THE STRUCTURE OF A STUDENT PAPER

A student paper consists of the following elements:

title page

table of contents

introduction

list of abbreviations (if necessary)

the body (arranged into subdivisions)

summary

references / bibliography

appendixes

On the title page the following information is included:

name of the school

title and type (research paper, review) of the paper

name of the author

study group

name of the supervisor

place of writing the paper and year number

Each element of the title page is on a separate line, the place and year number are on the same line. No comma is used between the place and year number, no full stop is used at the end of any line. The title is written in capital letters, other elements follow the rules of the headline style (see FORMATING A STUDENT PAPER).

The table of contents is placed after the title page.

The table of contents consists of the titles of the divisions, subdivisions, the numeric system markers of the corresponding levels in the hierarchy of divisions and the page numbers that refer to the beginning of a division or subdivision.

The table of contents helps the reader by providing him or her with an overview of the contents and structure of the paper.

The titles, system markers and page numbers listed in the table of contents must match the titles, system marker and page numbers in the body text of the paper.

Arabic numbers are used when creating a hierarchy of divisions. The number of the main division (1., 2., 3., etc.) is followed by the number of a subdivision (e.g., 1.1., 1.2., 1.3., etc.). Subdivisions may have further subdivisions (e.g., 1.1.1., 1.1.2), but it is recommended that one keeps to the three-level hierarchy. The system marker ends with a full stop before the title both in the table of contents and in the titles inside the body of the text. If only the system marker is referred to inside the text, no full stop is after the last number.

No system marker is used either in the table of contents or in the body of the text in front of the introduction, summary, references and appendixes sections of the paper.

In the introduction the choice and importance of the topic is justified, the aims of the paper are worded, the sources used are commented on and an overview of the principles of the divisions of the paper is given. In case of a quantitative research a hypothesis is presented; in case of a qualitative research a research question is presented. In the introduction one may also write about the problems encountered during the writing of the paper (e.g., hard-to-obtain sources) as well as thank the people who helped proved vital while writing the paper.

The body of the paper usually consists of three parts.

The first part provides an overview of the problem discussed, referring to similar works by other authors. The second part analyses the problem and explains what is going to be researched and how it is going to be done. In the third part the results and conclusions of the research are presented. Naturally, there may be more than three chapters in the paper.

In the summary the results of the research are given and commented on. The hypothesis is either proved or disproved; the answers to the research question are suggested. It is also mentioned which problems remained unsolved. Further approaches on the same topic are also mentioned. The summary must not contain data and conclusions that are missing from the body text of the paper. The summary is usually no longer than one page and there may exist also an Estonian version of it so that readers who are not familiar with English could also familiarise themselves with the paper.

The structure of a review is similar to that of an essay. The introduction mentions briefly the problems discussed in the review; the body, which is divided into topical sections, provides the reader with an overview of those problems; the summary gathers the main arguments presented in the body. In the summary the author may also give his or her comments on the points discussed.

The appendixes section of the paper holds additional material that is not directly linked with the text (forms of a survey, photos, illustrations, more comprehensive figures, etc.). The appendixes are cited in the text. They are titled and are numbered in the text according to the order of citation.

Date: 2015-12-24; view: 986