Term Paper Format

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.

courses/Image2.gif (991 bytes)Click here for how to write a reseach paper

courses/Image2.gif (991 bytes)Click here to gain a more detailed view of the scientific report format described below, or

courses/Image2.gif (991 bytes)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?