Dr.

Shafqat Hussain Chauhdry

Professor, Humanities.
Writing a Term - Paper

Education simply stated in literacy sense is reading and writing. More than
that, it aims at making humans more informed and effective people and better
citizens.
Writing is therefore an indispensable part of the educational process and,
indeed a vital part of life of a university student. Cultivation of one’s skills and
disciplining of one’s mind is facilitated by writing. Indeed, writing develops
structured and logical thinking.
Preparing a research-based report, term paper or seminar presentation
serves in three ways. As student, value of research-based writing is realized by
converting the loosely structured narrations and incoherent oral arguments into
skillful structured narrations and logical arguments. In a professional career it
enables one to be an effective, creative and successful member of the
organization one works with. Finally, it allows expanding one’s frontiers of
knowledge and enhancing intellectual horizons. Besides, working on an issue
event or a subject renders you an active and responsible citizen and productive
participant in national life. Another happy result will be the availability of more
knowledge for your reader and the instructor alike.

Choosing a Topic:
The first stage in the process of writing a term paper is determining
the subject or choosing a topic. It may be assigned to you or you may have the
freedom of choice. You will be more comfortable if the subject is relevant to the
domain of your past or present study. If you have the choice, select the one that
interest you most. It is comparatively easier to write on a subject with you are
more familiar. Be sure you do not go for reproducing the paper already submitted
by a friend previously. Beside the ethical implication, your own ability will not
expand if you plagiaries someone else’s effort.
The selection of topic is also dependent on the availability of relevant
material. Be sure enough documents, articles, books exist and readily
accessible. It will be useful to prepare a preliminary inventory of available
sources.
In the beginning several topics of broader context and with flowery wording
come to one’s mind. Invariably the topic has to be narrowed down, reducing its
jurisdiction and time-space to manageable limits say between 1500 and 2000
words. For instance a subject titled “Impact of military rule” can be reduced to
“Impact of Military rule in Pakistan”. It can be further limited to a single- regime
period and possibly restricted to economic dimensions so that it appears finally
as follow:

Economic Impact Of Military Rule in Pakistan 1958-1969’

Collecting the Material:
Next stage is the scanning of the source and collection of material.
Avoid relying on just one source to write your paper by using an encyclopedia,
book or article. Finding the best source is challenging job, you can do it well by
going systematic and organized, saving lot of fruitless effects. Seek help of
librarians on how best to go about utilizing library catalogue, Internet, books,
documents on your specific subject. To facilitate you best is his profession.

Actual Writing:
“ Writing is no trouble. You just jot down ideas as they occur to you .The
jotting is simplicity itself ---it is the occurring, which is difficult “( Stephen Leacock
as quoted in Rozakis. 1999, P11. )
While writing, says Lauri Rozakis, “ you can’t merely summarize what
someone else has written Instead, you have to synthesize information from many
different sources to create something that is your own “. ( Rozakis, 1999. P.4 )
Emphasis should be less on reviewing the subject, event or issue and more on
the main structure and theme to facilitate the reader remain linked to the titled
subject. It is like “focusing and directing your ideas just as you focus and direct
the lens of your camera – moving from a general subject to a more specific one “.
(Hodges. 2001, P274).
Within the broad section you can devise subsections by putting
informative headings. There is no standardized format, yet commonsense will
guide in creating a logical structure of the write-up. Paragraphing helps to
understand the various aspects of the topic one by one. Related material must be
grouped under a sub-heading or sub-section.

The Body:
As you begin to write, go the sequential way. Description of the subject is
to be followed by explanation, prediction and prescription.
First, state the subject in an introduction. It is important that the purpose
of investigation or research leading to a term- paper is identified at the very
beginning. This will help to focus on the main theme and avoid unnecessary and
irrelevant details. In this intro part, just describe the issue, event, problem, along
with physical, social, economic, political and biological, whichever applicable,
character. An emphasis in this part is on “ what “ and not on ”why “.
Description should be followed by explanation, the substantive body. You
move on form ’what’ to ‘why and how’ an event occurred, an issue cropped up,
problem unfolded and process evolved. Review the variable that affected the
subject matter. For example, writing about the “ US Invasion of Iraq “, the
explanation part could come through by responding to the question:
“Why USA intervened the way it did”?
The next step in the sequence is the prediction. What are the inferring
lessons that can help us to speculate as to whether another set of similar events,
issues or problems might occur urging similar kind of adventure by USA.. For
instance we know how and why invasion of Iraq by USA occurred. We can
speculate as to whether on similar pretext (Nuclear Enrichment / Weapons of
Mass Destruction) and similar set of circumstances USA might invade Iran. This
is prediction.
 Finally, one can make some intelligent guesses. Prescription can be
provided as to what might be the best course to follow, solutions and alternatives
available and options exercisable in comparable situations.

In the overall analysis, the report or term paper should reflect retrospective
view of an event or enterprise, its current facets, responsible conclusions and
alternative recommendations to make a crispy end. The reader of your paper will
expect you to indicate verifiable conclusion constructed with balanced and sound
reasoning leaving the reader with clearer idea of what you wanted to convey.

Writing Style:
The written style should not be dull or overloaded with clichés. Be natural,
logical and coherent. Ensure directness and clarity of style. Consider, we are
going to communicate with non-specialist, a layman who has no prior knowledge
of facts you narrate. Readers are interested in clear, positive, brief and precise
analysis. No one reads every single word of long unending and unclear writings.
See that every paragraph contains a theme. This theme should advance with
every para that follows.
The language of the term paper should be clear, concise and unambiguous,
leaving few questions in the mind of the reader. “ Writing a clear precise
sentence is an art, and one way to master that art is to revise – so that end
sentence says what you want it to say “.( Hodges. P2 ). “ An ornate or flowery
style makes reading slow and calls attention to your words rather than your
ideas.” ( Hodges. P274 ) .No doubt composing a term- paper is not only valuable
writing experience but it also teaches you to think logically, coherently and
systematically. Remember all write-ups have room for improvement, no matter
how accurate how logical and how comprehensive you are. Revise and revise
carefully before typing and before submitting the final draft.

Executive Summary:
It may be useful to provide a half page brief at the beginning of the paper
before details of the research-based paper are presented. Bring out the moot
point of the subject in the light of which the material contained in the paper is to
be read. The recommendations or prescriptions are also to be indicated in this
brief.

Citations and Footnotes:

Sources are to be quoted not only to demonstrate your own awareness of
the existing literature on the subject of your research but also to give credit to the
original writer. It is better to err on the side of too many footnotes than to err on
the side of presenting too few.
Indicate in the footnotes from where the information was obtained. It helps
the reader to verify accuracy of facts is quotations. If you don’t do that, you carry
the blame of plagiarism.
While quoting the lines, give quotation marks on both sides of the
sentences followed by author’s last name and year of publication in parentheses.
after the full stop. While quoting, give verbatim description without changing the
grammar, spellings words even if there are clear errors in the original text.
 In the footnotes, detail of the reference must be given. There are some
accepted ways of citations, reproduced below from ‘Heinle Guide to using The
APA ( American Psychological Association ) Documentation Style
(www.heinel.com) used extensively in the social sciences.

Short parenthetical references are used in the body of the paper keyed to
an alphabetical list of reference that follows the paper. A typical parenthetical
reference consists of the author’s last name, followed by coma and the year of
publication and page number. Example: “writer often need to address multiple
and diverse audience.” (Hodge’s, 2001, p397).

Books:
A Book with One Author:
List last name with initials followed by title, press and page Maslow, A.H (1974)
Towards a psychology of being. Princeton Van Nostrand (P.139).

A Book with more than One Author:

List all authors by last name and initials, regardless of how many they are:
Wolfinger, D.,Knable,P.,Richards,H.L.,& SilberR.(1990).
The chronically unemployed. New York:Bermen Press ( P134).

Articles:
A Newspaper Article:
Hasan Khalid,(2005, June 10). Why Gohar Ayub is wrong about 1965. Daily
Times.Lahore. P.A-6

A Magazine article:
Mccurdy, H.G(1983-June). Brain Mechanism and intelligence Psychology Today
46,61,63

A Journal Article:
Dowding K(1995) Model or Metaphor? A critical review of the political network
approach, Political Studies New York P43.

An Article in an Internet-only Journal:

Hernaday J, & Bunker C (2001). The nature of the entrepreneur. Personal
Psychology, 23, Artle 2353b. Retreived November 21,2001, from
http://www.drescel.edu/-gulnot/deltarule-abstract.html.

A work by an Organization and Group:

Use this form when cutting material on which government agencies,
corporations, study group or association appear as the author government of
Pakistan, Ministry of Information (1989), Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinah’s
Presidential address to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan Karachi August
11,1947 P 42-47.
A work with no Listed Authors:
If a work has no listed authors, use the first two or three words as the title and the
year. Use quotation marks around titles “Kashmir is Burning” 1975.

Checklist:
Preparing Reference list:
i) Begin the reference list on a new page after the last page of text.
ii) Center the title “References” at the top of the page.
iii) List the items in the reference list alphabetically (Authors last name
first)
iv) Double-space the reference list within and between entries.

The Front Pages:

i) The title of paper, name of author, name of course, name of instructor
and date should appear in this very sequence.
ii) The table of contents listing the main divisions and the subdivisions
should appear next to title page.

THE FORMAT

Use the A4 size paper for typing the term paper. Leave 1.5 margin on left
hand side and 1 on right hand side of the paper, the spacing of 1.5 and font of
12 point be adopted. Use Romans numerical at the front pages of the Term
paper. Paragraph spacing should be 4.5. The title section and sub-sections
should be typed at the 18 point, 16 point and 14 point font respectively.

Note:
This guideline paper is written specifically for the students of:

i. Modern Politics & Government

ii. International Relations
iii. Pakistan Studies

to facilitate them to write their term papers. However students of other disciplines
being taught in FAST - National University of Computers & Emerging Sciences
can also benefit from it if they so desire.
 References

1. Hodges, J.C., Webb, S., Miller. R., Horner. W.,

(2001)Hodges Hardbrace Handbook. Heinle & Heinle

2. Rozakis. Laurie ., ( 1999 ) Schaum’s Quick Guide To

Writing Great Research Papers. McGraw- Hill.

3. The Write Way. An easy – to – follow illustrated guide to

help you write better. 1988. Distributed by Brother nternationl
Corporation.