Each student will select a topic for the term paper and around five papers relevant to the topic. The term paper will discuss the topic in light of the papers selected. The term paper should also present a critique of the papers in terms of the assumptions, methods, generality, and applicability of the results. The final section of the term paper should attempt, as much as possible, to indicate areas for future research. Doctoral students should use this as an opportunity to find a research topic for their dissertations.

Term papers should be approximately 20 pages long including figures and bibliography. Please use font size 11, and 1 1/2 spacing between lines.

By the third week of the semester, each student should present a one-page term paper proposal containing the following elements: title, abstract, and list of at least five papers that will support the term paper.

Papers will be graded not only on the basis of their technical content but also on the quality of the presentation and readability. Make sure you use a spell checker before printing the final copy of  your paper. If you are not a native English speaker and believe you need assistance with the English grammar, please seek help from GMU's writing resources.

You are not allowed to copy verbatim from the papers you read in preparation to writing your term paper. This is considered plagiarism. If you need to quote a sentence from a paper, you have to do it within quotes and indicate immediately after or before the source of the quote.

Your term paper should be delivered along with a copy of the papers you selected to read. You may reference other papers in the bibliography section of your paper. Use the following format for bibliographic references:

- Single author: [Menasce99]
- Multiple Authors: [XYZ98] where X, Y, and Z are the first letters of the last names of the authors.