Term Paper Questions

[Darryl Cressman <dcressma@sfu.ca>]

I hope all of your term papers are coming along smoothly.  I have received a number of questions concerning various aspects of the term paper and I thought it might be handy to pass on an overview  that was forwarded to me by one of the TAs.  It is attached at the bottom of this email.  This should not be taken as an authoritative framework; rather it should be considered a handy reference for editing and reviewing your drafts.

Darryl

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Introduction
•Does your paper have a clearly stated argument or thesis (i.e. you must take a position on the issue you are discussing)
•This thesis/argument must be included in the introduction of your paper
•Your thesis should not be too easy to answer. Could somebody disagree with it? Good. Does the textual evidence available in its support outweigh the textual evidence that contradicts it? Also good. Do you account for any seemingly contradictory evidence?
•Your thesis should be insightful and specific; otherwise, it is merely the topic sentence of an extended summary.
•Does the introduction provide your reader a "road map" through the paper? (A road map tells your reader how your paper will be organized and what you will be arguing.)


Body paragraphs
•Does the body of your essay balance evidence with analysis of this evidence?
•Your position must be supported with specific textual evidence with an explanation of how this evidence supports the thesis you have outlined above.
•When direct quotations are used as evidence, they must be used selectively, contextualized, and integrated into the body of the essay (i.e. direct quotations should not be allowed to stand on their own).
•Each paragraph should contain one main idea introduced by a topic sentence.
•Paragraphs should end with a transition sentence which guides the reader to the next paragraph.
•Paragraphs should be logically organized (i.e. to introduce ideas in the order they appear in your introduction and thesis statement).
•Your essay should not be a summary.


Citations
•All direct quotations, summaries and paraphrased information must be properly cited.
•Essays must include a bibliography which appears as the last page of your assignment.


Title
•The title of your essay should reflect the topic you are discussing as well as capturing the argument you wish to make.


Style
•Your essay should adhere to the conventions of standard academic English.