Addis Ababa University
Addis Ababa Institute of Technology
School of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Prepared by: Kassu Jilcha (PhD), March 2020
Guideline for Writing Any Term Paper
Final Submission date: Usually on the date of the course Final Exam. Progress every Two
Weeks is mandatory.
I. General Guideline in Writing Term Paper as Research
1. Identify your topic as SMART individually or in some group
2. Refer relevant reference materials which are recent (books and articles) to understand and identify
knowledge gaps at preliminary level related to your topic
3. Select a case company/organization
4. Understand the existing practices of the topic area and case company including:
Identifying the inputs, materials, machineries, outputs (products) of the existing study related to the
topic and case company
Identifying the different functional areas of the organization and its organization structure
Identify the scope of the study area and the case company
Detect any trend that exhibits overall process related to the topic
5. Challenges and the existing practice against the concepts and knowledge you acquired theoretically
6. Identify empirical gaps for your research from the previous studies and draw out the unique part that has
been overlooked in the studies
7. Collect the relevant data that enables you to demonstrate the importance of the method to solve the
problem you probably identified
8. Make appropriate analysis employing relevant and scientific methods and techniques
9. Discuss your result and compare it with the existing empirical researches.
10. Draw appropriate conclusion and recommendation
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II. General Term Paper Report Contents
Your research paper report shall include and meet the hereunder specifications and Contents
A. Content of the paper
1. Title
2. Abstract:
Concise and clearly written abstract containing introduction, research Purpose, methods,
results/findings, conclusions.
And between 150- 250 words.
Write it at the last off your paper work
3. Key words: three to five key words which is not in the Title
4. Introduction
It should be from general to specific
It should include global background, problems, history
Case company problems and highlight
Objective and methodology as closing this section
5. Literature Review:
A brief and clear literature review with the appropriate referencing style as specified under
section B (6&7) part of this guideline.
Research gaps to understand the knowledge contribution of your research to the existing
6. Research Methodology (Research Approach and materials)
Research design
Research data sources
Data collection process
Data collection tools
7. Results Analysis and Discussion
Result analysis
Discussion comparing your finding with previous studies result
Compare what makes your finding different and unique from others studies
Introduce a model or a way forward to improve the existing challenges and problems
8. Summary /Conclusion
In list the finding summary
Recommendation and future research area
9. Acknowledgment (if any)
10. References
Use APA style referencing style
Use it in text and
reference listing style
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B. Font style and specifications
1. Font Style:- use Times New Roman font style for the whole document:
size 14 bold for title,
size 11 for the abstract and keywords,
size 13 and bold for section headings in the text
size 12 and bold for sub headings in the text
size 12 for the main text,
size 11 for tables,
size 11 for tables and figures descriptions
size 11 for references.
2. Type formulae using MS word Equation tools if any
3. All formulas in the paper should be numbered consecutively with 8.2-centimeter width.
4. Figures must be numbered in bottom
5. Tables’ captions must be numbered in above
6. References must be listed by the family name of the authors and according to the following format:
a) Reference to a book:
[1] Montgomery, D.C. (1991). Design and Analysis of Experiments. 3rd edition, John
Wiley & Sons, New York.
b) Reference to an article:
[1] Axsater, S. (1998). Evaluation of installation stock based (R,Q)-policies for two-level
inventory systems with Poisson demand. Operations Research, 46, 132–142.
[2] Fredendall, L.D. and Lea, B.R. (1997). Improving the product mix heuristic in the theory of
constraints. International Journal of Production Research, 32(6), 1232-1244.
c) Reference to a paper in conference proceedings:
[1] Choudhary, V., Tomak, K. and Chaturvedi, A. (1998). The Effect of Network Externalities
on Software Pricing. Proceedings of the 31 st Annual Hawaii International Conference on
System Sciences, IEEE Press, 221-260.
7. In order to cite a reference in the text, please use the following example:
When you start by the author use as Daniel (1998) declares that …,
When you end the sentence by author use as (Daniel, 1998).
8. The total number of the pages should not exceed 30 and should not be below 15 pages.
Note: - Any paper that does not reflect the quality of the above specification will not get graded and will be
returned to you.
III. Follow-ups and evaluation
Students would present and defend their work when it is completed before submission.
The paper will be weighted 30% of the total course mark value
