Checklist for homework
A checklist to avoid the most common mistakes in term papers
Aspects to check |
Done |
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Formalities |
Cover sheet with formal information (lecturer, author) |
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Start pagination with the introduction |
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Numbering of the chapters |
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Uniform font and font size |
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correction margins |
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Paragraphs only where a new aspect is dealt with in the presentation (check the default settings of the writing program) |
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Style/lexicon |
Use a scientifically distanced style |
i.e. not: "It is clear that..." but: From the investigation it follows...; From the previous results it can be deduced... (or similar); "somehow everything", "normal", "interesting" are not scientific categories |
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Avoid colloquial formulations |
such as "He manages to..." (BETTER: He succeeds...), "He gets money..." (BETTER: He receives financial support...). |
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Avoid hyperbolic, emphatic expressions |
"Great", "heartwarming" etc. are not scientific categories. Check whether something is actually presented "very emphatically" or whether "emphatic" alone is not enough. Are there really "very many different" variants or not simply "different variants"? Avoid duplications such as "also" or "already". |
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Precise formulations, avoid unspecific statements | Avoid "a kind of", "certain", "particular", instead say as precisely as possible what the "certain" or "particular" consists of. | ||
Punctuation | Observe the rules of comma placement | e.g. before as well as: NO comma; before but: comma; both... as well as: NO comma | |
Conjunctions | Correct use of conjunctions | insofar as (NOT: that); on the one hand..., on the other hand; on the one hand..., on the other hand nichtsdestoweniger (NOT: nichtsdestotrotz → this is originally a verbal compound of nichtsdestoweniger and trotzdem, which is widely used colloquially, but nevertheless remains colloquial) | |
Grammar | Correct case usage | The genitive case does NOT require an apostrophe in German, i.e.: Baudelaire's poem, Patrick Modiano's novel, etc. (and NOT: Baudelaire's poem, Patrick Modiano's novel). | |
Syntax | Check the sentence construction after inserting a foreign-language quotation (Is the sentence structure still correct in German? If not, it is better to choose an auxiliary construction). | ||
Expression | Choose a precise generic term/one that most closely corresponds to the genre of the text | Werk is a generic term and refers to the complete works of an author; genres are: Novel, poem, essay, prose poem, autobiography, autobiographical récit, hybrid text, literary text, etc. | |
Citation |
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Marking the titles of publications Titles of independent publications are set in italics , those of dependent publications "in quotation marks": Baudelaire's poetry collection Les Fleurs du Mal, BUT: Baudelaire's poem "À une passante". This applies to the running text and footnotes as well as to the bibliography. |
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Further markings/highlighting
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Footnote text/ footnote symbols |
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Have your work proofread to avoid unnecessary errors.
You can also download a pdf version of the checklist for avoiding the most common errors in term papers here.