Self-Help Guide:
Writing An Academic/Research Term Paper
(Humanities)
CCCH9004 term paper needs to relate to the
theme of this course:
What are late imperial Chinese
understandings and representations of the
West, and how do they reflect changing
Chinese thoughts and cultural identities
mirrored by the Western other(s)through
China’s transformation from an imperial
society to a modern nation.
The Purpose of Term Paper Is
´Can you discover a framework for
analyzing some phenomena?
´How well can you apply the content you
learned from the course?
ØGathering information systematically
ØAnalyzing information
ØCommunicating the information
How to Select a Topic ?
´We are not giving a topic to you
´Your reflection of the course content
´Use the course reading to guide you
´Your personal/educational background
´General subject links to a specific case e.g.,
“From Deus to Tianzhu: Matteo Ricci’s
Introduction of Christian God to China.”
´A promising topic DOES NOT guarantee a
well-written paper
Information/Literature Collection
´Define the brief theme first. e.g.,
Christianity, Chinese perceptions of the
West, maps, western knowledge, etc.
´Use the class readings’ key words,
references/bibliography/footnote to get
more reading materials
´Search with: HKU Library’s database &
Google Scholar
Creating An Effective Outline
Refer to March 23 lecture slides
´Introduction
´Body
´Conclusion
The “topic outline” pattern (March 23 lecture
slides)
Introduction
´Introduction should be general but not too
general (always come back to polish it)
´State what you choose to discuss
´Address something of substance(review
some literature)
´Narrow down the concept you will
use(review some literature)
´The kind of approach/sources you will use
to do the analysis(review some literature)
Writing the Body
´Topic sentence for each paragraph
´Using primary and secondary sources
to support your topic sentence
´Can have sub-points to support your
topic sentence
´Crafting concise expressions
Conclusion
´Convince your reader why I should care about
this topic (significance of your topic)
´Telling your reader what conclusions one could
draw from your paper
´What you have told and highlight the argument
* The history of Christian Missionary in China is very interesting and
complex (NO)
* Missionaries’ activities in late imperial China are affected by
westerns’ perceptions of China and the resilient Chinese society
that accepting western knowledge and western people.
Citation and Academic Honesty
´Make sure your readers know a certain
proportion of your work contains the work of
someone else.
´If you take a sentence or paragraph from
other works without paraphrasing, you must
identify the copied materials
´When you make use of other people’s
specific ideas, you must give them credit for
those ideas
´Chicago Manual style, footnotes citation
Style of References
´Different academic disciplines would present
the sources in different styles, e.g., Chicago style, Har
vard style, APA, MLA, etc.
´We use Chicago Style for CCCH9004’s Paper
´Footnotes and bibliography format examples
1. https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide/
citation-guide-1.html (Use the samples of full citations but NOT
shortened citations for the same sources)
2. https://guides.library.yale.edu/c.php?g=296262&p=1974227
´Include the course reading if relevant to the topic
Additional Advice
´Do case studies (can help control the
scale of discussion)
´Avoid an over-simplified dichotomy
when developing the discussion
´Contextualization is important
How We Grade Your Paper?
Four major aspects:
´Argumentation(40%)
´Organization(30%)
´Bibliography(20%)
´Language(10%)
´Clear structure
´Debatable, specific, and concise