MGF 1107: Final Project

Z. Forrest

1. Prompt

Whether or not it’s your favorite time of year, it’s hard to deny that Summer has a certain je ne sais quoi { an air of adventure and carefree creativity that permeates the entire three-month period. Even more di cult (some might say impossible) to deny is that you’ve been cooped up for months, studying for a mountainous pile of lectures, quizzes, exams, and projects, and that you’re feeling like a break is well-deserved. With feelings like these tumbling around the inside of your head, and with the signs of the Summer months’ approach re ected in the world around you, you decide that the time is right for you to bring Summer to your community. And what better way to do that than an art/creative project to showcase the ideas that have been rattling around your brain?!

You manage to get semi-willing volunteers from among your friends and family, and set them about the task of guring out how to fund your plans. Hey, it was your idea, so you get to do the cool parts! Your art lackeys spend days working to track down all of the possibilities, and eventually narrow the reasonable prospects down to three options:

1. Acquire a brand-spanking new Shamazon Credit Card, and put all charges on the card { you’ll pay it o on \your own” schedule.

• Approach representatives at USF Federal Credit Union (FCU) and take out an installment loan for the total amount you need.

• Sell bonds to your community, meaning that they invest money in your project, you bring your ideas and creativity to them in the short term, and they will expect you to eventually pay them the face-value of the bonds they purchased.

Which option will you choose, and what will you do with the money?

• Instructions

The nal project consists of two parts: (Part I) A calculation portion that will walk you through the process of determining how much you will owe under each of the three options from the previous page, as well as a few other questions; (Part II) a brief, creative writing essay addressing the questions listed below under (Part II) instructions. To complete the project, you will:

Address parts I and II in their entirety and produce a cover page bearing your U#, name, amount of money you’re borrowing, and the name of your project. (You may otherwise be creative with the cover page!)

Produce a PDF le that has your cover page rst, then your completed parts I and II, in that order. This will be your nal project packet.

Turn in your nal project packet to me by accessing the \Final Project” assignment in Canvas on May 7, 2020, any time between 12:00 AM and 11:59 PM (EST) and uploading your le.

Below are some instructions speci c to each part, as well as instructions for the cover page.

Part I. Your work should conform to the following:

Unless otherwise stated, you should round values to 3 decimal-places.

For full credit, you must show each step for each question as well as the nal answer for the question. Final answers may be calculated with a calculator, MS Excel, or StatCrunch.

Certain questions will require graphs or images: These should be generated in either MS Excel or StatCrunch.

Part II. Your creative writing should be between 1.5 and 2.5 pages long, and address the following topics:

What is your creative endeavor? Since you’re choosing a creative/artistic project, your choices are virtually unlimited. Pieces of artwork, plays, music, artistic festivals, movies, etc. are all viable choices, but don’t allow yourself to be restricted to that list exclusively. Feel free to be as imaginative as you want, and to include any reasons why you chose what you chose. (Keep in mind that this is still for a class, so keep your themes PG-13 or below!)

What community are you making this project for? To whom are you going to be bringing your work? Why are they the audience that you decided to pursue? What do you think it will do for them?

How are you going about your project? You don’t have to have every last detail, but try to present a full and rich description of how you intend to complete your creative endeavor. You don’t need to try to be 100% realistic in how you plan to accomplish things: Pick a reasonable-sounding approach, and go with it.

How much money will you be borrowing for the project, and what will you use it for? You’ll be assigned an amount, and it should be mentioned explicitly in your work. Describe as fully as you can the components, tools, decorations, festivities, games, foods, etc. that you’d like to fund with that amount.

Which of the provided options do you believe is the best choice? Why? There isn’t a right answer here: Simply provide a full argument that displays your reasoning.

• Grading

Your grade will be out of 100 points, broken down as follows between the di erent parts of your nal project packet:

Cover page	2%
PDF  le	1%
File submitted on-time	2%
Part I	45%
Part II	50%
TOTAL	100%

When completing the project, please keep the following in mind:

Making a cover page, putting together your nal project packet as described on page 2, and turning it in on-time via the method on page 2 is worth 5% of your grade { don’t miss out on that 5%!

Part I is graded with partial credit, but full credit will only given only to responses which show full work and a nal answer for the question. Remember that just like on exams, in order to have your work qualify for partial credit it needs to show some e ort and be able to be followed by your grader.

While we are not running an English or Writing class, your Part II grade will depend upon the proper use of grammar and punctuation, and adherence to the length requirements from Section 2. The Writing Center is a resource which you may use in helping ensure your work is well-written.

Your Part II grade will also be determined by your creativity. As your instructor and grader, I’ll be the nal judge of creativity on the project; however, an honest e ort which isn’t copied and showcases your ideas will generally score well, assuming that your punctuation, grammar etc. are in order.

Use of websites or programs other than MS Excel or StatCrunch will meet with an automatic deduction of 5% from your nal project grade { do not use any programs or websites apart from MS Excel or StatCrunch.

You are expected to know the rules and guidelines for this nal project, as well as for the course in general. If you are unsure of anything regarding this nal project, rst consult this document and the course syllabus as you attempt to answer your question. If you still have questions after taking avail of these resources, it is your responsibility to consult with me prior to the deadline for this nal project. Failure to understand the rules and guideline given above is not an acceptable excuse for failing to meet those rules and guidelines.

• Part I

The following problems guide you through calculations related to the options presented in Section 1.

Please reference Sections 2 and 4 as needed.

5.1    Option A Calculations

You know that your Shamazon credit card carries an APR of 31.45%, and that there is a minimum payment you may make each month. You decide that you should know how long it will take to pay back the amount you’ve borrowed, and how much you’ll end up paying in interest. Complete the following problems to nd the desired information { show all of your your work for full credit!

Problem 1. Using the Formula Sheet, calculate your Periodic Interest Rate (PIR). (Worth 2 points.)

Problem 2. According to your credit card agreement, your minimum monthly payment toward your balance is one of two amounts that we will label M₁ and M₂. Calculate them in the parts below.

Find M₁. Using your Formula Sheet, calculate M₁. (Worth 4 points.)

Find M₂. Now calculate M₂. (Worth 4 points.)

Find MP. Now calculate the monthly payment, rounding to 2 decimal-places. Recall from the Formula Sheet that MP is found by comparing M₁ and M₂, and choosing the larger amount. (Worth 2 points.)

Problem 3. Take your assigned balance P , your APR of 31.45%, and the minimum payment which you just calculated, and put them into either MS Excel’s Credit card payo calculator or StatCrunch’s Finance calculator.

Part I. First record the number of years until payo and the amount of interest that you’ll pay over that term. (Worth 2 points.)

Part II. Now print out a copy of your results and include it into your nal project packet. (Tell me which page number to nd it on for 1% bonus credit!) (Worth 1 point+1%.)

5.2    Option B Calculations

Your team identi es a representative at USF FCU who is more than happy to help you set up an installment loan: They inform you that you’ll by making monthly payments based upon one of two plans:

Plan 1. You borrow your assigned balance P for a term of 6 years at an APR of 8.17%.

Plan 2. You borrow P right away, and owe no money until 1 year from now. At the end of 1 year, you must pay back one half of P immediately, and then will pay the remaining half of P o over a term of 10 years with an APR of 4:23%.

If you decide to go with Option B, which of these two plans is the best one? Complete the problems below to determine the answer { show all of your work for full credit!

Problem 4. Begin by evaluating Plan 1 in the steps below.

Find M. Calculate the monthly payment M for this plan using your assigned balance P , the formula sheet, and the information above, rounding to 2 decimal-places. (Worth 3 points.)

Find TP. Using the previous part of this exercise and your formula sheet, calculate the total payment you will make over the course of the loan. (Worth 3 points.)

Find TI. Finally, calculate the Total Interest paid under Plan 1. (Worth 1 point.)

Problem 5. Now we evaluate Plan 2. Complete the steps below.

Find P=2. Calculate half of your assigned balance P . (Worth 1 point.)

Find M. Now calculate your monthly payments using P=2, the formula sheet, and the information above for Plan 2, rounding to 2 decimal-places. (Worth 3 points.)

Find TP. Calculate the Total Payment made on the loan. Do not include the down-payment of P=2! (Worth 3 points.)

Find TI. Calculate Total Interest paid on the loan of P=2 using TP above and the formula sheet. (Worth 1 point.)

Problem 6 (Bonus). In your own words, explain which of the two plans is better for you as the borrower, and why. (Worth 1%.)

5.3    Option C Calculations

Your art lackeys are a little tired of doing your bidding for no pay, and decide to keep things simple: They say that they will o er bonds using simple interest at an APR of 5.91% for a term of 13 years. You wonder: How much interest will be owed on the bonds?; how much money will have to be repaid?; how does this option compare to Options A & B? Use the problems below to answer these questions { show complete work for full credit!

Problem 7. Calculate the total amount of money that will be owed, including your assigned balance P , rounding to 2 decimal-places. (Worth 3 points.)

Problem 8. Now calculate the interest that will be owed, rounding to 2 decimal-places. (Worth 3 points.)

Problem 9. Compare the interest calculated in Problem 7 to the interest calculated in Problem 3, Part I. Which of Options A and C produces the least interest? (Worth 3 points.)

Problem 10. Compare the interest calculated in Problem 7 to the interest calculated in Problem 4, \Find TI”. Which of Options B (Plan 1) and C produces the least interest? (Worth 3 points.)

Problem 11. Compare the interest calculated in Problem 7 to the interest calculated in Problem 5, \Find TI”. Which of Options B (Plan 2) and C produces the least interest?

• Part II

Complete your creative essay according to the rules and guidelines laid out in Section 2, as well as the following:

Use 12 point font in Times New Roman style. Use single spacing between lines.

Use 1″ margins.

When your essay is done, you may include it in your PDF le behind this page in your nal project packet. Remember while writing that your goal is to answer the questions in Section 2; to paint a clear and coherent picture for me as your reader; and to put your creativity on display. Apart from these guidelines, have fun! (Worth 50 points.)

Have any comments or suggestions for the course? Let me know here! Thanks for participating in our course, and have a good Summer!

If you need answers to this assignment, WhatsApp/Text +1 646 978 1313 or send us an email to admin@shrewdwriters.com and we will reply instantly. We provide original answers that are not plagiarized, please try our service.