What is the structure of a seminar paper? A seminar paper must include the following components, which must appear in a sequential order: 1. Title: States your topic exactly in the smallest possible number of words. 2.Abstract: States the most important facts and ideas in your seminar paper (the number of words in the abstract should not exceed 150-200). The abstract should relate to: • The problem studied, • The method used, • The main results, • And the main conclusions. (No references, figures, or tables should appear in the abstract) 3. Text: The body of the seminar paper should be clearly divided into sections, each with a separate heading. The sections are: • Introduction: Reviews the background of your topic and gives an outline of the contents of your paper. 4. Literature Review: Reviews the work done by other people on your topic. This section is mainly based on scholarly work published in academic journals and books. Appropriate in-text citation techniques and methods MUST be used in writing this section (see the note on plagiarism down). • Methodology and Research question(s): Is based on the literature review and presents the methodology used in the seminar paper for answering the research question(s). This section must logically connect the theoretical review with the topic studied in the seminar paper. • Findings and discussion: Presents the findings of the study in any organized or summarizing manner (e.g. tables, figures, listings, etc.). This section should not include questionnaires, detailed transcriptions of linguistic data, or materials studied. These items, if necessary, should appear at the appendix section at the end of the paper (following the references section). You may, however, include excerpts from your findings or examples specifically if such a practice facilitates your analysis or discussion of findings. • Conclusion: States the conclusions you have drawn from your work, compares your conclusions with the opinions of other people, and suggests what new work should be done in order to answer a question you raised on your paper that may further extend our knowledge. • References: You must give references to all the information that you obtain from books, papers in journals, and other sources. References need to be alphabetically organized based on the APA style of documentation. • Appendix (Appendices): (optional) Includes all the documents you used in your paper such as: a sample questionnaire/test, full transcription of an interview/conversation, examples of subjects’ responses/performances in a certain task, etc.
