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| Term Paper Alternatives: A Few Ideas |
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If you would like your students to use the library, but don’t want to assign a research paper there are alternatives. There are many ways to incorporate the use of library resources into class assignments without requiring a full-blown research paper. Students may actually respond better to “alternative” assignments which enable them to focus on or master specific resources or aspects of the research process.
Students seek information in simulations of real-life projects (e.g.: Public relations students prepare a proposal to develop a web page for a non-profit organization.)
What is (discipline)? i.e. how might it be defined?
How might the resources consulted be utilized in other courses, especially in other disciplines?
From this exercise, what have the students learned about the scope of the discipline?
Provide students with a popular and scholarly article on the same topic. To encourage them to learn how to distinguish between these types of publications, have students analyze the articles using a prepared checklist of characteristics.
Ask students to find a short article in the popular press and the original research findings on which the popular article was based. Students should review related findings, discuss the relationship between the popular article and original research, and critique the popular article with regard to its accuracy.
Write a personal reaction to a poem, short story or essay. Read a review or criticism of that piece. Then write an essay exploring how the additional information changed their perception of the story.
Revised 08/00