The Flabby Expression At This Point In Time Could Be Replaced By Which Of The Following Words?

Term Paper Guidelines

This certificate is nether development. Input and suggestions for improvement are welcomed by at this address. This revision: 1997.

Your Obligation to the Reader.

The author of a book or paper has an obligation to requite the reader something beyond what the reader could obtain directly from the source materials. These services to the reader may include:

• Research and investigate. Seek out obscure and hard-to-find material, and unify it into a clear presentation.
• Synthesize. Draw together diverse things to testify patterns and relations.
• Organize. Give logical continuity and construction to diverse materials.
• Analyze. Provide critical assay in which arguments are examined for evidence, validity, logic, and flaws.
• Analyze. Make evidence and arguments clearer to the reader. Elucidate difficult cloth.
• Examine in a broader context. Show how a specific subject fits into a broader context, relates to another field, or relates to historic precedents.
• Select and distill. Weed out fluff and irrelevancies to become at the principal problems of a complex subject.
• Adopt a point of view. Show how the preponderance of evidence and reason favors one side in a controversial issue.

Inquiry Materials

Before sitting downward to write you must take ideas, a plan in heed and 18-carat understanding to communicate. That comes from reading everything you lot can get your easily on related to your subject. How much? Well, I'd experience a flake insecure writing about anything until I'd digested and understood anywhere from i to 2 dozen solid references. I'd probably take looked at or skimmed 50 to 100, but not all of them would terminate upward specifically referenced. Many have no relevant fabric, or nothing unique, non found in the other references. Some are useful only to lead to ameliorate sources.

I'd also want to have read all the reviews I could find of the major reference books I intend to use. Reviews often comprise additional references and leads. I'd want to thoroughly search the journal literature and the scientific journals. Scholarly books are reviewed in scholarly journals. Books for a more general audience are reviewed in newspapers and magazines.

Secondary sources are useful as leads to main sources and equally a manner to gain an overview of your subject field and initial familiarity with it. Encyclopedias are useful secondary sources. Review articles in journals and periodicals are also. But yous must go beyond these, for a newspaper based merely on secondary sources is considered weak.

I can become so narrowly focused on a specific bailiwick that one overlooks the broader context of it. That can include historical and cultural context.

Example: If your subject were immunization against a detail illness, yous'd surely want to first learn something almost the general principles and practice of immunology.

Instance: If you lot were discussing the conclusion to drib the beginning diminutive bomb, y'all'd demand to know something almost the alternate strategies and tactics considered at that time, the knowledge nosotros had well-nigh the strength and resources of the enemy, the projections of casualties if the conventional state of war were to go along, and the climate of public opinion.

Example: If you were researching the subject of repressed memories, you lot'd want to back off and larn what nosotros know about more ordinary retention. One upshot in repressed memory retrieval is whether these memories represent real events. Observe out how skilful our memories are of existent events. You lot will find that there's enough of prove that memory is very unreliable. Equally time goes on, we replay memories, and thereby reinforce them. If we didn't, we'd forget them. Only each time we change and sometimes embellish them, and details go altered. If we talk with others who remember the same events, their perceptions tin can be melded with ours, and we at present remember things nosotros didn't really find. This is a well-known problem in eyewitness testimonies in court cases. Few of the states are expert observers, and few of us take reliable memories of what we observe. We may even shuffle the fourth dimension ordering of events. Our conviction in our memories is no indicator of their truth. Once one looks into the more general literature of the psychology of retentiveness, one is in a better position to evaluate claims of retrieval of repressed memories, memories of past lives, memories of ritual satanic corruption, accounts of UFO sightings, and abductions by aliens.

After reading and digesting the source materials, it's time to organize everything in your mind, or on newspaper, and plan a clear and logical exposition. Merely and then tin can you lot sit down at the computer terminal or typewriter and begin to write whole sentences and paragraphs. Do this without Your source references at hand. Do it from retention. Then, when the form and substance look good, consult your references again for details, facts, figures, specific references, etc.

Summary: A strategy for researching a term newspaper:

1. Consult general encyclopedias. These give you an overview: the history, issues, people, and technical terms y'all'll need for further searching. Some even provide a bibliography. This gives you boosted clues: the names of people who write near this subject, and the titles of journals that publish papers related to it.
2. Follow upward those references to find books and papers in journals and magazines. Each gives clues for further searches.
3. Search, using writer'south names, to notice the other things they have written.
4. Find reviews of the books you lot intend to reference in your paper. These ofttimes contain boosted information not in the book existence reviewed. The authors of reviews in journals are usually too knowledgeable near the subject field, and a literature search using their names is worth doing.
5. Seek out the hard-to-find material. Books of essays and curt articles oft have very useful data and perspectives, but it'south buried amid material on unrelated subjects and may non show upward past subject in a card catalog. Your familiarity with the names of people who contribute to this discipline serves y'all well here.
6. Search yearly indexes of journals. These are unremarkably in the Dec issue. Some journals accept cumulative indexes (every x years). Some (Isis, for example) index related material in the journal also as in related journals. There are journals of abstracts of published papers, which can speed these searches.
7. Search materials of broader telescopic. If your subject area was "tachyons" (hypothesized particles that move faster than lite) you volition need to consult books on relativity, atomic physics, elementary particles, and light. Since the interest in this subject is adequately recent (1970s), at that place volition be much material found in general-involvement magazines, and fifty-fifty in textbooks.
8. Librarians can exist a valuable resource. But before you consult them you should kickoff have a full general acquaintance with your specific field of study (since they may not) so you tin work with them near effectively.
9. By now you have enough solid understanding of your discipline to refine, redefine, and focus the subject of your newspaper. Do not be surprised if y'all accept accumulated 10 times equally much information equally you will actually utilise.
10. You lot are likewise ready to practise a search of internet resources. You have the keywords, and the names of the important players in this field. Chances are you won't observe much new or useful information on the net, but once in a while yous are pleasantly surprised.
11. If you lot are really serious about some point non adequately addressed in the textile you've found, y'all may choose to contact an author or researcher in the subject field. Think, these are decorated people, and they aren't probable to answer if they suspect that you are merely a student trying to meet a term-paper deadline who hasn't even been to the library withal. If your query is specific, insightful, important, and not adequately addressed in the available literature, it may be appropriate to put information technology directly to one of the major researchers. You must show that you lot've done your homework starting time, and accept a general understanding of the discipline.

Mechanics and Manner

Finally, proof-read your paper carefully for correct spelling and grammar. Read it critically for form and content. Imagine yourself as the instructor, reading the newspaper to detect its deficiencies, and to suggest ways it could be improved. Look specially for `stumble points', those places where the reader is forced to cease and re-read something to make sense of information technology. Prepare any you find. This is some other service y'all requite to the reader.

One marking of good fashion is ease of reading. If y'all can read something aloud without stumbling or hesitating, that'southward a skillful sign. If y'all find, every bit you read, that you are beingness lulled to sleep, possibly the prose needs shine. Each sentence, each discussion, must have a purpose in conveying a specific thought or a feeling. Prune out whatsoever that don't. Purge `flabby' words and vague expressions. Substitute words with specific, precise and clear pregnant—the meaning you intend to convey, non some other significant.

My own view is that agile, simple and straight expressions are best. Avert colloquialisms unless they are necessary to make your indicate. Avoid emotion-laden words and phrases unless you are writing a romance novel, or a political speech communication.

Don't earn the legendary comment an English language Prof. made on a student paper: "Your vocabulary is mean and impoverished, merely entirely adequate to express your thoughts." Content is the purpose of a paper; style and packaging tin can facilitate comprehension of that content, only should never distract the reader from the content.

Common Mistakes.

These comments were inspired by papers I've read over many years.

Avert "puffery." Purge pompous, pretentious phraseology. Examples:

• The get-go person who... (Are yous sure someone didn't practice information technology earlier...?)
• The basic cause of... (What, or whose, definition of bones?)
• An essential thought...
• In discussing this nosotros need to begin... (Why must we? Couldn't we begin somewhere else?)
• The most common idea... (Did anyone take a poll?)
• Afterward Plato came Aristotle... (Better: "Aristotle, Plato'south pupil..." Wasn't anyone else of importance born betwixt Plato and Aristotle?)
• The most prominent... important... essential... influential... (Avoid superlatives)
• These are important... precisely because... (At that place's no precise mensurate of relative importance)
• Deemed most of import... (No one uses "accounted" these days.) Such blanket pronouncements are bound to be open to question. Was ... actually the first? Is that thought really essential? Usually such phrases serve no useful purpose in an essay and are better omitted.

Things to Get out Out.

[The advice in this section is excerpted from The Art of Public Speaking by Ed McMahon (Ballantine Books, 1986), with some edits and additions. The art of good writing has much in common with the art of good speaking.]

Exit Out Superfluous Words That Aren't Needed.

Omit the last three words in the above sentence and you have the same meaning. Better yet, leave out the third word—superfluous. The same number of syllables are dropped and you'll exist more readily understood.

In every case, your speech will exist stronger if you lot use the term on the right than if you cloud the upshot with the phrase on the left:

            in the event that                 if           at this point in time             now           in the social club of magnitude of      most           had the opportunity to be         was           come into possession of           get          

Leave Out Redundancies.

Some people aren't satisfied to call something a part or component; it has to be a component part. A blizzard is e'er an icy blizzard or even a snowy blizzard. The aforementioned people never talk about a disaster—it is a terrible disaster, apparently to distinguish it from a wonderful disaster. And they never look for developments, preferring to look for time to come developments.

Bad example: You don't accept to spell it out in detail; requite ample advance warnings and conceptualize future plans. Better: Just spell it out; give warning and brand plans.

Get out Out Unnecessary Intensifiers.

Is a very big dog larger than a big dog? If and so, how much bigger? Nobody knows. Very is rarely needed.

Major, admittedly and completely are a few of the words used as unnecessary intensifiers. Others are fundamental, bones, and essential. Take them out of the following and the meaning doesn't change.

            a major turning bespeak           an absolutely essential move           a completely defunct company           a revolutionary breakthrough           an essential point to understand          

Leave Out Tired Expressions.

Phrases like slow but certain, good as gold, correct as rain, and hard every bit a stone will pigment old gray over your bright new ideas.

Omit Non-Functional Words

And so there are words we habitually carry along without good reason. Why do nosotros write downwardly something rather than just write it? Then we ofttimes say we write up a report. What'south the logical divergence between writing up something and writing it downwards? Why do nosotros tidy up a room rather than just brand it tidy? Would tidying down a room make it messy? Such embellished expressions don't fifty-fifty make logical sense, when y'all recollect about them. But how frequently does anyone call back nigh them? Normally omission of non-functional words tin add vigor to your writing without any sacrifice of clarity. This is a matter of judgment, for some phrases of this kind add a subtle style yous may desire to retain if you are aiming for an informal and colloquial upshot.

Things to Keep in Mind While Writing:

• Eschew obfuscation! Don't write annihilation y'all don't understand. Don't imitation it and don't force information technology. Understand first—then write.
• Brand the focus and organization of your paper clear to the reader. Don't ramble from ane thing to another frantically.
• Make up one's mind what level of understanding your intended reader has, and cull the language and way to adjust. Never attempt to write to a reader whose understanding and cognition of this discipline is greater than your ain. If you don't understand information technology, you can't help your readers to understand it.
• Find your natural way—don't imitate the writing mode of others. Would you speak this mode? If your professor gave a pop-quiz, would you write this way? One way to avoid this is to sit downwardly at typewriter or discussion processor without whatever books, and simply put down your own thoughts on the matter. Then use your notes to fill in specifics, references, quotes, etc., but change the manner and construction only if it is patently inappropriate or clumsy.
• Avoid imitating the language or style of your scholarly sources, for if you do it reasonably well, the effect will take all the advent of plagiarism. If you exercise it desperately, you'll look ridiculous.
• If you copy anything word-for-give-and-take from a source, gear up information technology in quotes (if short) or in an indented paragraph (if longer), and always reference it.
• A newspaper should be more than a fleck-volume or a compilation of notes. Yous must put your personal stylistic stamp on it: a point of view, a method of selection, a fundamental theme.
• Most students should avoid philosophical style, since at this stage of their education they probably don't have plenty information or understanding to do information technology well. Stick to a clear and directly way, and stick with what you (and your readers) tin empathise. A adept writer always tries to brainwash the reader, non but brownnose to the reader'southward prejudices.

Citations and References.

Citations and references guide the reader to other sources of data, and document where you lot obtained your information. Common cognition need not be referenced. The statement "George Washington was the showtime president of the U.s." doesn't require a reference. Merely if you reference something near people don't know, like "Benjamin Franklin was suspected of spying for the British" you should document the source of that accusation.

References ensure that primary sources of data and ideas are given the credit they deserve. You wouldn't want to requite the reader the impression that you formulated relativity theory, not Albert Einstein. Any time you lot demand to include the exact words, paragraph, judgement, or even brusque phrase that is unique, specific, original, or particularly apt, its author deserves credit with a specific reference.

The Chicago Manual of Style, latest edition, is the standard reference for style of scholarly papers. For journalistic style, consult the Los Angeles Times Stylebook.

At that place are many acceptable styles for references, but these general principles utilise:

• Exist complete. Requite sufficient information in references that the reader could runway down your references through standard search procedures. References to books must include author, publisher, publication date, and consummate title. References to published papers must also include the journal title, volume and number, date, and folio numbers of the item referenced manufactures. Standard periodical abbreviations may be used. Each periodical or discipline has its ain manner manual. Consult them to notice the standard abbreviations. Lacking that, look at how papers in that journal or subject field reference other papers.
• Be consequent. Adopt a mode appropriate for your paper (or the requirements of your publisher) and stick to it.
• Exist kind to the reader. Don't chase the reader around the volume or paper to find the internal references. If endnotes are used, don't use an cryptic numbering system that leaves the reader wondering which affiliate the note attaches to. While endnotes are in favor these days, I prefer footnotes, which are right there on the page in front of me, so that I can read them while the idea is nevertheless fresh in my heed. Endnotes are more appropriate for things the reader doesn't need to know immediately, but may wish to consult afterwards.
• More than kindness to the reader. Number the pages, and number the sections and subsections, figures, tables, and graphs.

References to Www Sources.

Manner manuals haven't caught up to the Internet and the World Wide Web. Until they do, this advice from Andrew Kantor, in Net Earth (Feb 1996, p. 26) is useful:

Net citations will differ slightly, depending on where you found them online...

1. Smith, John "John'south Folio: Skilful Marketing Tactics" at
   http://www.stateu.edu/users/jsmith/, eight August 1996.
2. Doe, Jane "Re: Putting Data Online?" in
   comp.infosystems.www, 2 October, 1996.
3. InfoCorp Inc., "Going Digital" at
   gopher://gopher.icorp.com:70/eleven/Papers/GoDig/, 15 July, 1996.

Note that in the showtime example you lot should use the title of the page ("John's Folio") followed by whatever heading of the piece you're citing. In the second, citing a Usenet News post, you should use the subject of the postal service and its appointment--not the date you saw it. Finally, in the Gopher case, utilise the URL rather than but the Gopher server.

Specific Suggestions for Science Seminar Papers.

Since this is a science seminar, we insist that the papers exist about science, something of importance to scientific discipline, or something science influences or has influenced. The paper can likewise be most something that challenges or enhances scientific knowledge, methodology, or philosophy.

While your classroom oral reports may be informational and descriptive, a written paper gives you opportunity to evaluate and clarify, relate one thing to some other, and probe more securely into reasons and connections.

I pitfall is to treat your field of study also broadly. The paper must have a focus, made clearly apparent to the reader early on in the paper and consistently followed throughout.

If your focus is a person or persons, yous should put that person's scientific work into the context of the order of the fourth dimension, and the science of the time. You volition want to analyze scientific ideas and their bear upon on the class of scientific evolution.

If your focus is a catamenia (long or short) in history, you should await at what was going on in scientific discipline then, what were the concerns and attitudes of the scientists, and how their work was enhanced or express by the tools at their disposal. You should also explore the interaction of individuals as they exchanged ideas and criticized each other's work.

If your focus is on a detail claim to cognition (good science, bad science, pseudoscience or other) you need to analyze the claim, the evidence supportive of the claim, its testable predictions, its proponents and opponents, and its philosophical basis.

Suitable Topics for Science Term Papers.

In no particular logical gild, hither are some topic ideas off the top of my head.

1. Pseudosciences masquerading as science. Creation-science is perhaps the well-nigh visible example right at present. Even so, researching this topic could easily event in your beingness buried in claims and counter-claims not crucial to the central issues, which might make it difficult for you to even find the primal issues.
2. Claims of knowledge "outside" of the limits of scientific discipline: paranormal or supernatural. The outcome here is "On what basis can such claims exist fabricated and how can they be tested, if non by the methods of science?" Some claim that it's just a matter of extending scientific discipline ("If scientists would only study this...."). Others claim the declared phenomena will be "forever exterior the limits of science."
3. Recent philosophical disquisitional analyses on the scientific world view and its methodology. Read Kuhn, Popper, Feyerabend, Lakatos. Some of these people seek to change, or replace, the methodology of science. Some of those in the field chosen "science studies" claim that scientists' 'reality' is merely a social construct: a world-view of mutual agreement among an aristocracy group of scientists, without any objective reality.
4. Philosophical views of noesis: the egocentric vs. the scientific view. The mystical vs. the objective view.
5. Cases of honest mistakes within science. Include discussion of what motivated these, and some observations on how they tin can be avoided. Some examples: N-rays, Grand-rays, polywater, cold fusion.
6. Opposition to new scientific ideas, by scientists and non-scientists. Examples: atoms, relativity, continental drift, development.
7. Over-enthusiastic acceptance of a scientific idea that later is shown to exist incorrect. Cold fusion, medical `miracle cures'.
8. Deliberate fraud in science. This is rather rare, but the few examples are interesting. Some cases that take generated contempo interest: Alleged fudging of information past Ptolemy, and past Gregor Mendel.
9. Hoaxes in science. Piltdown human being. Berringer's stones. The "moon" hoax of the New York Dominicus. The Kensington Runestone. Piltdown Human being, the Piri Ries map, the Vinland map.
10. Scientists who were victims of self-delusion, seeing what they wanted to see. Scientists duped by spiritualism in the late 19th and early 20th century. N-rays (physics), M-rays (mitogenetic radiation, biological science), 'canals' of Mars.
11. Discarded scientific ideas. Some scientific ideas and models, while not entirely incorrect or misguided, are abandoned, replaced or drastically modified by something better. Examples: phlogiston, caloric, the luminiferous ether.

These come up to my mind considering I know something about them. I hope that yous come up with extensions to this list.

Wrapping It Up.

For the all-time possible course, review your paper to exist sure that you:

• Address the subject of the seminar. Since this is a science seminar, your newspaper should chronicle in an of import fashion to science (not technology).
• Stick to the chosen topic. Don't stray into side issues.
• Make the structure and organization of the paper appropriate to the subject and clear to the reader.
• Talk over issues and themes. Don't but recount facts and events.
• Thoroughly document all sources and assertions, with internal references in a consistent form.
• Present the material in a readable and professional manner. Double-space the text. Use but one side of each sheet, with at to the lowest degree a one inch margin at the left and three/four inch margins on the other three sides. Avoid distracting font styles. Secure the pages in some fashion then that they can't get out of order.

The commonest deficiency of previous term papers I've seen was their lack of assay of issues, failure to betrayal connections and relations or to dig into historical background. Some other deficiency was likewise-heavy reliance on linguistic communication and way of sources. A practiced essay is not a cut-and-paste operation. It must show clearly your contribution to the organization, option, and assay of the materials.

Return to Donald Simanek's page.

Source: https://www.lockhaven.edu/~dsimanek/termpapr.htm

Posted by: ogdenvioner1974.blogspot.com

Share this post