 2012. I am now completing my Honours in Economics so I will be splitting my time between the Gold Coast and Nathan campuses this year.

The idea for this blog came from the Economics Internship program I completed in 2012, where one assessment item involved posting in an “Economics Forum” frequently during the semester. This forum (which was based in the “Discussion Board” section of Learning@Griffith) discussed various topical issues in economics using newspaper articles, interviews, and op-ed pieces as stimuli. We could even post our own ideas to start a thread.

What I want to do is expand this concept to all students studying economics! I found the writing process to be quite enjoyable and a nice change from the usual academic writing style we use for assignments and exams.

Since we don’t have access to our own Discussion Board on Learning@Griffith, I figured the next best thing was to start a Blogger/Blogspot account. The reason I’ve chosen to use Blogger/Blogspot is that it is powered by Google, as are our student emails. Blogger allows you to sign in with your Griffith email account and password and comment on blogs without actually having to make your own blog if you don’t want to. I’m a first time user of Blogger myself, so there may be some kinks to sort out initially, but I’m hoping we can create a little Griffith blogging community here.

Some basic guidelines for this blog:

·         You must post using your student email address – no personal email accounts otherwise we don’t know who you are.

·         While everyone can comment on blog posts, only I can make new threads. If you have an idea for a new thread you can send it to me at griffitheconomicsblog@gmail.com and I will post it on the blog. They don't need to be very long, just enough to get the conversation started. Sometimes all you'll need to start a new thread is a link. But if you're in the mood to vent about a particular economics issue (i.e. write several hundred words), that's fine too.

·         I know it’s obvious, but please don’t be a troll or post hateful comments here – they will be deleted. If you are going to criticise, be constructive with your comments. Don’t say something online you wouldn’t say in person.

·         Lastly, this is just meant to be a bit of fun. See it as an opportunity to take economics out of the classroom and into the real world.

I hope you enjoy this blog! J

P.S. When it comes to blogs, I say the more contributors the merrier! So tell your friends about this blog, share it on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, and even mention it to your lecturers and tutors! As I said, anyone with a Griffith email address is welcome to post.