Preparing Dissertations - Dissertation Abstracts

When does Plagiarism occur?
Plagiarism occurs when you paraphrase, take concepts, facts or ideas from an alternative source and try to pass it off as your own. Any time you use information from books, the Internet, magazines, newspapers, etc., you must cite the source in a bibliography at the end of your text. If a passage from the text is directly quoted it must also be referenced within the body of the text.

The first step in writing a grade winning term paper starts by choosing the term paper topic. Once you have chosen a topic, become very familiar with it: read and reread the appropriate portions of the text, check the endnotes for any additional information, and do some research to see whether any critics have written on similar term paper topics. While you should be using most of your own ideas, reading articles by other writers may help you to focus your term paper topic or understand something you don't know. When you are comfortable with your research material, develop your term paper. Look over any notes you may have taken in your research or in class and see whether they support some underlying trend. Select two or three arguments or examples that can be used in defense of your term paper, and explore them thoroughly.

Before you go ahead, let's make one thing clear. This guide is no final authority; we are still in the process of improving and adding more content in it. We recommend students should take assistance from their teachers before finalizing their term papers. The reason for the same is that teacher can give more clear idea of what exactly he/she is trying to get from you. This guide is going to take you through steps that might come handy to you in writing your term paper. Please read the sections related, carefully.