Term Paper Structure
October 18, 2014 - Posted to Term papersDefinition of Term Paper
A term paper is a form of educational writing that college and university students write through their research. This study is based on the course content where students are supposed to source information on particular topics as provided by the instructor. Also, a term paper can be a scholarly article based on other researchers and is published as an academic journal. This article gives you a detailed structure of term paper.
Structure of a Term Paper
All academic essays and papers have three parts; introduction, body and conclusion. This is what most of you know, at least. However, then, there are other fundamental components of the structure of term paper that makes it what it is. My recommended structure of a term paper should have the following, discussed in details;
Title Page
This is always the first page of any academic paper. It displays your details and that of the paper. Your name, registration number, unit and topic, your institution and the moderator are displayed on this page. Contingent to what style of writing you are using, the structure of a term paper cover page will look different.
Table of Contents
This is the section with numbers, subsection numbers, page numbers, tables and figures numbers. This part is designed in a way that it links directly to the headings in the main document. A good table of content should lead you to the page of the heading it indicates when you hold CTRL key then click on the link.
The Introduction
This is the leading clause of a term paper that sheds light about what the document entails. It introduces the topic and the objectives of the research, gives the general idea of the main argument giving a conclusion with the thesis. The most important statement of this section is the controlling idea of the study.
Literature Review
In some instances, this may be called the theoretical part as it discusses the background of the paper stating all the technical terms that will be of use in writing. It tries to point out all the studies that have been carried out related to your topic and gives a justification for your study.
Experimental Part
Well, the paper will not necessarily have this section. This is for the research that requires experiments or field visits. The theoretical and the practical will form the greatest part of the marks awarded in any term paper. Therefore, whether yours has the empirical part or no, ensure that these two sections are well handled.
Discussion and Conclusion
The elements of a term paper structure are all correlated with one another. This section, for instance, will depend on the experimental and the theoretical part. The effort and interest you employ in the two areas determine the sanity of the discussions and inferences you make about your research. Whether or not you achieved, your objectives would be apparent after you analyze your data. Depending on the length of your paper, you may choose to combine or separate the discussion and conclusion.
Any problems or obstacles experienced during the research process should not be ignored but rather indicated in this section. The error factor attributes the variance or deviation from expected results.
References
The last page of your document lists all the sources of information that you used in your paper. You should always remember that plagiarism is a vice. So make sure that you acknowledge any author's quotes that you use in your paper. While studying the formatting styles, you should not only learn about writing the bibliography but also the in text citations. The number of references should range from 5-8 although there is no harm in stating more.
Appendix
The raw data tables and any images taken to aid in the paper must be included in the term paper as appendices. Remember other than the content, the term paper structure also counts for the grades.