“Yeah I am supposed to write a research paper on Animal Testing”. Ok what level are you, in Bachelors, Master or PhD? This is where the student would get confused. Research paper is just a terminology used to cover the techniques of writing an essay based on professional research and materials; but a pointer to be mentioned, college term paper and thesis come under the academic documentations. College term papers cannot be published unless it has met the criteria and the merit is of high grading, and that the instructor himself has recommended its publishing (Only a genius would get to that level). I will first explain the College Term Paper first.
College Term Paper as compared to Thesis is a much shorter version, and its completion date is in months. College Term Paper can be on choice of the student or a topic given by the lecturer. An assignment sheet is given to the students to help them in writing styles, indent, page or word limits, how many sources can be used etc. Research material may vary from books to internet, websites and sometimes field work, but usually only if that locality is within the reach of the students. Sometimes field trips are made by the institutions themselves to help the students in gaining extra knowledge and also to help them increase their observation skills. Grading is done based on the materials, grammar, spellings etc and then that grade will affect the student’s entire term’s hard work, because the weight age is pretty heavy for a college term paper. Another thing that should be mentioned here is that unlike a thesis, a supervisor is not required; meaning that the teacher is there to help out the students but it doesn’t require recommendation for individual work, the student’s college term paper will be graded like the other term papers. You can say that a college term paper is a practice in case the student plans to go in to research.
A thesis on the other hand is a very extensive research, and whose completion time may vary from months to years and the research material may vary from reference books, areas under observation (examples like villages, cities, and even a company itself), past data, hypothesis, philosophies of other scholars etc. A thesis has more marks on the paper than a college term paper, because unless the thesis isn’t passed by the PhD teachers, the student cannot get its degree. College Term Paper is for bachelors whereas a thesis goes for Masters and PhD. After the submission, an oral presentation has to be given by the writer and if the thesis gets approved, the thesis can get published in the academic journal. A thesis can even be written from a present thesis, if the point is to upgrade or improve that thesis. A thesis must maintain its originality, meaning it must not be entirely on reference, the author must give his own thoughts backed with evidence.
One thing that is common in college term paper and a thesis is that they both can be written individually or in a group.
So are you sure you are writing a college term paper?
