A Term Paper is an originally written assignment that discusses the given topic in detail and urges the student to apply the knowledge gained in class to a new situation. The length of a term paper varies but normally it is 10-15 typewritten pages. In most cases the term paper has to be turned in by the end of the studied academic course and is used to evaluate whether the student has learned the material studied during the semester.

[ www.yukoncollege.yk.ca/~agraham/guides/tpglossary.htm

www.oswego.edu/academics/continuing/orientation/terms.html ]

Planning a Term Paper

One of most important things to be done by a student in order to write a high-graded term paper is to make it well-organized and to show all the main points and ideas in a clear understandable succession. Three important aspects are to be considered when planning the paper:

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1) The first is to make a good outline of the paper. Outlining the paper is the 4^th step of writing which though does not diminish its importance. After the topic was chosen, research was conducted and notes were gathered the writer HAS to make an outline. Many students tend to skip this stage and, as a consequence, they make their papers disorganized, incoherent or illogical.

An OUTLINE is an organized description of the entire paper, which is frequently shaped as a numbered list of main points, ideas and statements described in a term paper.

[ www.fatcampus.com/directives.htm ]

In other words an outline is a step by step instruction for the writer on further work on the paper. After you list the things you want to include in the paper you can put them in a correct sequence and then write according to this list with no worry about poor structure and unrelated ideas in the paper.

2) Just like any other kind of paper a Term Paper needs to have an introduction, main body and conclusion. The purpose of the introduction is to let the writer know what are you going to accomplish in the paper and why. The main body contains all the key statements and supportive evidences for them. And the conclusion is a summary of all the things mentioned above, written using different words and also providing a brief evaluation of the work done.

3) There are several ways in approaching the paper. The most common of them are chronological and theoretical.

Chronological is based on building the paper according to the time when events took place.

Theoretical is organizing the paper around a set of factors and ideas.

Whichever approach is used the purpose of it is deep analysis of the topic that helps to interconnect all the main points into one good Term Paper.