The type of term paper students write depends on the subject and what the goals of the paper are. For example, a student may write a term paper that argues for gun control while another student may write an informative essay on the causes of World War II.
When students do term papers, they often have to go beyond their textbooks and Internet sites like Wikipedia to gather factual information. Many times they will have to visit libraries and bookstores in order to have a well-researched term paper.
In a term paper, the student would normally start it with his opening statement that gives some background on the subject. If it's an argumentative paper, he would end with a thesis statement. In the body of the paper he usually gives examples of his subject using the research he gathered, and in the conclusion he gives a brief conclusion.
The time frame for completing a term paper varies, but generally students will have from two to four weeks to finish it. In some cases, teachers may announce the guidelines and due date for the paper at the beginning of the semester to give students more time to brainstorm.
Regular student term papers are different from scholarly papers. Scholarly papers are more analytical in nature, the pages run from ten to twenty pages and they may involve the use of writing styles such as MLA and APA. Scholarly papers also use a greater amount of numerical data than regular term papers.