{"id":1116,"date":"2022-05-26T11:42:29","date_gmt":"2022-05-26T15:42:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/teachingresources\/teachingresources\/?page_id=1116"},"modified":"2025-12-01T09:02:20","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T14:02:20","slug":"assignment-design-alternatives-to-term-papers","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/teachingresources\/assessing-student-work\/assignment-design-alternatives-to-term-papers\/","title":{"rendered":"Assignment Design: Alternatives to Term Papers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Assignment Design: Alternatives to Term Papers\n <\/h1>\n \n \n <\/header>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

There are many different ways to have students go through the research and writing process without relying on the oft-assigned term paper. Assigning something different will generate enthusiasm for the assignment and encourage original work. Be creative!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • Reflections on the process<\/strong> – At various times students turn in written descriptions of their research process.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Problem solving approach<\/strong> – What steps would be taken to solve a problem.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Literature review<\/strong> – Evaluative annotated bibliography.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Science in the news<\/strong> – Find evidence in literature for news release claims.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Event initiated examples<\/strong> – Evaluate a current event based on literature findings.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Web assignment<\/strong> – Design an informative webpage.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Evaluate thinking<\/strong> – Have students discuss what they found and compare sources.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Read and find facts<\/strong> – Read an editorial, article, reflection and find facts to support it.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Create a webpage<\/strong> – Select a topic to do with course content.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Biography<\/strong> – Select a scholar\/researcher in field and report on career, influences, major ideas, moods and trends in research program.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Follow a piece of legislation through parliament<\/strong> – What groups are lobbying for\/against it and why?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Follow a current foreign policy issue as it develops<\/strong> – Have students adopt the perspective of one of the various groups involved and predict the next move.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Nominate someone for a Nobel prize<\/strong> – Justify the nomination.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Adopt a persona<\/strong> – Write journal entries, letters, commentaries from that person\u2019s perspective<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Write an exam<\/strong> – Provide answers and provide a rationale for the responses.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Write a review of a performance, a movie, a book, a journal article, a guest speaker lecture, etc.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Write a newspaper, magazine, webpage story on a topic.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Describe your dream job<\/strong> – Research careers in the field and justify the choice of company, location, job, etc.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Compare and contrast primary and secondary sources.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Evaluate a website.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Compare and contrast the state of knowledge on a topic in two different decades or eras.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Conduct research but don\u2019t write the final draft.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Prepare for a hypothetical interview<\/strong> – Do background research on a company or job offer and how you fit with job description.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Compare and contrast the content, style, and audience of three different scholarly journals in a field.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Compare and contrast a scholarly journal article with an article from a popular magazine.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Prepare for an interview with a top figure in the field<\/strong> – Justify responses, provide background notes.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Compare and contrast the ways different disciplines deal with the same subject matter.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    There are many different ways to have students go through the research and writing process without relying on the oft-assigned term paper. Assigning something different will generate enthusiasm for the assignment and encourage original work. Be creative!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":1103,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cu_dining_location_slug":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_page_type":[37],"class_list":["post-1116","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","cu_page_type-assessing-student-work"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/teachingresources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/teachingresources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/teachingresources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/teachingresources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/teachingresources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1116"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/teachingresources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1117,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/teachingresources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1116\/revisions\/1117"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/teachingresources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/teachingresources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_page_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/teachingresources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_page_type?post=1116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}