Preparing Your Term Paper College of Computing and Software Engineering This doc
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Preparing Your Term Paper
College of Computing and Software Engineering
This document will guide you through the steps of selecting a topic, researching and writing a term paper suitable for a graduate course or an upper-division undergraduate course. It also describes how your paper will be graded.
Some of this material is quite specific to Brown's classes, but there is some pretty good general advice that may help you with papers in other classes. If you're not sure whether something is applicable to another class, ask your professor.
Keys to a Successful Term Paper
A "successful" term paper is one that earns a grade of A and doesn't kill you in the process. There are two keys to a successful term paper: careful selection of the topic and careful budgeting of time.
Something that is likely to cause term paper trouble for students is the selection of the topic. However, proper topic selection is also the key to a successful term paper. Your topic should be sufficiently narrow that you can master it completely in a reasonable amount of time and tell a substantial amount of what there is to know about it within the space allowed by the assignment. If you choose "Outsourcing Information Technology" as a paper topic, you are guaranteed to produce a mediocre paper that will earn a mediocre grade. Why? The topic is simply too broad. You can't master it in reasonable time, and you certainly can't tell all about it in a paper that's less than several hundred pages.
What do you do? Narrow the topic. How about "Service Level Agreements in IT Outsourcing?" That's still much too broad. Could you master this topic in one semester of part time study? Certainly not. Could you tell about it in a dozen pages? No, it's impossible.
A topic suitable for a graduate or upper-division term paper might be, "Considerations for Service Level Agreements in IT Outsourcing: One Company's Experience." You haven't promised to cover everything about SLAs and outsourcing, you've said you will cover some of the "considerations." Further, you've limited your discourse to the experience of one company. This is doable in a semester.
There's a potential trap in so narrow a topic, though. You have to have done enough research before you propose your topic to be sure you can find enough material. For the topic mentioned, you would need to have identified at least a couple of case studies on the same company, plus sufficient other material to assemble some background.
What if you can't find two case studies on the same company? See whether you can find two very similar case studies, but for different organizations. Now you can do a compare-and-contrast paper.
The key to a good topic is a narrow one on which you've done enough research to be sure it will work for you.
The other key to a successful term paper is budgeting your time. It's called a term paper because you're expected to work on it throughout the term. For a graduate or upper-division term paper, expect to spend four to six hours per double-spaced page. For a twelve-page paper, that's more than one full-time week, and possibly nearly two full-time weeks. You will spend about half that time on research and the other half on writing, with additional research as you find gaps.
The term paper assignment is structured in three parts to help you budget your time, but in the end it will be up to you to manage your time.
Your Term Paper Proposal
For this class, you must turn in a formal term paper proposal in which you propose a topic for your term paper. The due date for your proposal is shown in the syllabus. Your proposal must contain the following items:
The title of the paper
Your proposed problem statement (see below)
An abstract; a description of what you intend to cover. This should be no more than one double-spaced page.
Identification of at least three of the required references.
Your term paper proposal is worth five percent of your term paper grade.
Your Term Paper Draft
Your term paper draft is an abbreviated version of the paper itself. It will have all the required sections, and the problem statement will be in final form. The literature review may be in draft form, but should be mostly complete. The discussion and conclusion may be in draft or outline form. The references should be complete, although there will be no penalty if you add references between the draft and the final copy.
The due date for your term paper draft is shown in the syllabus. Your term paper draft is worth ten percent of your term paper grade.
Required Format for Term Papers
Term papers for this class must be organized with five parts, an introduction, a review of the literature, a discussion, conclusions and suggestions for future research, and a reference section. The following outline illustrates the required format. Each of the items numbered with Roman numerals should have a heading in the paper. Each required section is discussed further below.
Introduction
Introductory Paragraph
Statement of the Problem
Rationale
Review of the Literature
Discussion
Conclusions and Suggestions for Future Research
References
Introduction
The introduction to your term paper has three distinct parts: an introductory paragraph, a statement of the problem and a rationale. These are shown separately in the outline to emphasize that all three parts are necessary. You will not put separate subheadings in your paper. Your introduction should flow naturally from one part to the next.
In the introductory paragraph you explain very briefly what subject matter your paper covers. This really is only one paragraph; you will get to the meat of the subject later. You should develop your problem statement and rationale before writing the introductory paragraph so that the introductory paragraph leads the reader up to the problem statement.
Problem Statement
Your problem statement will be a single sentence in a paragraph by itself. This sentence defines your paper. It must show clear focus; as you write your paper, you will refer to the problem statement frequently and include only material that is relevant to the problem statement. You might start out thinking of your problem statement as a question, but you will phrase it as a statement in your paper. Your research should support your statement. This means you will have to have done some research before you can formulate the problem statement.
Here are some examples of problem statements from various fields of study:
Pattern languages are an effective vehicle for knowledge management.
Micropayments provide an opportunity for intermediation in m-commerce.
Inheritance is the most important characteristic of object-oriented languages.
Note that your problem statement must be directly related to the subject of your course.
The last part of the introduction is the rationale. In one or two paragraphs you explain why the problem you have chosen to research is important.
Review of the Literature
The literature review is your opportunity to present a paragraph on your subject by reviewing what other scientists have written. For papers at the undergraduate and master's level, this will often be the longest section of your paper.
Your search of the literature should focus on recent books and refereed papers that have made significant contributions to your topic. However, do not let the focus on recency distract you from describing foundational work in the subject. If the foundational work in your subject was done many years ago, it is still important to describe and cite it.
Look for quality, not quantity in your literature review. You are trying to get at the most important current ideas in your field, and possibly some of the foundational ideas. However, just reading the work of two or three other scientists is generally not enough to assure thorough coverage of a subject. If your assignment suggests a minimum number of references, you should think of it as a C-minus sort of minimum and not as an indication that your research is complete.
Although your literature review is exactly that, a review of the work of others, it is up to you to impose some organization on it. Make a list of the important ideas related to your subject, then organize the list so that foundational or elementary ideas are presented first. Develop an outline from your organized list and use the outline to organize your literature review.
The first paragraph or two should describe the organization of the literature review. If you have more than three or four main topics, consider using subheadings in your paper to guide the reader.
The literature review has three purposes: It offers your reader a term paper on your subject, it identifies the important work in the field, and it shows your understanding of the existing literature. You accomplish the last purpose by paraphrasing instead of quoting unless a quotation is absolutely necessary to convey an idea. Paraphrasing is how you show that you understand another scientist's ideas well enough to express them in your own words. Note, however, than even when you paraphrase, the words and ideas of others must be properly cited.
Discussion
In the literature review you reported the ideas of others. In the discussion, you introduce your own ideas. You will have taken a position in your problem statement. In your literature review, you will have reported the work of other scientists, some in support of your position and perhaps some in opposition. In the discussion, you support your position and present your own conclusions.
Start by summarizing the literature review; remind your readers of the important points. Then interpret the literature already presented in light of your problem statement. How do you do that? The following list is paraphrased from Hafner (2003):
Compare: Show how two or more thoughts or ideas are the same.
Contrast: Show how two or more thoughts or ideas are different.
Analyze: Examine the ideas from the literature review and show how they are interrelated. Show the relationship of the pieces to the whole.
Classify: Are there two or more schools of thought with regard to your research problem? How can the results that researchers have reported be grouped?
Evaluate: What is your opinion of the research you have reviewed? Is some more thorough, more persuasive, or more compelling than the rest? Why, or why not?
Interpret: What do the relevant ideas in your problem area mean? Explain the ideas and present examples.
Synthesize: Synthesis is the establishment of at least two pieces of evidence (facts) and the statement of a logical relationship between or among them that leads to a meaningful conclusion that has not been observed before. This isn't as hard as it may sound. Here is an everyday example of synthesis:
I parked my car illegally this morning. (fact)
When I returned, my car was not where I parked it. (fact)
My car has been towed away. (synthesis!)
Do not try to cram all seven of these techniques into your paper. By the time you have completed your literature review you should have formed an opinion about which two or three of these approaches are likely to work best for you.
You are presenting your own thoughts and opinions in the discussion. However, your thoughts and opinions must not be unsupported. Be careful to support your discussion with citations from the literature or by carefully explaining the line of reasoning that has led you to each thought, opinion or conclusion.
As with your review of the literature, your discussion must be organized. One way to approach that is to adapt and re-use your literature review outline when you write your discussion.
In your discussion you will refer to (and cite!) literature reviewed earlier in your paper. Generally this is not the place to introduce new literature.
If you did independent research, you would report it in this section. The results of your research would be woven into your discussion. (Independent research is possible, but not generally required, at the undergraduate and master's level.)
The literature review will probably be the longest section of your paper. The discussion should be next in length.
Conclusion and Suggestions for Future Research
Here is where you explain what conclusions you have drawn and whether your problem statement is supported by your research. Often your conclusion will be only one or two paragraphs.
As you do your literature review, consider where the gaps are. Are there areas that seem not to have been covered adequately by current research? If so, suggest future research that will fill the gaps. At the undergraduate or master's level, you should be satisfied if you can identify one or two such gaps. Your suggestions for future research will be at most one or two paragraphs.
The Reference List
Prepare your reference list according to the guidelines in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Fifth Edition, 2001. A copy of this manual is available in the reference section of the library, call number BF76.7.P83 2001. The general form of a reference entry is:
Author(s)
Date of publication (in parentheses)
Title
Place of publication and publisher or journal reference.
Here are some example reference entries. For more examples, see Purdue's OWL pages, here: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/02/ and here: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/05/
Book:
Applegate, L., Austin, R., & McFarlan, F. (2003) Corporate Information Strategy and Management: Text and Cases (6th ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill-Irwin.
Journal article:
Williamson, O.E. (1981). The economics of organization: the transaction cost approach. American Journal of Sociology, 87(3), 548-577.
Only the initial word of the title is capitalized; 87(3) means volume 87, number 3, and 548-577 are the page numbers.
Electronic reference to a journal article:
Varshney, U. (2002) Mobile payments. Computer 35(12) 120-121. Retrieved July 12, 2003, from IEEE Web Site: http://search.ieeexplore.iee.org/
This paper appeared in a refereed journal, but the student used an electronic version of it. This is different from the entry above in that it includes the date retrieved and the location of the Web site.
Your references are listed in alphabetical order by principal author. If you have more than one entry by the same author, arrange them by year of publication, earliest first.
Citing Your References
Refer to your course syllabus and the Standards of Academic Conduct paper and be extremely careful to attribute words and ideas that are not your own.
You must provide a citation every time you use the words or ideas of someone else; a bibliography entry by itself is not enough. For direct quotes, you must enclose the quoted material in quotation marks and provide the page number as well as the citation. If you use material from a particular source in six consecutive paragraphs, you need six citations, one in every paragraph. Otherwise, you are saying that the first five paragraphs are your work and only the sixth borrows from another. This is plagiarism and will result in a penalty grade.
The only way to be sure every use of another's words or ideas is properly cited is to cite as you write. If you refer to other work as you write a paragraph, insert the citation and, if necessary, the quotation, marks immediately. If you attempt to add citations after the fact, you will almost surely miss one. That is plagiarism just as certainly as if you did it on purpose and will result in the same penalty. There is no room in the rules of academic conduct for mistakes.
Use the parenthetical citation format described in the APA manual. Here are some examples:
According to Williamson (1981) transaction costs are like friction in economic activity...
Jones and Butler (1988) argue that the difference between cost leadership and differentiation is "one of degree, not one of kind" (p. 203).
When a work has many authors, you may use "et. al." to shorten the parenthetical citation.
In the network economy, firms can create network economies of scale and network economies of scope. (Applegate et. al., 2003) Network economies of scale are...
References
Hafner, William (2003) Guidelines for Preparing a Class Paper using the Modified Dissertation Style, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida: Nova Southeastern University, Graduate School of Computer and Information Sciences.
Topic- Web Programming and Security
Topic- Web Programming and Security
Explanation / Answer
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.plaf.metal.*;
import javax.swing.border.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.util.*;
import java.beans.*;
import java.sql.*;
/*
import com.incors.plaf.*;
import com.incors.plaf.kunststoff.*;
import com.incors.plaf.kunststoff.themes.*;
*/
public class MainForm extends JFrame implements WindowListener{
/************************ Variable declaration start **********************/
//The form container variable
JPanel Panel1;
JDesktopPane Desk1 = new JDesktopPane();
JLabel StatusLabel = new JLabel("Copyright © 2004 by Philip V. Naparan. All Rights Reserved. Visit http://www.naparansoft.cjb.net.",JLabel.CENTER);
JLabel BusinessTitleLabel = new JLabel();
Dimension screen = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getScreenSize();
String StrBusinesTitle;
String DBDriver = "sun.jdbc.odbc.JdbcOdbcDriver";
String DBSource = "jdbc:odbc:NaparansoftInventory";
String DBUserName = "Admin";
String DBPassword = "philip121";
Connection CN;
//--Start variable the contains forms
FrmCustomer FormCustomer;
FrmSupplier FormSupplier;
FrmSalesRep FormSalesRep;
FrmWarehouse FormWarehouse;
FrmProduct FormProduct;
FrmInvoice FormInvoice;
FrmSplash FormSplash = new FrmSplash();
//--End variable the contains forms
Thread ThFormSplash = new Thread(FormSplash);
//End the form container variable
/********************** End variable declaration start ********************/
/************************ MainForm constructor start **********************/
public MainForm(){
//Set the main form title
super("Naparansoft Inventory System version 1.1");
//End set the main form title
loadSplashScreen();
//We will dispose now the FormSplash because it is now useless
FormSplash.dispose();
//StatusLabel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createTitledBorder(""));
StatusLabel.setFont(new Font("Dialog", Font.PLAIN, 12));
StrBusinesTitle = "Your Business Name";
BusinessTitleLabel.setText(StrBusinesTitle);
BusinessTitleLabel.setHorizontalAlignment(JLabel.LEFT);
BusinessTitleLabel.setForeground(new Color(166,0,0));
//Set the main form properties
addWindowListener(this);
Desk1.setBackground(Color.gray);
Desk1.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder());
//Most fastest drag mode
Desk1.setDragMode(JDesktopPane.OUTLINE_DRAG_MODE);
Panel1 = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
Panel1.setBackground(Color.gray);
Panel1.setBorder(BorderFactory.createLoweredBevelBorder());
Panel1.add(new JScrollPane(Desk1),BorderLayout.CENTER);
getContentPane().add(CreateJToolBar(),BorderLayout.PAGE_START);
getContentPane().add(Panel1,BorderLayout.CENTER);
getContentPane().add(StatusLabel,BorderLayout.PAGE_END);
setJMenuBar(CreateJMenuBar());
setExtendedState(this.MAXIMIZED_BOTH);
setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.DO_NOTHING_ON_CLOSE);
setIconImage(new ImageIcon("images/appicon.png").getImage());
setLocation(0,0);
setSize(screen);
setResizable(true);
setVisible(true);
show();
try{
Class.forName(DBDriver);
CN = DriverManager.getConnection(DBSource,DBUserName ,DBPassword);
}catch(ClassNotFoundException e) {
System.err.println("Failed to load driver");
e.printStackTrace();
System.exit(1);
}
catch(SQLException e){
System.err.println("Unable to connect");
e.printStackTrace();
System.exit(1);
}
//End set the main form properties
}
/********************** End MainForm constructor start ********************/
/*********************** Custom class creation start **********************/
//Create menu bar
protected JMenuBar CreateJMenuBar(){
JMenuBar NewJMenuBar = new JMenuBar();
//Setup file menu
JMenu MnuFile = new JMenu("File");
MnuFile.setFont(new Font("Dialog", Font.PLAIN, 12));
MnuFile.setMnemonic('F');
MnuFile.setBackground(new Color(255,255,255));
NewJMenuBar.add(MnuFile);
//End setup file menu
//Set file sub menu
JMenuItem ItmLockApp = new JMenuItem("lock Application");
ItmLockApp.setFont(new Font("Dialog", Font.PLAIN, 12));
ItmLockApp.setMnemonic('L');
ItmLockApp.setIcon(new ImageIcon("images/lockapplication.png"));
ItmLockApp.setAccelerator(
KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(
KeyEvent.VK_L,ActionEvent.CTRL_MASK
)
);
ItmLockApp.setActionCommand("lockapp");
ItmLockApp.addActionListener(JMenuActionListener);
ItmLockApp.setBackground(new Color(255,255,255));
JMenuItem ItmLoggOff = new JMenuItem("Logg Off");
ItmLoggOff.setFont(new Font("Dialog", Font.PLAIN, 12));
ItmLoggOff.setMnemonic('O');
ItmLoggOff.setIcon(new ImageIcon("images/loggoff.png"));
ItmLoggOff.setAccelerator(
KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(
KeyEvent.VK_O,ActionEvent.CTRL_MASK
)
);
ItmLoggOff.setActionCommand("loggoff");
ItmLoggOff.addActionListener(JMenuActionListener);
ItmLoggOff.setBackground(new Color(255,255,255));
JMenuItem ItmExit = new JMenuItem("Exit");
ItmExit.setFont(new Font("Dialog", Font.PLAIN, 12));
ItmExit.setMnemonic('E');
ItmExit.setIcon(new ImageIcon("images/exit.png"));
ItmExit.setAccelerator(
KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(
KeyEvent.VK_E,ActionEvent.CTRL_MASK
)
);
ItmExit.setActionCommand("exit");
ItmExit.addActionListener(JMenuActionListener);
ItmExit.setBackground(new Color(255,255,255));
MnuFile.add(ItmLockApp);
MnuFile.addSeparator();
MnuFile.add(ItmLoggOff);
MnuFile.add(ItmExit);
//End set file sub menu
//Setup records menu
JMenu MnuRec = new JMenu("Records");
MnuRec.setFont(new Font("Dialog", Font.PLAIN, 12));
MnuRec.setMnemonic('R');
MnuRec.setBackground(new Color(255,255,255));
NewJMenuBar.add(MnuRec);
//End records menu
//Set records sub menu
//-- For Customer
JMenuItem ItmCustomer = new JMenuItem("Customers");
ItmCustomer.setFont(new Font("Dialog", Font.PLAIN, 12));
ItmCustomer.setMnemonic('C');
ItmCustomer.setIcon(new ImageIcon("images/customer.png"));
ItmCustomer.setAccelerator(
KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(
KeyEvent.VK_C,ActionEvent.CTRL_MASK
)
);
ItmCustomer.setActionCommand("cus");
ItmCustomer.addActionListener(JMenuActionListener);
ItmCustomer.setBackground(new Color(255,255,255));
MnuRec.add(ItmCustomer);
//-- For Supplier
JMenuItem ItmSupplier = new JMenuItem("Suppliers");
ItmSupplier.setFont(new Font("Dialog", Font.PLAIN, 12));
ItmSupplier.setMnemonic('S');
ItmSupplier.setIcon(new ImageIcon("images/supplier.png"));
ItmSupplier.setAccelerator(
KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(
KeyEvent.VK_S,ActionEvent.CTRL_MASK
)
);
ItmSupplier.setActionCommand("sup");
ItmSupplier.addActionListener(JMenuActionListener);
ItmSupplier.setBackground(new Color(255,255,255));
MnuRec.add(ItmSupplier);
//-- For SalesRep
JMenuItem ItmSalesRep = new JMenuItem("SalesRep");
ItmSalesRep.setFont(new Font("Dialog", Font.PLAIN, 12));
ItmSalesRep.setMnemonic('R');
ItmSalesRep.setIcon(new ImageIcon("images/SalesRep.png"));
ItmSalesRep.setAccelerator(
KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(
KeyEvent.VK_B,ActionEvent.CTRL_MASK
)
);
ItmSalesRep.setActionCommand("bran");
ItmSalesRep.addActionListener(JMenuActionListener);
ItmSalesRep.setBackground(new Color(255,255,255));
MnuRec.add(ItmSalesRep);
//-- For Warehouse
JMenuItem ItmWarehouse = new JMenuItem("Warehouse");
ItmWarehouse.setFont(new Font("Dialog", Font.PLAIN, 12));
ItmWarehouse.setMnemonic('W');
ItmWarehouse.setIcon(new ImageIcon("images/Warehouse.png"));
ItmWarehouse.setAccelerator(
KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(
KeyEvent.VK_B,ActionEvent.CTRL_MASK
)
);
ItmWarehouse.setActionCommand("wareh");
ItmWarehouse.addActionListener(JMenuActionListener);
ItmWarehouse.setBackground(new Color(255,255,255));
MnuRec.add(ItmWarehouse);
MnuRec.addSeparator();
//-- For Products
JMenuItem ItmProduct = new JMenuItem("Products");
ItmProduct.setFont(new Font("Dialog", Font.PLAIN, 12));
ItmProduct.setMnemonic('P');
ItmProduct.setIcon(new ImageIcon("images/product.png"));
ItmProduct.setAccelerator(
KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(
KeyEvent.VK_P,ActionEvent.CTRL_MASK
)
);
ItmProduct.setActionCommand("prod");
ItmProduct.addActionListener(JMenuActionListener);
ItmProduct.setBackground(new Color(255,255,255));
MnuRec.add(ItmProduct);
//-- For Categories
JMenuItem ItmCategory = new JMenuItem("Categories");
ItmCategory.setFont(new Font("Dialog", Font.PLAIN, 12));
ItmCategory.setMnemonic('T');
ItmCategory.setIcon(new ImageIcon("images/categories.png"));
ItmCategory.setAccelerator(
KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(
KeyEvent.VK_T,ActionEvent.CTRL_MASK
)
);