Your Term Paper Proposal

For this class, you must turn in a formal term paper proposal in which you propose a topic for your term paper. The due date for your proposal is shown in the syllabus. Your proposal must contain the following items:

• Thetitleof the paper
• Your proposedproblem statement(see below)
• Anabstract; a description of what you intend to cover. This should be no more than one double-spaced page.
• Identification of at least three of the requiredreferences.

Your term paper proposal is worth five percent of your term paper grade.

Your Term Paper Draft

Your term paper draft is an abbreviated version of the paper itself. It will have all the required sections, and the problem statement will be in final form. The literature review may be in draft form, but should be mostly complete. The discussion and conclusion may be in draft or outline form. The references should be complete, although there will be no penalty if you add references between the draft and the final copy.

The due date for your term paper draft is shown in the syllabus. Your term paper draft is worth ten percent of your term paper grade.

Required Format for Term Papers

Term papers for this class must be organized with five parts, an introduction, a review of the literature, a discussion, conclusions and suggestions for future research, and a reference section. The following outline illustrates the required format. Each of the items numbered with Roman numerals should have a heading in the paper. Each required section is discussed further below.

1. Introduction
   1. Introductory Paragraph
   2. Statement of the Problem
   3. Rationale
2. Review of the Literature
3. Discussion
4. Conclusions and Suggestions for Future Research
5. References

Introduction

The introduction to your term paper has three distinct parts: an introductory paragraph, a statement of the problem and a rationale. These are shown separately in the outline to emphasize that all three parts are necessary. You will not put separate subheadings in your paper. Your introduction should flow naturally from one part to the next.

In the introductory paragraph you explain very briefly what subject matter your paper covers. This really is only one paragraph; you will get to the meat of the subject later. You should develop your problem statement and rationale before writing the introductory paragraph so that the introductory paragraph leads the reader up to the problem statement.

Problem Statement

Your problem statement will be a single sentence in a paragraph by itself. This sentence defines your paper. It must show clear focus; as you write your paper, you will refer to the problem statement frequently and include only material that is relevant to the problem statement. You might start out thinking of your problem statement as a question, but you will phrase it as a statement in your paper. Your research should support your statement. This means you will have to have done some research before you can formulate the problem statement.

Here are some examples of problem statements from various fields of study:

• Pattern languages are an effective vehicle for knowledge management.
• Micropayments provide an opportunity for intermediation in m-commerce.
• Inheritance is the most important characteristic of object-oriented languages.

Note that your problem statement must be directly related to the subject of your course.

The last part of the introduction is the rationale. In one or two paragraphs you explain why the problem you have chosen to research is important.

Review of the Literature

The literature review is your opportunity to present a tutorial on your subject by reviewing what other scientists have written. For papers at the undergraduate and master's level, this will often be the longest section of your paper.

Your search of the literature should focus on recent books and refereed papers that have made significant contributions to your topic. However, do not let the focus on recency distract you from describing foundational work in the subject. If the foundational work in your subject was done many years ago, it is still important to describe and cite it.

Look for quality, not quantity in your literature review. You are trying to get at the most important current ideas in your field, and possibly some of the foundational ideas. However, just reading the work of two or three other scientists is generally not enough to assure thorough coverage of a subject. If your assignment suggests a minimum number of references, you should think of it as a C-minus sort of minimum and not as an indication that your research is complete.

Although your literature review is exactly that, a review of the work of others, it is up to you to impose some organization on it. Make a list of the important ideas related to your subject, then organize the list so that foundational or elementary ideas are presented first. Develop an outline from your organized list and use the outline to organize your literature review.

The first paragraph or two should describe the organization of the literature review. If you have more than three or four main topics, consider using subheadings in your paper to guide the reader.

The literature review has three purposes: It offers your reader a tutorial on your subject, it identifies the important work in the field, and it shows your understanding of the existing literature. You accomplish the last purpose by paraphrasing instead of quoting unless a quotation is absolutely necessary to convey an idea. Paraphrasing is how you show that you understand another scientist's ideas well enough to express them in your own words. Note, however, than even when you paraphrase, the words and ideas of others must be properly cited.

Discussion

In the literature review you reported the ideas of others. In the discussion, you introduce your own ideas. You will have taken a position in your problem statement. In your literature review, you will have reported the work of other scientists, some in support of your position and perhaps some in opposition. In the discussion, you support your position and present your own conclusions.

Start by summarizing the literature review; remind your readers of the important points. Then interpret the literature already presented in light of your problem statement. How do you do that? The following list is paraphrased from Hafner (2003):

• Compare:Show how two or more thoughts or ideas are the same.
• Contrast:Show how two or more thoughts or ideas are different.
• Analyze:Examine the ideas from the literature review and show how they are interrelated. Show the relationship of the pieces to the whole.
• Classify:Are there two or more schools of thought with regard to your research problem? How can the results that researchers have reported be grouped?
• Evaluate:What is your opinion of the research you have reviewed? Is some more thorough, more persuasive, or more compelling than the rest? Why, or why not?
• Interpret:What do the relevant ideas in your problem area mean? Explain the ideas and present examples.
• Synthesize:Synthesis is the establishment of at least two pieces of evidence (facts) and the statement of a logical relationship between or among them that leads to a meaningful conclusion that has not been observed before. This isn't as hard as it may sound. Here is an everyday example of synthesis:
  • I parked my car illegally this morning. (fact)
  • When I returned, my car was not where I parked it. (fact)
  • My car has been towed away. (synthesis!)

Do not try to cram all seven of these techniques into your paper. By the time you have completed your literature review you should have formed an opinion about which two or three of these approaches are likely to work best for you.

You are presenting your own thoughts and opinions in the discussion. However, your thoughts and opinions must not be unsupported. Be careful to support your discussion with citations from the literature or by carefully explaining the line of reasoning that has led you to each thought, opinion or conclusion.

As with your review of the literature, your discussion must be organized. One way to approach that is to adapt and re-use your literature review outline when you write your discussion.

In your discussion you will refer to (and cite!) literature reviewed earlier in your paper. Generally this is not the place to introduce new literature.

If you did independent research, you would report it in this section. The results of your research would be woven into your discussion. (Independent research is possible, but not generally required, at the undergraduate and master's level.)

The literature review will probably be the longest section of your paper. The discussion should be next in length.

Conclusion and Suggestions for Future Research

Here is where you explain what conclusions you have drawn and whether your problem statement is supported by your research. Often your conclusion will be only one or two paragraphs.

As you do your literature review, consider where the gaps are. Are there areas that seem not to have been covered adequately by current research? If so, suggest future research that will fill the gaps. At the undergraduate or master's level, you should be satisfied if you can identify one or two such gaps. Your suggestions for future research will be at most one or two paragraphs.

The Reference List

Prepare your reference list according to the guidelines in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Fifth Edition, 2001. A copy of this manual is available in the reference section of the library, call number BF76.7.P83 2001. The general form of a reference entry is:

• Author(s)
• Date of publication (in parentheses)
• Title
• Place of publication and publisherorjournal reference.

Here are some example reference entries. For more examples, see Purdue's OWL pages, here: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/02/ and here: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/05/

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