How
to write a term paper - Guidelines
Note: This
material was taken from Andrea Stählin's web page at http://www.hkbu.edu.hk/~gis/termpap.htm
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The Question of plagiarism:
You cannot lift paragraphs from other books
or articles and place them into your term paper. This is called Plagiarism
- taking paragraphs from an author and presenting them as your own.
You have to write your own term paper.
If you quote, you have to give a footnote.
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Structure of the paper:
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Cover: Name and
title
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Page 2: List of contents
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Page 3-8/9: Text (double space)
I. Introduction
II. (Main part)
1....
2....
3...
a....
b. and so on
4....
III. Conclusion
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Page 10: Footnotes
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Page 11: Key references
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Example for a list of contents
showing the systematic structure of a term paper:
Topic: The Comeback of Regionalism in China in the 1980s
I. Introduction
II. Regionalism in China
1. Terms and Definitions
a. What is Regionalism?
b. What is Centralism?
2. Historical Roots of Regionalism in China
a. The Relation between Centre and Region 1911-1949
b. The Relation between Centre and Region 1949-1978
3. The Development of Regionalism since 1978
a. Planned Decentralisation by the central government
b. Financial and Economic Reforms
c. Administrative Reforms
4. The increasing power of the regions
a. Local interests
b. Resistance against the centre
c. ...
III. Conclusion
Footnotes
References
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The Introduction (I)
The introduction should consist of three aspects:
1. A description of the topic,
the importance of the topic and
which aspects of the topic you are going to write
about.
2. A description of the structure of the term paper:
you should explain how you have structured your
term paper,
which aspects you are going to deal first, second
and so on.
3. You should give a short overview of the main sources which are
important for
the topic and which sources you have finally
used.
Give only the titles with a footnote from which
the whole title can be identified.
With a term paper of six to seven pages, the introduction should be
no more than one page.
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The main part of the term paper
(II)
The main part of the term paper has to be constructed systematically.
Look at several books to see how the authors have structered the
content of their books.
There are different systems for arranging the content of a paper:
1. Numbers
2. Letters
3. Numbers and letters.
Look at several books with different systems and decide on the system
you would like to apply. You must only apply one
system.
Usually, the main part starts with the definitions of the central
concepts and a short review of the topic.
Refer to the table of content to see an example
of a list of contents showing the systematic structure of a term paper
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Conclusion (III.)
In the conclusion you should try to sum up the main results of the
term paper. You should try to put down the results in three or four short
statements or thesis. At the end, you should give your
own point of view. Try to explain why some authors are wrong or
right, and what do you think about the topic, but you have to base your
own opinion on reasonabele arguments.
The conclusion should be no longer than 1 page.
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Citations (footnotes/endnotes):
Citations are very important. A term paper without citations will
not be accepted. They are necessary in order to show which sources you
have used and allow the reader to look up the references for further reading.
There are three systems for writing citations:
1. at the bottom of each page (called footnotes)
2. at the end of the term paper (called endnotes)
3. in between the text
To start with we would recommmend to use the system 1 or 2.
Do not mix two systems. Apply only one.
Examples of citations:
a. Citations from a monograph:
1 Immanuel C.Y. Hsü: The Rise of Modern China4,
Oxford University Press, New York and Oxford 1990, p. 131.
If you quote from the book for the second time, you only write
If the next footnote also refers to Hsü, you only write:
3 Ibid., page 183. (that means: same place and
comes from Latin)
If the next footnote is also related to Hsü, you again write
If footnote no 5 is from a new book then you have to write the whole
new title.
b. Citations from an article:
5 Lin Min: "The Search for Modernity: Chinese Intellectual
Course, 1978-1988 - The Case of Li Zehou." In: The China Quarterly,
no. 132, Dec. 1992, pp. 969-998, p. 978.
6 Compare Lin Min, p. 981.
7 Ibid., pp. 984-986.
c. Citations from an article in a book:
(Author, title, book title, editor, series title, place, date, number
of pages, page)
8 David A. Kelly: "The Emergence of Humanism: Wang Roushui
and the Critique of Socialist Alienation", in: China's Intellectuals
and the State: In Search of a New Relationship, ed. by Merle Goldman
with Timothy Cheek and Carol Lee Hamrin, Harvard Contemporary
China Series: 3, Cambridge, Mass. 1987, pp. 1859-182, p. 163.
9 Kelly, in: Goldman, pp. 165-167.
d. Citations from Chinese references:
The system of citation is the same. Please write the title in
pinyin and add the translation of the title.
10 Ai Siqi: Xin zhexue lunji (Essays on the New
Philosophy), Shanghai 1938,
pp. 43-46.
e. Citations from Internet resources
(please click here)
f. Footnotes have an additional function:
In the footnotes you can explain certain further aspects of the topic
which are not so important that they should be placed in the main text.
You can add further references to articles or books regarding the aspects
and so on.
Example:
11 Kelly, in Goldman, pp. 165-167. For a further discussion
of this aspect compare the book by the same author: David Kelly: Chinese
Marxism in the Post-Mao Era, Stanford 1990, pp. 23-28 and 34-36. Also Chester
Tan: Chinese Political Thought in the 20th Century. Newton Abbot 1972,
pp. 86,90.
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References
At the end of the term paper you write all articles and books in
alphabetical order.
You have to distinguish between
The usual order for monographs
is:
Author, title, place, date of publication.
Example:
Hsü, Immanuel C.Y.: The Rise of Modern China4,
Oxford University Press, New York and Oxford 1990. (4 means
4th edition)
The usual order for articles
is:
Author, title of the article, name of the magazine or newspaper,
volume, number, year, month, pages.
Example:
Lin Min: "The Search for Modernity: Chinese Intellectual Course,
1978-1988 - The Case of Li Zehou." In: The China Quarterly, no.
132, Dec. 1992, pp. 969-998
The usual order for books
which somebody has edited:
Title of the book, editor(s), place, date of publication.
Example:
China's Intellectuals and the State: In Search of a New Relationship,
ed. by Merle Goldman with Timothy Cheek and Carol Lee Hamrin, Harvard Contemporary
China Series: 3, Cambridge, Mass. 1987.
The references should only include the titles
you have actually used in your term paper.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
How to find refences books and articles
Besides the term paper you compile a bibliography for the topic of
the term paper. This bibliography should consist of all relevant books
and articles, in English as well as in Chinese, but not more than 30 titles.
Please add the bibliography to the term paper.
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Step 1:
Look up the books and articles which are related to your topic (on
the back page of the lecture outline) for further titles.
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Step 2:
Use the computer in the library, enter several keywords.
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Step 3:
Look for bibliographies in the library, for example the Bibliography
of the Journal of Asian Studies. Try to find out under which category the
titles you need could be found.
Example:
Your topic is: The ideological development in the PRC 1949-1976
Look under the categories: Chinese contemporary philosophy, ideology,
contemporary history and so on.
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