CHECKLIST -- READ BEFORE TURNING IN YOUR TERM PAPER
  1. On the first page: is there:
    • The title?
    • Your name and your OSU ID number? If the OSU ID number is missing, points may be taken away!
    • The abstract? -- does it start with the word Abstract in bold face?
    • There should be nothing else on the first page -- with the exception of an optional illustration related to the paper topic. Its role should be purely decorative. If you decide to put it, don't give it a number and don't make a caption for it!
  2. The text of the paper should start at Page 2. Is the text properly structured?
    • Does it begin with a section titled "Introduction"?
    • Following the Introduction there should be the main body of the paper.It should be given an appropriate title (giving it a title "Main Body" is simply a very bad idea! Is your paper about a body? Of course not, it is about a certain topic, and the main part of your paper should have a title related to this very topic!).
    • The main body can be divided into subsections -- if so, each subsection should be given an individual title.
    • The last section in the main body of the text should be the closing section. It should be given an appropriate title -- e.g., "Summary and conclusions", "Discussion", "Closing remarks". Is it so in your paper?
  3. Figures:
    • If the figure are embedded in the text, does each figure have a caption underneath beginning with "Fig. 1. ...", "Fig. 2. ...", followed by a short description of what's on the figure?
    • A figure cannot appear "out-of-the-blue", it should be used in the context of something discussed in the text. A good method of "linking" the figure to a given text passage is to say, e.g.: "As shown in Figure X, .... ", or "This is illustrated in Figure X", or something similar.
  4. References:
    • At the end, there should be a section titled "REFERENCES" -- following this title, there should be a numbered list of references to the sources (journal articles, books, Web sites, ...) you were using in order to collect the material presented in the paper. In the text of your paper, when you are presenting the information "extracted" from such a source, you should put a "pointer" to the reference list, either as a number in square brackets, or as a superscript number.
    • For example: suppose that you found a valuable piece of information in an article written by certain John Smith, on page 125 in the "Scientific American" magazine, issue of March 2005.
    • Suppose that the reference to this arcicle is the "Item 6" in your reference list. So, this item should look more-or-less like this:
      6. John Smith, in Scientific American, March 2005, p. 125.
    • And in the text, you should put a "pointer", or a "citation mark", for example: "As discussed by John Smith [6], the dark energy ..."; or, "As proposed by John Smith6, the dark energy ....".
    • Sometimes it is nice to give the reference autor's name in the text, as in the above example -- but it's not necessary -- you may say instead: "It has been proposed [6] that the dark energy....", or, even simpler: "As proposed in [6], the dark energy....".
 OK, I think the above is all that is needed for giving your term paper a "really professional" appearance!

If you still need more time, the deadline for submitting the paper is extended -- I will accept (no penalty!) term papers submitted at the final exam.