A term paper is an academic work done at the end of the term (in school, college, university) and carries a lot of weightage in your final marks/grades. It is designed to test the students ability to gather information from various sources, critically analyse them, and draw conclusions.
Term paper writing can be challenging because of its length, structure and significance. It is a lengthy process that requires lot of research, compared to what you may have done in the past.
Term Paper Proposal
Even before you begin writing your Term Paper, you will need to get the topic for your Term Paper approved by your professor.
While in some cases, you may just verbally discuss with your teacher/professor as to what you intend to do, in most case, you will need to provide a Term Paper proposal to your instructor.
Most colleges provide a template for the proposal, but in case, your professor hasn’t provided you with one, you can use the following format for the term paper proposal.
- Title: Provide a draft title for your work. Try to make it comprehensible (you can refine this when you do your actual term paper).
- Objectives/Justification: State the importance of the topic, mention the objectives, and explain how it is relevant to your course. You should include a few links to recent news articles and academic articles.
Structure of the Term Paper
Most academic work, involving research, tend to have a similar structure in the sense that it will have an introduction, the main body, followed by the conclusion.
For a term paper, you can use this format, in case the school/college has not provided you with one.
- Title Page: This is page where you mention the title of the work, and your name and number.
- Abstract: Some colleges may ask for an abstract. Here you will mention a short summary of the work and the findings.
- Table of Contents
- Introduction: State the reason for choosing the topic, provide some basic information, and then mention what you intend to do.
- Main body/sections: Depending on the topic, this part may further have many more sections. Do a detailed analysis of the topic drawing from various academic sources. The sections should follow each other in a logical manner.
- Conclusion: State the importance of the topic, mention the main findings and any recommendation.
- References: Mention all the sources that you had referred to in the academic work.
- Appendix (optional): This is the place where you provide the supporting documents for the points that you mentioned in the main body of the work. Here you can add additional images, questionnaire, tables, documentation, and materials.
Sources of Information
Your college will provide you with guidelines as to what sources are acceptable for your term paper.
If it is an academic work for school, usually there is no restriction, which means you can even refer to blogs and websites.
However, most colleges restrain students from using sources such as Wikipedia, personal blogs, news sites, YouTube.
Plan Your Work
The Term paper is a lengthy piece of work and will require several days to complete, so you should plan the work so that you do not have to rush at the last moment.
When writing, begin with the main body first and write the abstract, introduction and conclusion in the end.
Initially, just make a list of the points that you intend to cover, and then start making notes within those points as you do more reading related to those points. Keep on expanding those thoughts by referring to more sources of information.
Finally, proof read your work to see there are no grammatical mistakes and to ensure everything flows together nicely.
Topics for Term Paper
Here are some topics that students have used in the past for their Term Paper.
How technology can help promote healthy lifestyles
Do foreign investments threaten the economic independence of a country?
Should foreign trade policy of a country be influenced by morality and human rights?
Do rich nations have a responsibility to help developing countries?
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