Term Paper Template

Title of Paper

Student Name

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Abstract

An abstract page should already include the page header. On the first line of the abstract page, center the word “Abstract” (no bold, formatting, italics, underlining, or quotation marks). Beginning with the next line, after writing your paper, write a concise summary of the key points of your research. Do not indent. Your abstract should contain at least your research topic, research questions, participants, methods, results, data analysis, and conclusions. You may also include possible implications of your research and future work you see connected with your findings. Your abstract should be a single paragraph double-spaced. An abstract should be between 150 and 250 words. [Special note for CSCI 109 students: an abstract is not a requirement for the short papers for this course but you need to be aware of this element.].

Title of Paper

The first part of the paper is called the “Introduction” section, yet it does not have a heading that actually says “Introduction.” Instead, the title of the paper is typed at the top of the first page (be sure to center the title, but do not put it in bold). In this section you would often start with a topic paragraph that introduces the problem under study. Introductions are designed to grab the attention of the reader, set up the topic you will be writing about, and state your thesis for the paper. The importance of the topic should be pretty clear from the first paragraph or two of the Introduction. Section 2.05 of the APA manual (APA, 2010) will help give you some ideas about how to write this.

The bulk of the Introduction section is background literature on the topic. Here a literature review is often very helpful to provide a theoretical or empirical basis for the research. Try to provide the reader with enough information on the topic to be able to conclude that the research is important and that the hypotheses are reasonable....