Format for Term Papers
Below are some links and a general outline on how to write your term papers. Depending on your topic you may want to rely on the scientific report style or literature review styles, or a combination of the two. The choice is yours. Links to these styles can be accessed by the buttons below. Below the three buttons I outline the scientific report style. More details can be found by clicking the scientific format button below.
Click here for how to write a reseach paper
Click here to gain a more detailed view of the scientific report format described below, or
Click here to gain a description of how to write a literature review
Format for a Scientific Report
Abstract
Short (three-quarters of a page) description of the paper. Describe what the issue or problem is, why it is important or interesting, and your findings.
Introduction
- What is the issue or problem?
- Literature review: what is current thinking, findings, and approaches on the problem?
- What is the significance of the problem?
- How do you plan to deal with the problem? What is your solution?
Methods
- How did you search for information or data on the topic?
- What is your impression of the ulility, relevance, or quality of the data you collected?
- What special steps did you take to select or utilize the data?
Results
- What are your findings?
- Are their problems with your findings in terms of answering the questions posed in the introduction?
Discussion
- What do your observations mean?
- Summarize the most important findings.
- What conclusions can you draw?
- How do your results fit into a broader context?