How to Write a Seminar Paper

1
How to Write a Seminar Paper?
2
Standards of an Academic Paper

• well-defined purpose and relevant topic
• clear and understandable thesis and study
  questions
• consistent and coherent argumentation
• critical analysis and discussion of primary and
  secondary sources
• precise documentation of of secondary sources

3
Getting Started

• choose a text and topic that interests you
• topic and purpose of the paper must be
  well-defined to yourself and later in the paper
• develop a thesis and study questions as guidance
  for your discussion
• then develop your arguments congruently and
  coherently
• secondary sources can help you to guide your
  attention and give incentives
• do not just copy the arguments of these sources,
  review them critically and apply what seems
  useful to you
• secondary sources provide necessary background
  information on your topic

4
Secondary Sources

• search for secondary sources
• university library
• MLA (International Bibliography of Books and
  Articles on Modern Languages and Literatures) at
  university library website-Datenbanken
  interlibrary loans (Fernleihen) may take 2-4
  weeks to arrive
• internet (pay attention to reliability of
  websitesuniversity websites, official websites
  of relevant institutions etc.) do not make
  excessive use of websites as sources make sure
  you have at least more printed sources than
  electronic ones online encyclopaedias may
  provide useful explanations for yourself, they
  are not acceptable as secondary sources when
  there are enough more comprehensive printed
  sources
• do not drown in secondary material but choose
  only the most reliable (internet!), most
  up-to-date, and for your topic relevant sources
• too few and too many sources are conspicuous
  (10-20 sources for Proseminararbeit 15-30 for
  Hauptseminararbeit

5
Structure of a Paper

• Introduction
• -explain your topic, why is it important
• -how will you approach it
• -thesis statement
• -no biographical data of the author
• -if necessary, brief summary of the text
• main part subdivided into chapters according to
  your structure of analyis and arguments
• work closely with the primary text
• draw your own conclusions like here the author
  shows at this point the author criticizes
  .. this stylistic means helps to achieve this
  and this effect this passage outlines this and
  that the passage serves to criticize this and
  this the text mocks/ridicules
• conclusion summary of your findings (no new
  arguments do not end your paper with a quote)

6
Documentation of Sources

• Document all information and ideas that are not
  your own. To use an idea or to directly quote
  from a source without acknowledging its author is
  plagiarism. This is a serious academic offence!
• For documentation use the MLA style, cf. the
  Guide to Writing Term Papers at the website of
  our institute, http//www.uni-greifswald.de/angla
  m/students/Guidelines.pdf
• or Joseph Gibaldi. MLA Handbook for Writers of
  Research Papers. 6th ed. New York The Modern
  Language Association, 2003.

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Documentation of Sources

• when you use and paraphrase information or an
  idea not your own, document it in brackets with
  authors name and page number It has been argued
  that citizenship has lost meaning and relevance
  to Canadians because of the adoption of
  multiculturalism (Bissoondath 382).
• or with a footnote It has been argued that
  citizenship has lost meaning and relevance to
  Canadians because of the adoption of
  multiculturalism1
• 1 Bissondath 382.
• you may add the year of publication when there
  are more publications by the same author
  Bissondath 1993, 382.

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Documentation of Sources

• quotes should be documented either with authors
  name and page number Some high-profile figures
  have recently discussed "the diminishing value
  of Canadian citizenship" (Bissoondath 382).
• or with a footnote Some high-profile figures
  have recently discussed "the diminishing value
  of Canadian citizenship."1 1 Bissoondath
  382.
• quotations that run longer than five lines should
  be blocked (single space, 10 or 11pt font size,
  1cm tab
• The gaze saw sovereignty in a world of language
  whose clear speech it gathered up effortlessly in
  order to restore it in a secondary, identical
  speech given by the visible, this speech,
  without changing anything, made it possible to
  see. In its sovereign exercise, the gaze took up
  once again the structures of visibility that it
  had itself deposited in its field of perception.
  (Foucault 1973, 117)
• or The gaze saw sovereignty in a world of
  language whose clear speech it gathered up
  effortlessly in order to restore it in a
  secondary, identical speech given by the
  visible, this speech, without changing anything,
  made it possible to see. In its sovereign
  exercise, the gaze took up once again the
  structures of visibility that it had itself
  deposited in its field of perception.1 1
  Foucault 1973, 117.

9
Bibliography/Works Cited

• BOOK
• Foucault, Michel. The Birth of the Clinic An
  Archaeology of Medical Perception. New York
  Vintage Books, 1975.
• EDITED BOOK
• Armstrong, Jeannette, and Lilly Grauer, eds.
  Native Poetry in Canada A Contemporary
  Anthology. Peterborough, Ont. Broadview Press,
  2001.
• Bannerji, Himani, ed. Returning the Gaze Essays
  on Racism, Feminism and Politics. Toronto Sister
  Vision Press, 1993.
• BOOK ARTICLE OR CHAPTER
• Bentley, Nancy. "Edith Wharton and the Science of
  Manners." The Cambridge Companion to Edith
  Wharton. Ed. Millicent Bell. Cambridge Cambridge
  University Press, 1995, 47-67.
• JOURNAL ARTICLE
• Jones, Carolyn M. "Southern Landscape as Psychic
  Landscape in Toni Morrison's Fiction." Studies in
  the Literary Imagination. 31.2 (1998) 37-48.
• NEWSPAPER OR MAGAZINE ARTICLE
• Brian Laghi. "PM offers 20,000, apology for head
  tax." The Globe and Mail. 22 June 2006 A1.

10
Bibliography/Works Cited

• ENCYCLOPEDIA ARTICLE
• Chaput, Catherine. "Hyperreality." Encyclopedia
  of Postmodernism. Ed. Victor E. Taylor and
  Charles E. Winquist. London Routledge, 2001,
  182-84.
• GOVERNMENT PUBLICATION
• Canada. Parliament. House of Commons. Standing
  Committee on Canadian Heritage. A Sense of Place,
  a Sense of Being The Evolving Role of the
  Federal Government in Support of Culture in
  Canada Ninth Report. Chair Clifford Lincoln.
  Ottawa The Committee, 1999.
• THESIS
• Marsden, John Lloyd. "After Modernism
  Representations of the Past in the Novels of
  Graham Swift (Nineteen Eighties Realism)." Diss.
  University of Ohio, 1996.
• FILM
• The Decline of the American Empire. Dir. Denys
  Arcand. Writ. Denys Arcand. 1986. DVD. Séville,
  2001.
• INTERNET SOURCE
• "Lightfoot News," accessed 26 June 2006
  http//www.lightfoot.ca/news.htm
• Seah, Gilbert. "On the Corner," accessed 28
  February 2006 http//www.cinemaeye.com/index/revi
  ews/rev_more/on_the_corner_1_2/

11
Revision and Proofreading

• correct misspellings, wording, syntax mistakes
• sloppy and colloquial wording, spelling and
  punctuation mistakes, plagiarism, and incomplete
  and inconsistent documentation are not acceptable
• no abbreviations in formal writing (no
  doesnt, wont, but does not, will not)
• make sure the paper is well-structured and has a
  consistent logical line of argumentation
• make sure your arguments are clear to the reader
• get rid of repetitions and contradictions
• quotes and examples should sustain your arguments
• make sure you have a fluent text with smooth
  transitions between sentences and paragraphs
• do not tell the reader what you will do in the
  next paragraph
• one paragraph should run one third to half a
  page, do not use short three to five line
  paragraphs

12
Sources/ Reference

• Michael Meyer. English and American Literatures.
  Tübingen and Basel A. Francke, 2004.
• Lee Blanding. Guide to Writing Term Papers at
• http//www.uni-greifswald.de/anglam/students/Gui
  delines.pdf