How to write a seminar paper

– An introductory guide to academic writing –

1 General
- Your paper must be an original piece of work. Translating and / or
rewriting entire original publications or parts of them is no independent
scientific work. When writing a paper, the main focus is on discussing the
topic of your paper.
- The title of your paper depends on your selected topic and must not be
modified.
- Your paper should provide a well-structured presentation of a series of
arguments with relevance to your topic. Instead of listing all arguments
that come to your mind, you will want to make a choice of significant
arguments and outline them in a comprehensible way for your readers.
- You are expected to use scientific literature while working on your topic.
When presenting the results of a scientific essay, it is also important to
outline the underlying hypotheses (model assumptions, data set,
empirical approach, etc.). For reasons of space, no essay can, of course,
be presented in detail. The aim is thus to develop a comprehensible,
intuitive explanation of the approach and of the main findings.
- A sound seminar paper is more than a mere enumeration of arguments.
Therefore make sure to develop a sensible line of argumentation.

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2 Structure
- Make sure to produce the number of required pages indicated in the
syllabus of the seminar. That number refers to the length of text and
does neither include tables, figures, indexes nor appendices.
- A seminar paper consists of the following elements (in order): cover
page, table of contents, lists of tables, figures and abbreviations (where
necessary), main text, list of references, and appendices (where
necessary). Common abbreviations like “i.e.” or “e.g.” are not to be
included in the list of abbreviations.
- The pages of the main text, references, and appendices must be
numbered consecutively in Arabic numerals. However, the table of
contents as well as the lists of figures and abbreviations should be
consecutively numbered in Roman numerals.
- The main text is divided into sections, starting with an introduction and
finishing off with a conclusion. The purpose of the introductory section is
to present the topic. Moreover, you should illustrate your central
hypothesis and outline your method of analyzing it. The concluding
section should provide a summary and, in addition, give a critical
assessment of the topic and provide an outlook for further research
questions.
- All sections and subsections are required to follow a consistent
numbering system. If you choose to divide a section into subsections,
there obviously must be at least two of them, i.e. if there is a subsection
2.1.1, it has to be followed by 2.1.2.
- In general, the structure and dimension of the paper should keep a
reasonable balance, i.e. if you are to write a 12-page paper, pay
attention not to break down the subsections beyond the third level
(e.g. 1.1.1).
- If you wish to include additional material or documents in the appendix,
make sure they are relevant, but not critical for understanding the paper,
and refer to them somewhere throughout the text.
- Each table and figure have their own heading, follow a consecutive
numbering system, and present information about the source. In case a
table or figure does not have a specific source because you have
developed it yourself, write “own table” or “own figure”. If tables

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 and / or figures are a part of your thesis, do not forget to refer to them
somewhere in the text.
- The paper should provide a visually appealing and clear overview. This
means, for instance, that the headings of sections and subsections stand
out clearly against the rest of the text, and that there is appropriate text
spacing between paragraphs and sections.
- Verify linguistic correctness: Please mind your syntax, grammar,
punctuation, and wording.
- What you write should make sense and wording should be precise.
Therefore it is strongly recommended you use technical terms whenever
possible.
- Your fellow students should be able to understand your paper without
previously reading scientific texts about your topic. So when writing,
always bear your target group in mind.

3 Formatting
- Write your paper on the computer and print it one-sided.
- Recommended margins and font size:
o Margins: left 3 cm, right 2.5 cm, top 2.5 cm, bottom 2.5 cm
o Main text: line spacing 1.5, font size 12 pt, font Times New Roman
or Arial
o Footnotes: line spacing 1.0, font size 10 pt, font Times New Roman
or Arial
- If you make use of mathematical formula, make sure to indent and
number them for easy readability. Microsoft Word has an Equation
Editor, and also programs like Latex or Matlab offer adequate solutions.

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4 References
- Your selection of literature should focus on the relevance to the topic,
not on an easy access to the publications.
- All sources used are to be included in the list of references. In general,
the cited sources should be the original ones. Sources are commonly
listed in alphabetical order by author.
- Focus on citing officially published articles. Discussion papers or working
papers should only be taken into account if they have not been published
in journals or books.
- Sources that have not been used throughout the text must not be
included in the references.
- Books and articles in edited volumes have the following appearance:
o Skern, T. (2011): Writing Scientific English: A Workbook.
2nd edition. UTB, Stuttgart.
o Weingast, B. R. (2008): “The Performance and Stability of
Federalism: An Institutional Perspective”, in Ménard, Claude (ed.),
Handbook of new institutional economics, Springer, Berlin;
Heidelberg, pp. 149-174.
- Articles in journals appear as follows:
o Thomson, W. (1999): “The Young Person's Guide to Writing
Economic Theory”, in: Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. 37,
No. 1, pp. 157-183.
- Research work which has not yet been published, e.g. working papers
follow this format:
o Meyer, H. (2003): The Welfare of Quotations – An Empirical
Approach, Lehrstuhl Discussion Paper 26, University of Mannheim.
- If a book, essay, etc. has more than three authors, only the name of the
first author appears both in the bibliography and in the reference,
followed by the additional “et al.”:
- Kochar, K., et al. (2006): India's Patterns of Development: What
Happened, What Follows. NBER Working Paper No. 12023
- If you cite several publications of one and the same author, the
references will appear in chronological order. However, should you use
several sources by one particular author from the same year of
publication, these are distinguished by adding lowercase Latin characters

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 to the year of publication, e.g.: Meyer, H. (2007a) and Meyer, H.
(2007b).
- Use online sources only if they are not available in a different format. In
addition to specifying author, year, and title, also give details on the URL
and the date of access.

5 Citing sources
- Arguments, ideas, findings, etc. derived from the literature or from other
sources must be cited accordingly, except for generally recognized and
known facts. In case the paper was not produced independently or if
sources or tools were used without citing them, it will be graded “Fail” in
accordance with the examination regulations of the respective degree
program.
- Quotations which are direct and identical to the original source are
enclosed within double quotation marks. The omission of a single word is
marked with two suspension points, whereas the omission of two or
more words is indicated with three suspension points. Quotations within
a direct quotation are enclosed within single quotation marks.
When rephrasing something, no quotation marks are needed. Avoid
direct quotations. Only use them if it is not possible to express a concept
in a shorter and more concise manner.
- Make sure to cite the references of each quotation. This is usually done
by placing a short reference in the text or by inserting a footnote. What’s
most important is that your reference allows to unambiguously identify
the original source. Individual emphasis has to be designated as such.
- A short reference contains the name of the author, the year of
publication, and the page number of the cited source. If the quotation
extends over two pages, write pp. number of first page f. If, however, the
quotation extends beyond two pages, use the format pp. number of first
page ff. (e.g. Meyer, 2003, pp. 15 ff.) A footnote separates comments or
references from the running text. The reference can be full 1 or short 2.

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Meyer, H. (2004): The Welfare of Quotations – An Empirical Approach, Lehrstuhl Discussion Paper 26,
University of Mannheim, pp. 15 ff.
2
Meyer, 2003, pp. 15 ff.
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 6 Further information

6.1 Bibliographic research

- The topic is to be studied by consulting academic literature.
- There are better search engines than Google and Wikipedia for
researching literature, e.g. databases like Econlit, OPAC, LexisNexis, or
Jstor.
- Here you can access the databases of the University Library.
- If you wish to find out where a specific essay was cited (in order to get
from old publications to new ones with a similar topic), visit: Web of
Science (Social Science Citation Index)
- You can easily find published essays by searching the name of the journal
in the online catalog of the University Library. When searching for
working papers, it is best to directly visit the website of the publishing
institution (e.g., www.nber.org, www.cepr.org, www.cesifo.de).

6.2 Further reading

This guide provides a set of basic rules on how to write your seminar paper.
You will find more details in the vast literature on scientific writing. Below there
is a small selection of examples:
- Eco, Umberto (2015): How to Write a Thesis, MIT Press.
- Macgilchrist, Felicitas (2014): Academic writing, UTB, Stuttgart.
- Wallwork, Adrian (2013): English for academic research: writing
exercises, Springer, NY; Heidelberg
- Swales, John; Feak, Christine (2012): Academic Writing for Graduate
Students: Essential Tasks and Skills, University of Michigan Press, Ann
Arbor.
- Siepmann, Dirk (2011): Writing in English: a guide for advanced learners,
2. rev. and extended ed, Francke, Tübingen; Basel.