College Term Paper

A college term paper differs from a high school term paper in that the student writer has greater freedom and greater responsibility. The instructor may allow students to choose more controversial, specialized, or obscure topics than a high school teacher often would; even if the instructor provides a list of debate topics for high school students, the student can often obtain the instructor's approval to pursue an original topic choice that is relevant to the course. The student, however, has a responsibility to keep abreast of the requirements and to provide more in-depth research and stronger argumentation, and the instructor usually grades a college term paper more strictly than a teacher would grade a high school term paper.

In college, the instructor hands out a syllabus in the first session of each course, or he…