1. Types of written assignments
In our program, a few different types of written assignments exist. Besides the written exam, you may be asked to provide: term papers, essays, response papers and research papers for the research placement in the third semester.
1.1 Written exams
All lectures are completed with a written exam (90 minutes) or test (<90 minutes). The lecturer decides on the specific exam conditions and will explain them at the beginning of the course. The written exam normally consists of questions directly referring to the lecture’s topics. We recommend attending the lectures regularly and always reading the basis texts. If you have understood issues within their contexts, you do not have to learn by rote at the end of the semester.
1.2 Term paper (or seminar paper)
In most of the seminars, you will be asked to hand in a term paper at the end of the semester, which should usually comprise 3,000 words. We will guide you through the different steps of formulating and writing a term paper in the following (b) section.
1.3. Essay
As indicated before, you may be given the option to submit three essays in a seminar instead of one term paper. An essay, in this sense, is a paper which examines a scientific question in a precise and ambitious form in about 3-5 pages. In contrast to a term paper, an essay is not a systematic and comprehensive handling of a topic, however, it is more a “lax” but critical reflection. A good essay needs to raise an interesting question that has to be answered plausibly. It should also have an argumentative structure that includes an introduction, a main part and a conclusion.
1.4. Response paper
In some seminars, professors might ask for response papers as proof of active participation. In this format, the main emphasis is on your own critical engagement with the weekly readings of the seminar. It is generally quite short (1-3 pages) and you usually do not need any external references within the text.
1.5. Research paper
Although we included this separate subtopic, a research paper is quite similar to a normal term paper. The emphasis of the research paper, however, lies on your own empirical works (e.g. data collection and analysis, visual presentation of data and discussion of results). You will only be required to hand in this long research paper (~30 pages) at the end of the third semester in module 7.
2. Oral exam
In the second semester of your studies, you will have to take one oral exam in one of the modules (i.e. module 4, module 5 or module 6). Hence, you will be asked to inform your lecturer until the third seminar session whether you decided to write a seminar paper (or three essays) or take an oral exam instead. As the grade of your oral exam will be recorded as the grade of respective module, a thorough preparation is essential. The oral exam takes 25 minutes and will be due at the end of the semester. The exact date will be given by the lecturer by the end of the 4th week of term at the latest. The lecturer will hold the oral examination as another associate will also be present, and a protocol will be written (by this associate). Subject of the oral examination is the content of the seminar you attended. The basis for the examination is usually the obligatory literature on your reading list.
3. How to write an academic paper? 4 Steps
Step 1: Find a topic
This is the very beginning of writing a scientific paper. Your topic has to be related to the topic of the seminar, but it should also go beyond the readings and discussions of the class. As a starting point, you can always consider expanding and systematically questioning the topics, theses or problems that have been discussed throughout the seminar and that have not been answered, empirically tested or tackled yet. Apart from that, your topic can also focus on new theories or studies referring to research aspects of the seminar, so that you can discuss them deeply in your term paper. Last but not least, you may also tackle new connections between different seminar topics from a more abstract perspective. Once you decide on the research topic, the next step is to formulate the research question of your paper.
Step 2: Find a research question
Although it may not sound that difficult, finding a good research question might be the trickiest part of structuring an academic paper. Keeping that in mind, there are some helpful tips to make this process much smoother. Here in this section, we are going to elaborate the most crucial ones for you.
First, a good research question should be clear, focused and - to some extent - complex enough to develop an argumentation. Thus, after choosing the topic, you should start doing some preliminary research on it. By doing this initial quick search, you will get a first look at the ongoing debates in this field, and then, you may find an area that has not been researched yet. At that point, start asking questions such as ‘why’, ‘how’, ‘to what extent’ and try to develop your research question. Throughout these steps, always consider your audience and the type of your paper (e.g. term paper or master’s thesis) simultaneously. This will help you determine the scope of your question in a way that meets your needs precisely. Finally, take a step back and evaluate the quality of your research question by looking at the above mentioned criteria of a good research question such as clarity and complexity. If needed, edit, update and develop your question progressively, and always keep in mind that it is an iterative process, which requires consistent reviews and updates.
Step 3: Find literature
Before beginning to search for relevant literature, the following two questions will assist you to identify the scope of your upcoming literature review: “What research on my topic has already been done?” and “Which theories conceptualize my question well?”. After roughly limiting yourself with the guidance of these questions, the next important point is not to get lost in the literature. As many previous studies might already exist in the academic databases, which are related to your topic, always try to stick to the scope that you have already specified and follow it. In order to be more efficient in this time-demanding process, you may read the abstract first, then the introduction and conclusion, and finally, you will be able to assess whether the text is useful or not. Making excerpts of the relevant literature is highly recommended. To collect the information in a more systematic way, you may think of using literature review software such as Citavi or EndNote (see Zedat website for free licensed versions for FU students). The credible databases and sources will be discussed in part (2) in detail.
Step 4: Find a structure and compose the text
In terms of the structure of a term paper, there are typically three main parts: (i) an introduction, (ii) a body, and (iii) a conclusion. In the introduction, you should outline the problem and formulate a precise question. After explaining the relevance of your research question, a short introduction to the structure of the paper will follow. It is sometimes recommended to write the introduction at the end of the writing process as you will already have written the main part and will know exactly what the outline of your paper is.
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