How To Write A Term Paper (1948)

[Music] In this motion picture, you are the central character. The camera is your eyes. Sitting in this classroom, you borrow a pencil from a classmate as you see your teacher write an assignment on the board. What will it be this time? Well, due May 8th. That's 3 weeks. You get ready to write it down. Another term paper. Why do you have to write those, you ask? And then you know your own answer. A chance to do some organized investigating and thinking will help you make the most of this class and others as well. Perhaps you'll do reports later in business life. Well, it might be a good idea to make up a little checklist right now of things to do. Choose topic, gather material, then organize and write outline, and finally write the paper. Let's see. Choose a topic. Say, weren't there many subjects in this course that you'd like to know more about? How about writing on plastics? Say, new products in plastics. That's a definite possibility. What else did you study? Airports. Perhaps airport traffic control. That's certainly interesting. Oil refining. Another subject you studied this year you'd like to become more familiar with. Not bad. Three topics of real interest, but you only have to write one term paper. You have to decide. So, it's off to the library to see what's available on the three topics. First stop, card catalog. You check to see what books are available and study the readers' guides to find magazines and periodicals. You make up a set of file cards, one for each book or article. Not many reference sources on the plastics topic. That's not so good. Plenty of information on airports and you might visit the airport to get more data at first hand. Oil refining has a lot of material, too, but there are no oil refineries nearby. So, considering these factors of available writings and chance for personal inspection, you decide on airport traffic control. And that takes care of choosing a topic. You begin gathering material. You check the encyclopedia to see what's been written on the general subject. You fill in a note card for that reference source, listing author, title, page number, and date. You note items of interest from the article on the reference card. After checking your reference sources, you withdraw magazines and books available for circulation to continue your research. About a week later, you finished your reading and you're in a bus starting your personal investigation at the airport. People are usually glad to talk about their work and their interests. One of the pilots is very helpful, invites you to take a closer look. He shows you the small radio. This one is two-way and both transmit and receive. You hear the local tower talking to other planes. N C 654, this is Middletown Tower. You are cleared to taxi for takeoff on runway three. After questions and discussions, you head for the tower. You've arranged your visit in advance, so they welcome you, the relief operator and the man whose voice you just heard on the field, the controller. 361, turning on final. You are cleared to land runway three, over. Tower, this is 361. Say again, was that runway three, over? 361, I say again, runway three, over. You see the way the controller keeps track of different planes in his zone at the same time. You ask questions, you make notes, you listen. Middletown Tower, this is Transways flight seven. Request landing instructions, over. Transways flight seven, this is Middletown Tower. Tower from 7105, give me a long call, please. 256, so I can Tower from BC, request taxi instructions, over. To you, this may sound like the Tower of Babel, but the controller keeps his head and handles the traffic. This you want to include in your term paper. Back home, your head is so full of what you've heard, you're so enthusiastic, you can't wait to start writing. But, are you ready yet? You better stay on the beam. Check your list. Mhm. After gather material comes organize and outline. All right, better decide the major subdivisions of your topic. It seems as though one item is normal control. You'll include two-way radio, receiver only, no radio, and so forth. Then the story of Middletown Airport with the runways, the traffic pattern. Mhm. And finally, the future of handling air traffic in 00 weather. You call it blind landings. Now, you sort the cards into stacks under the three main subdivisions. There's your major organization. Line up your material under each heading. So, you prepare an outline. You've covered normal methods and you are outlining the procedures at Middletown Airport. Now, you'll know the order of topics and their comparative importance. Spending time organizing an outline now will save a lot of time in actual writing. So, a few days later, with the outline complete, you're ready to begin writing. As you compose your first draft, you pay attention not only to facts, but also to style and grammar. Let's see now. Airport traffic control is governed Uh, that's dull. The control of traffic at airports is dependent on the tower operators who guide the flow into and away from the harbors of the sky. Control begins from the moment the pilot is ready to taxi out. Tower, this is 826. Request taxi instructions, over. 826, this is Middletown Tower. Cleared to taxi south to runway three, wind north 15. You are cleared to cross runway nine, over. You can make your term paper so interesting that it comes alive and gives people the feeling of being right there. Let's see. Even the movement across the active runways is controlled by the guardian in the tower. After engine run-up, the craft is quickly cleared by the operator. Tower, this is 826, ready for takeoff, over. 826, cleared for takeoff, over. can watch and control the movement of traffic within the 3-mile radius of his authority. That sounds good for a lead paragraph. Gives your reader a broad view of the whole subject. Here's the place for data from one of those articles. In one day, operators may control 13,000 lives and $60 million. You want to give credit to the author, so at the bottom of the page, you include a footnote to acknowledge the source of your quotation. As you move ahead, you find that careful planning pays off in better and quicker writing. And it isn't long before you finish the draft, polished it, and turned it into a complete term paper. How does it look? After the title page, comes the outline of contents. Then the body of the term paper. You still have to proofread for typographical errors. And there's your diagram. Illustrations make your report more clear and interesting. At the end, you list all the magazine articles and books used in research in the bibliography. When you organize your work, you can finish in plenty of time. Well, you're back in class. The paper was handed in on time. Very good. Ah, careful planning. Your checklist kept you on the beam. You chose your topic carefully. You gathered material by reading and personal investigation. You organized and prepared your outline. What about your teacher's other comments? Interestingly written, proper recognition. You watched grammar and style and used footnotes. And finally, neatly and attractively put together.