One of the main tasks of higher education institutions is to give their students the skills to work independently with sources and to train them to think independently. Therefore, at the end of each course, students write a term paper. The article will describe an example of how to write a term paper, with recommendations.
Preparatory stage
Before you write a term paper, you need to decide on the topic, supervisor and bibliography. Everything is not as simple as it might seem at first glance. Each of these items will be described in detail below.
Teacher selection
With this step, your work on the term paper begins. Each supervisor has his own interests, on which the topics of work directly depend. Also, some teachers may have a nasty character or, conversely, be too loyal to your work. In both the first and second cases, the result will not be positive. You need a teacher who will point out your mistakes and be able to give a sample of how to write a term paper.
Topic selection
The subject of the course is not always given to the student to choose. As mentioned in the previous paragraph, the choice of a teacher is very important. Tell us about whatever topics you are interested in and discuss possible options. It is better to come at the beginning of the year or in extreme cases at the beginning of the second semester. You can take several topics to choose from and think about which one seems more interesting and attractive to you. After you choose one of them, the question of how to write a term paper yourself will not seem so unresolved.
Learning General Information
Once you have chosen a topic, the most difficult part begins. The question immediately arises of how to write a term paper on your own. Start by reading general information on a topic of your choice. This will allow you to broadly understand how to write a term paper.
Planning
After the introductory phase, begin to plan your research. First you need to write a general course work plan, similar to the content, and discuss with your supervisor. If the plan is approved, it is better to clarify each item. What will you write about in it. Consult your supervisor again.
How to make a list of references
Most teachers provide a list of references on which to rely. But usually this is not enough. Remember that you need to use monographs, articles that are published in scientific journals and collections, rather than encyclopedias and textbooks. Some departments are asked to use foreign literature. It’s better to include one or two editions that you could at least flip through than simply type in at random. It may not play into your hands.
Requirements of the department and teacher
Each supervisor may have their own requirements for writing a work. So it’s best to ask you to be shown in advance on an example how to write a term paper.
Material collection
Get ready for the big stream of information that you will need to pass through yourself. In order not to drown in it, divide it into two categories:
- "Flagships." These are the sources from which you will take most of the information. It is better that the amount of such literature be from three to five.
- Supporting materials. These are the sources from which you will take any statistics, a couple of quotes and the like.
How to write a term paper?
You went through the preparatory stage, and now everything does not seem so scary and incomprehensible. It's time to move on to the practical part - writing.
Parts of the term paper are always the same regardless of the chosen topic:
- title page;
- content;
- introduction;
- main / theoretical part;
- practical part;
- conclusion;
- bibliography;
- applications.
Material Structuring
Before you start writing the work directly, it is best to sort through the material you found. Formally divide it into chapters and subclauses. For some students, the more information the better. This is a misconception. If you adhere to this position, then you run the risk of getting more than a hundred instead of the set 20-45 pages.
One of the main tasks of the course work is to teach you to isolate the main information from sources.
How to get a cover page
A sample cover sheet is usually shown by your academic advisor, as each university may have its own requirements. If you can’t see the sample, make the title page according to state standards.
As a rule, at the beginning of the title page in the center is a header that is written in standard font (Times New Roman 14, one and a half paragraph).
A sample cover page can be seen below.
Some universities require that after the words "term paper" the data about the student who is carrying out the project and his supervisor should be located on the right, and not in the center.
How to write content
The content will be similar to your research plan. To make it easier to compile, you can take several textbooks on your topic and look at their contents. Compare how they cover your topic, which chapters and sub-paragraphs are taken there. Compare with your plan written earlier. Based on this, you can easily write the contents of the course work.
How to write an introduction to the term paper
It’s better to start your work by writing an introduction. This will help to build their future work correctly and logically. If you postpone it to the very end, you run the risk of moving away from your course problem.
The problem of term paper is the question that you answer when writing the paper itself. And just the problem must be indicated at the very beginning of your introduction.
The first thing you should indicate in the introduction is the relevance of your work. In this paragraph, you write about why the problem needs to be investigated and what role it plays in the development of science, society or other areas.
Next are the research objectives. As a rule, four parts are distinguished:
- To study the sources and recommended literature on this issue.
- Learn the basic concepts (they will be key in your coursework). In this part of the work, they are simply listed. When writing the main part of the work, you will give them an exact definition.
- The third and fourth tasks will be devoted to the practical part. Here you indicate what new can be introduced on the topic of your research. You can offer your option or take advantage of the experience of predecessors.
- This task should show your own contribution to the study of the issue. Then indicates the purpose of the course work, which must be consistent with the conclusions of your work.
After that, you describe the object and subject of your research. Do not confuse these two concepts. An object is what happens to an object, and an object is what the research process is aimed at.
How to write the main body
In this part of the course work, you summarize information on a selected topic. You can find this information in various scientific literature. What kind of literature is best used is described above.
This part of the course work is usually divided into sections - from two to four, each of which, in turn, is divided into points. Points should be logically located and not interrupt your thought.
The first part of the course involves the theoretical basis of your research and ways to solve the research problem. Here you can also place any data that is taken from official sources.
The second part is analytical. The purpose of this part is to study the factors that influence the analyzed processes. The analysis should not contradict the goals and objectives of the course work. It is better to describe recommendations and suggestions for improving and improving the development of the object of study. Also here you need to indicate the shortcomings of the object, the reasons for their occurrence and ways to solve them.
The third part is experimental. Here are described ways to solve the problem posed in the introduction, recommendations that will improve the investigated processes. The third part should not be voluminous, but when writing it you must master the basic methods of the science being studied.
This division is approximate and does not have to be followed. The breakdown into chapters depends entirely on the chosen topic, goals and objectives of the work.
The practical part of the course work
To write this part of the course you need to agree in advance with the company where the practice will take place. Be it a school, hotel or factory. Before you go there, it is better to prepare an action plan, experiments or questions in advance and coordinate it with your supervisor.
After your experiment, you need to carefully process the resulting material. Charts, tables or business plans with recommendations and the like are drawn up. It all depends on the topic of your term paper.
But remember that the conclusions drawn from the practice should confirm your theory, which you indicated in the introduction.
Conclusion
In this part, you summarize your work. Here it is necessary to indicate brief, but at the same time capacious conclusions. To make your task a little easier, mentally divide the conclusion into three parts:
- theoretical findings;
- conclusion on the practical part;
- your suggestions and recommendations for improving the object of the course work.
Start writing a conclusion with a short introduction. Three to five sentences will be enough. Only after that start writing the main part.
You cannot use the pronouns "I", "mine" and so on. Replace them with "we", "ours."
References
The design of the list of used literature should be approached as responsibly as the writing of the main parts of the course work. There are certain criteria that must be considered when choosing a literature:
- Literature must be modern. Best of all over the past 5 years, i.e. 2012-2017). Match the selected topic.
- Sources of the 1990s should be used at a minimum.
- Footnotes required. That is, in the work itself, it is necessary to indicate from which source the information is taken. Do not leave footnotes at the end of the work. At the end of the work, you can easily forget what and where you got it from. It’s better to leave footnotes right away. We took information from literature or a source - left a footnote.
- If when writing a term paper you relied on any laws and by-laws, then they should be issued in the latest edition.
Examples of design of various literature can be seen below.
How to make applications
In the center of the page the word "APPLICATIONS" is written. Each application should have its own subtitle. For example, "APPENDIX A". Various graphics, drawings and other illustrative materials of the course work are brought here.
Textual information can be divided into parts. Then each part also needs to be numbered. For example, "APPENDIX A No. 1".
Work check
To begin with, you hand over the draft material to your supervisor, who will read it and point out the shortcomings, if any. If the teacher is conscientious, then he will explain to you how to write a term paper in order to bring it to a high grade. It is also better to re-read your work again, because the fewer errors and typos in it, the higher your score.
Do not forget that your work must go through "Anti-plagiarism". A minimum of 70% uniqueness - standard requirements. So before you carry the job to the teacher, it is better to check the uniqueness yourself. And if necessary, increase the percentage of uniqueness.
After reading this article, you should have the impression of how to write a term paper yourself. Following all of the above recommendations, there is a high chance that you will pass your term paper to "excellent". Do not forget that the term paper involves any problem that you must pass through the prism of your worldview. The more original your work will be, the greater the chance that you will receive an “excellent” mark for it.