Seminar Paper
A seminar paper is a record of what you say to the group about a topic you have studied
Preparing a seminar paper gives you practice in technical writing which will help you when you write your thesis.
Title
The title of your seminar paper should state your topic exactly in the smallest possible number of words.
Procedure for Writing a Paper
1. Write your title first. This will define your topic clearly and focus your mind on exactly what you want the paper to contain.
2. Search the literature and select the references on which the contents of yor paper will be based. Write your list of references.
3. Make a list of your section headings and subheadings. This list will define the organization of the contents of your paper. The sections and subsections will contain not only material collected from other sources but also accounts of new work you have done:-- your observations, analysis of data, and conclusions.
4. Write the sections and subsections one by one in a simple clear style. Remember that the reader does not know in advance any of the details of the work you have done, so your account must be complete and easy to understand.
5. Write the abstract last by picking out the main points in your paper.
General Guidelines for Documents
A4 paper format,
Usual borders like 2.54 cm on all sides.
Text should be in Times New Roman (or a similar font), 12pt.
Line Spacing: 1.3
Alignment: justified
20 pages without reference and annex
General Structure of a Seminar Paper
i. Title page : It includes title of topic in Capital letter, Author name, name of department and College
ii. Table of contents: Check if number headings in the Table of Contents and in the Text are identical.
iii. List of figure and Table : List all figures and Table with number and heading.
The general structure of the contents is like follows:
1.
Introduction:
a. General motivation of topic, goal of the paper, i.e. which topic is presented – and why is this topic interesting and/or important.
b. Overview of the following contents of the paper. This is to give the reader a fast insight in the work to enable him to maybe skip some chapters and immediately go to the part he is interested in
2.Related Work: Detailed presentation of related work and new work on the assigned topic.
3. Summary and Conclusion
Here, the core statements or findings of the seminar paper have to be shortly summarized. Short conclusion on the presented work
4.Recommendation
What could be done in future to make progress in the topical area .
5. Reference
DOs and DON’Ts
DOs
· Plan a schedule for working on the topic at the beginning. This plan should consider a literature collection and review, designing a document, reading literature, writing single chapters, discussion with the supervisor…
· Read the basic material and understand it.
· When writing a seminar paper it is expected that the references mentioned under the various topics are critically reviewed and concisely summarized.
· All referenced literature has to be included in the literature list at the end of the paper. Reference, citation and quoting. Example:
“… growth …” (Barro 1995, p.37)
Barro (1995, p.37) finds that…
· Get feedbcak frorm supervisor.
· Write about the topic in own word using the initial material as well as papers found in the literature survey.
DON’Ts
· Do not expect that it is possible to do the seminar work in a few days.
· Do not run to the supervisor for each small problem (e.g. finding literature, spelling mistakes, …)
· Do not vanish into space for month and come back only a few days before the deadline. There will be not enough time left for all necessary corrections in such cases.
· Do not copy text from foreign sources! It also is forbidden to use work from other sources with small adjustments in hope that the supervisor will not mention it.
· Do not use an incomplete literature list and also do not use sources like Wikipedia often.
· Do not write in the paper in an unclear way – this gives the feeling that you have not understood the contents.
· Do not ignore suggestions for improvement and advices given by the supervisor!
Reference
Thiben, Dirk (2007), How to a Write Seminar Paper, Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen. Retrived from http://www.nets.rwth-aachen.de/content/teaching/seminars/sub/seminar_hints/seminar_paper.pdf, Janaury 5, 2011
http://www.jgsee.kmutt.ac.th/exell/General/PaperThesis.html
Compiled by: Saurav Kiran Shrestha
