Handout for writing academic term papers

Table of contents

1. 1. 1. Table of contents
      2. Introduction or: Structure and function of the handout
      3. 1 General notes
      4. 2 Information on the title page
      5. 3 Structure and procedure
         1. 3.1 Introduction
         2. 3.2 Main part
         3. 3.3 Content criteria
         4. 3.4 Conclusion
      6. 4 Table of contents
      7. 5 Notes on the formal design of the text section
         1. 5.1 Page format and margins
         2. 5.2 Body text
         3. 5.3 Quotations
         4. 5.4 Headings
         5. 5.5 Footnotes
         6. 5.6 Page break
      8. 6 Bibliography
         1. 6.1 Sorting criteria
         2. 6.2 Notation of the bibliographic information
         3. 6.5 Exemplary bibliography
      9. 7 Evaluation criteria
      10. 8 Declaration of independence

Table of contents

Introduction or: Structure and function of the guide.

1 General information
2 Information on the title page
3 Structure and procedure

3.1 Introduction
3.2 Main part
3.3 Content criteria
3.4 Conclusion

4 Table of contents
5 Notes on the formal layout of the text section

5.1 Page format and margins
5.2 Continuous text
5.3 Quotations
5.4 Headings
5.5 Footnotes
5.6 Page breaks

6 Bibliography

6.1 Criteria for sorting
6.2 Spelling of the bibliographic information
6.5 Exemplary bibliography

7 Evaluation criteria
8 Declaration of independence

Footnotes

*****************************************************************************

Introduction or: Structure and function of the handout

The seminar paper is a form of academic communication that you will encounter early on in your studies and which repeatedly raises questions about its form, structure and content. Literature and introductory courses offer a multitude of often contradictory instructions and advice, as each subject has its own traditional system or one that has been adapted to its own needs. With the aim of answering questions about the requirements and formal form of an academic term paper for the field of French Literature and Cultural Studies, this handout provides basic tips for writing a term paper, as mastering the formal requirements is a fundamental working technique for studying. Once you have found your own routine in this area, you can concentrate on the content - on the research question and interest, the state of research and your own theses - without losing energy1
As a general rule, the form should support the content and not serve as an end in itself. A simple and therefore clear and uniform design of the paper is more advisable than experimenting with fonts and formats. Correct and consistent spelling and punctuation, clear sentence structure and the correct use of tenses are among the minimum requirements of any written work. The aim is to use precise and scientific language that strives for simplicity and clarity. The inclusion of research literature and its critical examination is central to independent academic work. Direct and indirect quotations must be identified as such in the text and listed in the bibliography.

1 General notes

Each term paper consists of five or six elements:

• Title page
• table of contents
• Text part (introduction, main part, conclusion)
• bibliography
• Appendix, if applicable
• Declaration of independence

Scope (for orientation, to be discussed with the examiner in individual cases):

• 4 CP Reading-related task: 8-10 pages
• 5 CP Reading-related assignment: 10-12 pages
• 6 CP Seminar paper and combined paper: oral or written preliminary work + term paper 15-18 pages
• 7 CP Combined paper: oral or written preliminary work + term paper 20 pages

Information without title page and table of contents, incl. bibliography, plus appendix if applicable

Submission:
DIN A4 original printout; printed on one side (please without plastic stapler or similar).
The term paper can be handed in personally during office hours or simply dropped into the mailbox in front of the secretary's office (Ms. Angelika Gleisberg, room 4.01). At the same time, please send it to the examiner in pdf format by email.
Detailed information on the form of the term paper can be found on the following pages.

Please note:
If you proofread your academic work in print before submitting it, you may be able to detect avoidable careless mistakes that detract from the overall impression even better than when proofreading on screen. As you yourself are 'blind' at a certain point, it is advisable to have the work proofread again by a third party.

2 Information on the title page

Every academic paper is preceded by an informative title page. This contains the following information:

• Institution (TUD Dresden University of Technology, Institute, Chair)
• Type and title of the course
• Name and title of the seminar leader
• semester
• Title of the paper
• Name of the author(s)
• Matriculation number
• Degree program and subject
• Semester of study
• Contact details (address, but at least an e-mail address)
• Date of submission

The title page is not included in the page count and therefore does not have a page number.

***************************************************************************

TUD Dresden University of Technology
Faculty of Linguistics, Literature and Cultural Studies Institute of Romance Studies
Chair of French Studies [Seminar title]
[Lecturer]
[Semester of the examination]

Full title of the term paper

submitted by:
Name of the author(s):
Matriculation number:
Degree program and subject Semester:
Contact details (address, but at least an e-mail address):
Date of submission:

***************************************************************************

3 Structure and procedure

The aim of every academic paper is to describe the aspects arising from a clearly stated, delimited question in a comprehensible manner and to evaluate them by critically examining the arguments of others. Critically reflect on what you have read and include research approaches that do not correspond to your opinion. Explain how your point of view differs and why you contradict or extend the current state of research.
The work consists of arguing, debating, discussing, presenting and citing: Your own achievement lies in the new perspective, the synopsis, in finding a thesis, also in the commitment to the work. The prerequisite for intersubjective comprehension is a transparent and strategically favorable structure for the path from the question to possible answers.
Research is essential for this (especially searching, reviewing and selecting recent literature), which also involves creating a systematic approach, thorough reading and, building on this, excerpting. To find out the state of research on a topic, it is not enough to consult the SLUB catalog. This only lists the literature available in the SLUB! Books and articles that have not (yet) been acquired there, but which may be of great relevance to your research question, can only be found using the relevant bibliographic research tools, such as the Klapp. Bibliography of French Literary Studies. If you are not familiar with these, ask your examiners for advice.
Each term paper contains an introduction, main body and summarizing concluding remarks.

3.1 Introduction

The introduction contains

• the definition of the topic (what is the focus and why?)
• the objective/question/interest (relevance?)
• the text selection/text basis/source and literature situation
• a summarizing comment on the state of research
• your own working hypothesis
• Considerations on approach and method
• the structure of the term paper.

Depending on the topic, the main part of the paper can be preceded by a clarification of the underlying terms and concepts and/or an introduction to the context (historical-political, history of ideas, social, cultural, economic, biographical...). context 2 Such a clarification of terms or contextualization must be based on academic literature. For example, the definition of a key term relevant to the subsequent analysis must not be taken from a conversational dictionary or a general dictionary, but should at least be based on a specialist handbook.
When interpreting texts , this context should be taken into account just as much as the type or genre of text and the formal structure of the text. Theses and opinions must be substantiated by making concrete references to the text.
Consider the introduction as a lead-in to the main part, as an explanation for your work, as the particularly important part that informs the reader about the aim of the work and shows that you have dealt with the topic. This is because it is your understanding of the topic, not that of the examiner, even if he or she has determined the topic together with you. So explain the problem you have chosen, your understanding of the topic, your approach, your choice of theoretical approaches.
Remember: The introduction is read first and therefore conveys the first impression that will shape the rest of your paper.

3.2 Main part

The main body should systematically develop results based on sub-questions that build on each other. Redundancies and generalities should be avoided. You should come to your own conclusions by examining perceptions, scientific controversies, paradigms and the current state of research. Work with footnotes.
Since bibliographical references to quotations and paraphrased text passages are usually integrated into the body text as short references (see 5.3), as recommended in this handbook, the footnote includes all additional references that do not fit into the main text (comments on the cited literature and other academic references; quotations or explanations that should not disrupt the flow of the text; suggestions or desiderata).

3.3 Content criteria

Relevance criteria
Pay attention to the relevance of your observations and questions. You should talk about aspects that are not obvious, that require explanation, that provide new insights into the texts and their contexts and therefore need to be discussed.
A further criterion of relevance is the ability of your reflections to connect to current issues in research. It is therefore essential to first gain a (partial) overview of the research situation and to adopt or derive corresponding questions and problems from the discussions.
Avoid accumulating information that is common knowledge and can be found in any encyclopaedia, handbook or Wikipedia article, such as page-long digressions on an author's biography, general characterizations of eras, etc. Your term paper is not a copying exercise! Select the information you provide in the paper with a view to your problem and leave out what is superfluous. Motivate the selection of aspects.

Objectivity
Always remember the necessary objectivity of your statements. Each of them must be comprehensible and, if necessary, verifiable for the reader. Therefore, if necessary, substantiate your statements with references to primary or secondary sources or to arguments that you have developed within your work. In this context, think about the logical coherence of your text.

Text coherence
Pay attention to the coherence of the content of your text. The individual parts should form a coherent conceptual structure on a micro- and macro-structural level, in which each part shows its necessary relationship to the other parts. The individual chapters should be linked to each other and refer to each other, possibly building on each other. Each chapter should discuss a topic, argument, problem, etc. A thesis should be supported by a coherent chain of argumentation.

3.4 Conclusion

The final chapter

• summarizes the results of the term paper.
• answers the key questions, evaluates the working hypothesis if necessary
• and can formulate prospects:
  • Classification in a larger (historical, socio-cultural...) context
  • Conclusions for later/current/future developments
  • Comparison with analogous topics, processes and other texts for which the study may be relevant
  • Further aspects, questions arising from the work, clarification of unanswered questions.

4 Table of contents

The title page is followed by the table of contents3 Far more than just an aid to finding the pages, it is the face of the work, revealing its detailed structure and thus its approach and intellectual structure.
The table of contents shows the headings of all chapters and subchapters of the thesis, including their numbering, in exact wording. The corresponding page numbers are flush right. The title page and table of contents are neither numbered nor paginated (and do not appear in the table of contents). Pagination begins with p. 1 on the first page of the introduction.

The following is a simple form of structure:

Introduction 1

1 Heading 3

1.1 Heading 3
1.2 Heading 7

2 Heading 9

2.1 Heading 10
2.2 Heading 11
2.3 Heading 11

Conclusion15
Bibliography 16

• Traditionally, chapters are not numbered in ordinal numbers and are therefore written without a period. The period in 2.1 is a dividing point! Further subdivision: 2.1.1 etc.; avoid more than three levels.
• For extensive works, it is also advisable to divide them into several "parts". These are identified by Roman numerals (I, II, III...).
• For voluminous appendices, material or source sections, a capital letter structure or a separate internal structure (A1, A2...; M1, M2...; Q1, Q2...) is recommended; this should be reflected in the table of contents.
• The appearance is variable: dots can lead to the page numbers, indentations can identify subdivisions, bold type can emphasize the headings of the main chapters, etc. However, the same applies here: Less is often more!

5 Notes on the formal design of the text section

5.1 Page format and margins

• DIN A4, printed on one side
• Page margins:
• left: 2 cm
• right: 4 cm (space for the proofreader's notes)
• Top: 2 cm
• bottom: 2 cm

5.2 Body text

Proven fonts are Times, Times New Roman, Helvetica, Arial. One font must be used for body text.
The mandatory standard font size is 12pt (for Times New Roman or comparable if another font is chosen). This not only ensures good readability, but also the comparability of the papers in terms of length.

Extensive quotations (3 lines or more) are set as a separate paragraph in a smaller font size: here 10pt and single line spacing. It is also advisable to indent by 1 cm on the left. Quotation marks are not used for indented quotations.

• Underlining should be avoided where possible (this has become the established format for Internet links).
• Italics are reserved for highlighting the titles of independent publications (monographs, journals, etc.); quotation marks are used to mark dependent publications: Baudelaire's collection of poems Les Fleurs du Mal, but Baudelaire's poem "À une passante".
• Likewise, foreign-language terms not integrated into the German vocabulary (cf. Duden) should be italicized . Romansh nouns are treated in the German text according to their gender in the source language, English nouns according to their gender in the chosen German translation.
• Please avoidoverformatting (bold + italics, bold + underlined).

Justification with a line spacing of 1.5 lines is recommended as the paragraph format . Ensure correct hyphenation. Simple paragraphs in continuous text - to mark a new train of thought - do not need a free line. However, this can be used to separate statements on different topics within the same chapter. Please ensure that paragraphs are only inserted when a new train of thought begins (but not after each sentence).

5.3 Quotations

The reproduction of other people's statements takes place in paraphrases or indirect speech (subjunctive) and must be recognizable as such. Literal quotations are to be limited to particularly striking passages or passages requiring critical comment. They "must be placed in quotation marks (bottom-top) in the body text". Omissions as well as own additions and comments are marked by [...]. "Quotation marks within the quotation are converted to 'single quotation marks'." Emphases and also errors in the original must be adopted; the latter can be marked by a trailing [sic] if necessary. "Own emphasis must be commented on accordingly [own emphasis]." If the emphasis is already in the original, this should also be noted at the end of the citation: [emphasis in original]. Longer verbatim quotations are placed as a separate paragraph (see above).
There are various systems for identifying direct and indirect quotations and references to research literature. It is important that you consistently maintain the citation style you use for the first citation in the paper throughout the academic work. The principle of consistency applies.

• In (Romance) literary studies, it used to be customary to cite references to direct and indirect quotations in a footnote. In the meantime, however, the abbreviated citation in the running text has become established, as follows: "Following the citation, the surname of the author of the cited work, the date of publication and the page number are given in brackets." (Müller 2008: 117)
• If you paraphrase the statements of others, a "cf." (= compare) is placed before the reference: (cf. Müller 2008: 117).
• If you refer to several pages of text, the first and last page number should be mentioned, like this: (cf. Müller 2008: 117-120).
• Several works by the same author from the same year are clearly identified by consecutive lower case letters: (Müller 1992a: 5-14) or (Müller 1992b: 7-9).
• Immediately following short references to the same work can be abbreviated: (ibid.) (= ibid., i.e. same work, same page references). Or: (ibid.: 56-58) (i.e. same work, but different page references).

Please note:
Correct citation and careful references are self-evident elements of academic integrity. They demonstrate respect for intellectual property, serve to verify information and make arguments comprehensible. Please also note the guidelines for dealing with plagiarism at the Faculty SLK4
As academic texts are aimed at a specialist audience, quotations from English or French or from the languages inherent to your own subject are generally not translated.
are generally not translated. If the research literature you have consulted contains only a translation of a source that you wish to cite, you must search for the original citation. Likewise, every primary source - even if you take it from the research literature, i.e. a secondary source - must be referenced with the bibliographical details of the primary source. Less obvious or widespread languages require transcription.

5.4 Headings

Headings of an outline level must always be formatted in the same way, also with regard to their spacing from the preceding and following text (if necessary, use the format templates of the word processing programs). The lower the outline level, the smaller the headings.

5.5 Footnotes

If, as explained above, you work with short quotations and paraphrases in continuous text, footnotes are used to include essential additions and explanations - as briefly as possible - so that the line of argumentation does not have to be interrupted in the text itself:

• Explanations of terms
• Limitations
• Controversial points of view
• Examples
• Cross-references to relevant passages within your own work
• References to further literature

The footnote symbol is in superscript in the format of the body text. It immediately follows the terms or passages that it supplements. If it comes after the punctuation mark at the end of a clause, sentence or paragraph, the footnote refers to this in its entirety. The content of a footnote is (if possible) formulated in complete sentences: beginning with capital letters and ending with a punctuation mark.

5.6 Page break

Main chapters or even entire sections of a paper begin on new pages. Sub-chapters can follow each other with an appropriate gap. If there is only room on the page for less than three lines of text in a new sub-chapter, it is usual to 'lift' it to the next page.
Page breaks and entering the page numbers in the table of contents are the last steps before the final correction.

6 Bibliography

The bibliography (alternatively: bibliography) is placed at the end of the text section, possibly before the appendix. The complete bibliographical details of all literature used and mentioned in the paper are listed here. The bibliography is formatted as a single line, with a space of 3-6 points after each paragraph. For a better overview, a 1 cm 'hanging' indent is recommended for left-aligned sentences.

6.1 Sorting criteria

• Author's surname, alphabetically ascending
• Author's first name, in ascending alphabetical order
• Year of publication, ascending

If the abbreviated citation method has been selected for citations and paraphrases, as recommended here, sources (primary literature) and secondary literature are no longer necessarily listed separately to make them easier to find. However, if it makes sense to be able to see the primary text corpus at a glance, such a separation is sometimes advisable - here you can weigh up the options.
Even if a distinction is made below between monographs, anthologies, journals, etc. - in order to clarify the different spellings of the bibliographical information depending on the type of source - please only sort the bibliography of your term paper according to the three criteria just mentioned.

6.2 Notation of the bibliographic information

Monographs
Surname, first name (year), title. Subtitle. Supplementary information, place: publisher.
Examples:
Lanson, Gustave (1951), Histoire de la Littérature Française. Revised and completed for the years 1850-1950 by Paul Tuffrau, Paris: Librairie Hachette.
Zimmermann, Margarete (2002), Christine de Pizan, Reinbek: Rowohlt.

• In the case of primary literature (source texts), in addition to the bibliographical details of the edition used, the year of origin or the year of publication of the first edition may also be given, in square brackets after the title:
  Diderot, Denis (1983), La Religieuse [1760], Paris: Librairie Générale Française.
• In annotated/critical editions , the author's name is given first, but the editor is also indicated:
  Diderot, Denis (1995), Oeuvres de Diderot, ed. by Laurent Versine, Paris: Robert Laffont.
• Several authors are separated by a slash; if there are more than three authors, an "et al." is placed after the third name:
  Hänsch, Günther/Tümmers, Hans J. (1991), Frankreich, München: C. H. Beck

Anthologies
Surname, first name (ed.) (year), title. Subtitle. Supplementary information, place: publisher. Examples:
Zimmermann, Margarete/Böhm, Roswitha (eds.) (1999), Französische Frauen der Frühen Neuzeit. Women poets, painters, patrons. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.
Grimm, Jürgen (ed.) (1999), Französische Literaturgeschichte. 4th revised and updated edition, Stuttgart/Weimar: Metzler.

• Reference to a specific edition without further details: [...] Stuttgart/Weimar 41999 [...].

Articles, essays and chapters from anthologies, encyclopedias...
Surname, first name (year), "Titel. Subtitle", in: First name Last name of the editor (ed.), Title of the anthology. Subtitle. Supplementary information, place: publisher, page numbers.
Examples:
Franke, Birgit/Welzel, Barbara (1999), "Katharina von Medici (1519-1589)", in: Margarete Zimmermann/Roswitha Böhm (eds.), Französische Frauen der Frühen Neuzeit. Dichterinnen, Malerinnen, Mäzeninnen, Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, pp. 65-79.
Zimmermann, Margarete (1999), "Das Spätmittelalter", in: Jürgen Grimm (ed.), Französische Literaturgeschichte. 4th revised and updated edition, Stuttgart/Weimar: Metzler, pp. 67-99.

Journal articles
Surname, first name (year), "Titel. Subtitle", in: Name of the journal Issue number or volume number, issue number or (month and year), page references.
Example:
Lemieux, Emmanuel (2003) "Drôles de prix", in: Lire 10, pp. 12-13.

• Depending on the numbering of the journal, it may be necessary to give the volume and issue number, the first in Roman numerals, the second in Arabic numerals.

...in: French Studies XIX.33, pp. 17-22.

• If the journal is not numbered at all - but only then! - the month and year of publication must be given in brackets instead, even if this leads to a duplication of the year.

...in: Germanisch-Romanische Monatsschrift (March 2018), pp. 77-90.

Dossiers and special issues of newspapers:
Surname, first name (year), "Title. Subtitle", in: Name of the journal, issue number or volume number, issue number or (month and year): Title of the dossier/special issue (volume if applicable), p. x-y.
Example:
Simonin, Anne/Fouché, Pascal (1999), "Comment on a refusé certains de mes livres. Contribution à une histoire sociale du littéraire", in: Actes de la Recherche en Sciences Sociales (March 1999): Édition, éditeurs (I), pp. 103-115.

Newspaper article
Surname, first name (year), "Titel. Subtitle", in: name of the newspaper (exact date), page references.
Example:
Salles, Alain (2004), "Les prix littéraires se vendent moins", in: Le Monde (30.1.2004), p. 15.

Internet sources
Internet sources are to be treated like other sources. Their bibliographical references should therefore also contain all the necessary information. Internet sources that can be cited usually name an author; a reputable article published on the Internet also has a title and a publication date. It is not enough to simply list the name of a website. Instead, provide the following information:

Last name, first name (year), "Title. Subtitle", in: Name of the website , if applicable, indication of issue number or (date) as for journals, URL: Page address, retrieval: date.
Example:
Salles, Alain (2004), "Les prix littéraires se vendent moins", in: Le Monde (30.1.2004), p. 15, URL: http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0.html, accessed: 22.4.2018.

Films
Surname, first name of the director (director) (year), original title (country; German distribution title if applicable).
Example:
Visconti, Luchino (director) (1974), Gruppo di famiglia in un interno (Italy; German: Gewalt und Leidenschaft).

6.5 Exemplary bibliography

Brackert, Helmut/Stückrath, Jörn (ed.) (2004), Literaturwissenschaft. Ein Grundkurs , 2 vols., 8th ed., Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt.

Combe, Dominique (1992), Les Genres littéraires, Paris: Hachette.

Diop, Papa Samba/Vuillemin, Alain (eds.) (2015), Les littératures en langue française. Histoire, mythe et création, Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes.

Eagleton, Terry (2012), Einführung in die Literaturtheorie, 5th ed., Stuttgart/Weimar: Metzler.

Fricke, Harald/Zymner, Rüdiger (1996), Einübung in die Literaturwissenschaft. Parodieren geht über Studieren, 3rd ed., Paderborn et al: Schöningh/UTB.

Fröhlicher, Peter (2004), Theorie und Praxis der Analyse französischer Texte. An introduction, Tübingen: Narr.

Grimm, Jürgen/Hausmann, Frank-Rutger/Miething, Christoph (1997), Einführung in die französische Literaturwissenschaft, 4th ed., Stuttgart: Metzler.

Gröne, Maximilian/Reiser, Frank (2010), Französische Literaturwissenschaft. Eine Einführung, 2nd revised and amended ed. Ed., Tübingen: Narr.

Hempfer, Klaus W. (1990), "Zu einigen Problemen einer Fiktionstheorie", in: Zeitschrift für französische Sprache und Literatur 100, pp. 109-137.

Iser, Wolfgang (1994), Der Akt des Lesens. Theorie ästhetischer Wirkung [1976], 4th ed., Munich: Fink.

Jakobson, Roman (1979), "Linguistik und Poetik", in: ders, Poetik. Selected Essays 1921-1971, ed. by Elmar Holenstein and T. Schelbert, Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp, pp. 83-121.

7 Evaluation criteria

In Romance Studies, a systematic evaluation of term papers according to the following categories has become established:

1 Formulation of relevant problems and questions

• originality
• Connectivity to specialist discussion
• Realizability

2 Macro-structure of the paper

• Comprehensible structure
• Avoidance of unmotivated digressions
• Work results, conclusions

3 Micro-structure of the work

• Coherence at sentence and paragraph level
• Recognizable argumentation structures
• stringency

4 Dealing with primary literature

• Ability to interpret
• Inclusion of annotated references to primary texts

5 Dealing with research literature

• Critical reception
• Relevant bibliography
• Use of references in the text

6 Scientific form

• scientific precision (terminology)
• Citation style, footnotes
• bibliographic information

7 Linguistic form

• grammar
• expression
• Orthography
• Punctuation

8 Inclusion of the seminar results

8 Declaration of independence

A signed declaration of independence with the following wording must be attached at the end of each academic paper:

"I declare that I have written this thesis independently and have not used any sources or aids other than those specified. I am submitting it for the first time as an examination paper. I am aware that any attempt to cheat will be penalized with the grade "insufficient" (5.0) and may lead to exclusion from further examinations if repeated."

Place, dateSignature

*****************************************************************************

Footnotes

1. Therefore, not only should preferences for the formal design be asked from the supervising lecturers, but in particular the research question of the scientific work and its concrete structure should be discussed in advance

   ^

2. Please note that historical accounts are written in the past tense and not in the present tense.

   ^

3. Pay attention to the correct wording 'table of contents', because the 'content' of the work only follows afterwards, and an 'index' is a list of keywords

   ^

4. You can find these under the following link: https://tu- dresden.de/gsw/slk/germanistik/ressourcen/dateien/studium/Hinweisblatt_Plagiate.pdf?lang=en.

   ^

****************************************************************************

You can also download the handout for writing academic term papers as a pdf document here.