7.2 Form

7.2.1 Requirements

  • Length: c. 2000 words;
  • Language: English

You can write about a phenomenon in a language other than English, but the language of the paper should be English.

2000 words is a rough guideline. There are no automatic penalties for staying below or exceeding this limit. Papers that are shorter usually suffer from either a lack of literature discussion or a lack of data. Papers that are a lot longer usually fail to narrow down the topic enough, ending up too ambitious.

7.2.2 Typography

Stay consistent! That is almost the only rule. Below are some conventions you should stick to.

Page formatting:

  • Separate title page
    • Includes the title of your paper, your name, Matrikelnummer, course ID, instructor, semester, and date.
  • Separate table of contents
  • Separate bibliography
  • Page numbers start on page 1 of the Introduction

Text formatting:

  • Reference to words and phrases in text: italics
  • emphasis in examples: bold
  • emphasis in direct quotes: underlined
  • examples consecutively numbered (unique number for every example)
  • tables and figures should be numbered9

Citation and bibliography style: Please use the following style sheet.

7.2.3 Structure

1. Introduction

Contains your research question, introduces the main terminology and provides an overview of your paper. Almost all important information should already show up here, including the most important results.

2. Main part

Your are free to create any number of subsections you think are necessary. A good rule of thumb: 3-3-3. Have 3 main sections each containing 3 paragraph with each three relevant arguments. In 2.1 you typically define and discuss terminology and concepts with the help of literature references, 2.2 is for explaining your methodology and 2.3 is for the analysis.

3. Conclusion

The little brother of the introduction. Should sum up everything, argue whether the research question was answered, hypotheses supported or rejected; and consider drawbacks of your method and potential for further study.

7.2.4 Appendix

It is good practice to append queries, and scripts you have used. For longer analyses, researchers might even create a repository on Gitlab, Github or Bitbucket with all the files in it. In your case, this either does not apply or is probably overkill. Your only concern should be: is my data analysis reproducible given my explanation? If you want to attach your queries or whole data sets, put it in an appendix. If it exceeds 3-5 pages, put it in a file and email or upload it.

7.2.5 Declaration

Finally, some bureaucracy. As a last section, you have to add a declaration of academic integrity, in which you testify that you did not plagiarize anything and that you have not handed in the same paper anywhere else. Following is an example (German version since it is German bureaucracy).

Erklärung

Name:
Adresse:

Hiermit versichere ich, dass ich die vorliegende Hausarbeit selbstständig
verfasst und keine anderen als die angegebenen Quellen und Hilfsmittel benutzt
habe; alle Ausführungen, die anderen Schriften wörtlich oder sinngemäß entnommen
wurden, kenntlich gemacht sind und die Arbeit in gleicher oder ähnlicher Fassung
noch nicht Bestandteil einer Studien- oder Prüfungsleistung war. Unterschrift
der Verfasserin / des Verfassers: Datum:

  1. Given the short length of the term paper, you don’t need a list of figures and tables↩︎