Types of Academic Texts

Academia takes place predominantly in the medium of language, and texts will play a central role in your studies: knowledge is conveyed in the form of texts, academic sources are read, classified, and acquired. What has been learned is also presented in written form, e.g. in term papers (Hausarbeiten) and exams.

Types of Assignments

A large component of course assignments are in written form. In order to be able to meet the requirements of the various kinds of written assignment, one must be familiar with them. Assignments written during the course of study differ not only in length, but also in their purpose, structure and style.

The longest form of assignment - apart from the final thesis - is a term paper (Hausarbeit). Term papers in BA studies usually comprise 12-18 pages, whereby usually six pages are credited with 1 CP each. The term paper represents an independent academic achievement, something that is reflected in the requirements.

For a term paper a student should work independently on a chosen topic. This includes the literature consultation and presentation of the state of research, as well as the formulation of a clear structure and answering an independently developed research question. A term paper must also meet certain formal requirements, such as correct citation style and the creation of a bibliography. For more details see section Term Papers.

A presentation (Referat) has a different objective than a term paper. It should not so much deal with a question, which was developed by oneself, but rather give an overview of a certain topic. However, the formal requirements are the same as for a term paper.

It is sometimes possible to arrange to write a term paper as an extension of a presentation, which should then address an independently developed research question. See more details in section Lectures and Presentations.

An essay is a discussion of a given topic. It is less formal and less strict in structure than a term paper. An explicit structure is not usually necessary, and the state of research does not have to be comprehensively presented. If the essay only refers to one or two sources, the citations can also become less important.

An important feature of the essay is the well-argued examination of a topic. While questions of structure are less important, stress is accordingly placed on the quality of argumentation. The essay serves to test argumentative strategies and to present one’s position. An academic position is not to be confused with an opinion: the essay should present a position which the author takes as their own and which is justified soundly in the essay’s arguments. It thus trains its author to develop and organize their own ideas, and at the same time to deal critically with other points of view.

In university, there are also different types of protocols - experimental or observation protocols in research, but also protocols of seminars, which usually record a session as a mixture of progress and result protocols. This ensures that the results of the meeting are available to all participants, and must therefore be comprehensible to anyone who was not present at the meeting. They are also often a good way of giving feedback to the lecturer, showing which components of the class were absorbed and understood. Meanwhile, writing protocols is a good way of making your personal notes as efficient and precise as possible. A protocol does not have to reflect the course of events in a strict and detailed manner, rather priority is given to summarizing and structuring the key points of the seminar/lecture. This may involve including points made by participants in a class as well as the content of presentations or a lecture. Record should be included of open questions that might be formulated at the end of the session, and of any key sources and/or literature involved. Use of diagrams may often be a helpful tool.

Like the protocol, the text summary or excerpt does not constitute an independent academic achievement. The aim of a summary is instead to reproduce the core statements of a text in as concise and precise a form as possible. For more details see the section Summaries.

There are additional forms of written assignment. These can be, for example, reviews, posters or Wikipedia articles. In all cases it is advisable to discuss the performance requirements with the lecturer in order to avoid any misunderstandings.

Forms of Academic Literature

In addition to the assignments to be written by students themselves, texts written by scholars play a central role in their studies. Such academic literature can take a variety of forms:

The classic form of the academic text is the monograph, the independent book. Monographs are written by one or more authors on a particular topic. The major academic qualifications such as the doctoral thesis and the habilitation thesis are published in the form of monographs.

An anthology or edited volume is a collection of essays by different authors based around an overall topic. Usually, one refers to individual articles from an anthology, not to the volume as a whole.

Periodicals or journals contain various articles by different authors. The only thing they have in common is often the subject area of the journal itself, but there also exist special issues of journals on a particular theme. Such issues are thus very similar to anthologies.

Manuals differ from anthologies in that the articles they contain are not primarily current research contributions by the authors, rather they present the state of research on a given topic. Also, the articles in manuals are usually shorter.

Dictionaries contain a large number of short articles, usually sorted alphabetically.

Another category is reviews, whether of monographs, anthologies or other works. They contain both a brief description of the content of the reviewed work and a critical analysis thereof with regard to the current state of research.