University of Management and Technology

(UNIMTECH)

School of Public Administration

and
School of Social Sciences

Final Semester Paper

Guidelines

June 2022

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1. INTRODUCTION
As partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Diploma and Higher Diploma Certificates at
UNIMTECH. Students will be required to prepare and submit a Final Semester Paper as a mandatory module
under the supervision of an assigned Academic staff.
The objective of the module is to teach students how to write and present a paper or report on selected topics
relevant to their programme of study and up to a standard suitable for publication in academic and/or
professional journal/magazines.
This document presents the normalised guidelines that govern the standards which must be met by all such
submissions to qualify for assessment and accordingly reported as a single percentage score in the Final
Semester Examination Results.

2. FORMAT
2.1 Text: Text should be in 12pt Times Roman font and 1.5 line spacing.
2.2 Page: The acceptable size for all pages, including covers, must be A4 size (8.27 x
11.69inches).
2.3 Size: Between 10 and 15 pages
3. Layout: The paper should comprise the following sections.
1. COVER PAGE
2. ABSTRACT
3. INTRODUCTION
4. MAIN BODY
5. CONCLUSIONS
6. RECOMMENDATIONS
7. APPENDICES (OPTIONAL)
8. REFERENCE LIST

3.1 COVER PAGE

It should contain student’s name, course name (Final Semester Paper), ID number, Department name,
School Name, and submission date. These contents should be aligned at the centre of the page.
3.2 ABSTRACT
It is usually a paragraph long and gives a summary of the contents of the paper, not more than 100 words. It
informs the reader about the objectives and why it is worth writing about the topic.
3.3 INTRODUCTION
Here the significance of the subject of the topic and any theoretical background to topic. The author should
briefly explain plan of the presentation and proffer solutions for any problem posed by the topic.
3.4 MAIN BODY
It should have the main presentation of the subject of the topic with brief historical background, high
lighting the impact, and the possible effects of the issues on body of knowledge and society. Exhaust all
your points and back them up with citations to convince your reader that the author has a good grasp of the
issues discussed.

3.5 CONCLUSIONS
The author should highlight the lessons that can be deduced from the issues as presented in the Main
Body of the paper and applications.

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3.6 RECOMMENDATIONS
Here, include suggestions that could improve the impact of issues discussed and other areas of
application in the future

3.7 APPENDICES:
All relevant data, graphics and pictures that supports understanding of the paper may be attached as appendix.
This is, however, and optional section that does not necessarily affect the grading of the paper. All appendices
should start on a fresh page and the section should be preceded by a divider page titled “APPENDICES”
printed at the centre of the page.

Appendices should be labelled alphabetically: Appendix A, Appendix B, etc.

3.8 REFERENCE LIST

Include all your sources that were cited in the paper using one of the following two internationally recognised
standard formats described below. Arrange them in Alphabetical order and use the correct citation style. You
should confirm what method to use from your paper guidelines. You can use “citation creators” to make your
work easier.

3.8.1 EXAMPLES OF REFERENCE CITATIONS IN TEXT--APA STYLE

1. If author's name occurs in the text, follow it with year of publication in parentheses.
Example: Piaget (1970) compared reaction times...
If author's name is not in the text, insert last name, comma, year in parenthesis.
Example: In a recent study of reaction times (Piaget, 1978) …
2. If author's name and the date of publication have been mentioned in the text of your paper,
they should not be repeated within parentheses.
Example: In 1978, Piaget compared reaction times...
3. Because material within a book or on a web page is often difficult to locate, authors should,
whenever possible, give page numbers for books or paragraph numbers for web pages in
body to assist readers. Page numbers (preceded by p. or pp.) or paragraph numbers
(preceded by ¶ or para.) follow the year of publication and are separated from it by a
comma. For websites with neither page numbers nor paragraph numbers, cite the heading
and the number of the paragraph following it.
Examples: Hunt (1974, pp. 25-69) confirms the hypothesis...
(Myers, 2000 ¶ 5)
(Beutler, 2000, Conclusion section, para. 1)
4. If a work has two authors, always cite both names every time the reference occurs in the text.
Connect both names by using the word "and."
Examples: Piaget and Smith (1972) recognize...
Finberg and Skipp (1973, pp. 37-52) discuss...
5. If a work has two authors and they are not included in the text, insert within parentheses, the
last names of the authors joined by an ampersand (&), and the year separated from the
authors by a comma.
Examples: ...to organize accumulated knowledge and order sequences of operations
(Piaget & Smith, 1973)
...to organize accumulated knowledge and order sequences of operations (Piaget &
Smith,1973, p. 410)

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 6. If a work has more than two authors (but fewer than six), cite all authors the first time the
reference occurs; include the last name followed by "et al." and the year in subsequent
citations of the same reference.
Example: First occurrence:
Williams, French and Joseph (1962) found...
Subsequent citations:
Williams et al. (1962) recommended.
7. Quotations: Cite the source of direct quotations by enclosing it in parentheses. Include
author, year, and page number. Punctuation differs according to where the quotation falls.
1) If the quoted passage is in the middle of a sentence, end the passage with quotation marks, cite
the source in parentheses immediately, and continue the sentence.
Example: Many inexperienced writers are unsure about "the actual boundaries of the
grammatical abstraction called a sentence" (Shaughnessy, 1977, p. 24) or about
which form of punctuation they should use.
2) If the quotation falls at the end of a sentence, close the quotation with quotation marks, and
cite the source in parentheses after the quotation marks. End with the period outside the
parentheses.
Example: Fifty percent "of spontaneous speech is estimated to be non-
speech" (Shaughnessy, 1977, p. 24).
3) If the quotation is longer than forty words, it is set off without quotations marks in an
indented block (double spaced). The source is cited in parentheses after the final period.
Example: This is further explained by Shaughnessy's (1977) following statements:
In speech, pauses mark rates of respiration, set off certain words for
rhetorical emphasis, facilitate phonological manoeuvres, regulate the
rhythms of thought and articulation and suggest grammatical
structure. Modern punctuation, however, does not provide a score for
such a complex orchestration. (p. 24)
4) If citing a work discussed in a secondary source, name the original work and give a citation
for the secondary source. The reference list should contain the secondary source, not the
unread primary source.
Example: Seidenberg and McClelland’s study (as cited in Coltheart, Curtis, Atkins, &
Haller, 1993)
3.8.2 THE REFERENCE LIST
APA style suggests using a reference list for references cited in the text of a paper rather than a bibliography.
A reference list includes only those references which were cited in the text of one's paper. There must be
total agreement between the two.
A bibliography includes all literature consulted which was "immediately relevant" to the preparation of the
paper process, even though the material was not cited in the text of one's paper.
When compiling a reference list, one needs to pay particular attention to the following: 1) sequence; 2)
punctuation and spacing; 3) capitalization; and 4) underlining.

3.8.3 EXAMPLES OF ITEMS IN A REFERENCE LIST

Although the format for books, journal articles, magazine articles and other media is similar, there are some
slight differences. Items in a reference list should be double-spaced. Also, use hanging indents: entries
should begin flush left with subsequent lines indented.

BOOKS:
One author:
Castle, E. B. (1970). The teacher. London: Oxford University Press.

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 Two authors:
McCandless, B. R., & Evans, E. D. (1973). Children and youth: Psychosocial development.
Hinsdale, IL: Dryden Press.
Three or more authors: (list each author)
Smith, V., Barr, R., & Burke, D. (1976). Alternatives in education: Freedom to choose.
Bloomington, IN: Phi Delta Kappa, Educational Foundation.

Society, association, or institution as author and publisher:

American Psychiatric Association. (1980). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental
disorders (3rd ed.). Washington, D.C.: Author.
Editor or compiler as author:
Rich, J. M. (Ed.). (1972). Readings in the philosophy of education (2nd ed.). Belmont, CA:
Wadsworth.
Chapter, essay, or article by one author in a book or encyclopaedia edited by another:
Medley, D. M. (1983). Teacher effectiveness. In H. E. Mitzel (Ed.), Encyclopaedia of
educational research (Vol. 4, pp. 1894-1903). New York: The Free Press.
JOURNAL ARTICLES:
One author:
Herrington, A. J. (1985). Classrooms as forums for reasoning and writing. College
Composition and Communication, 36(4), 404-413.
Two authors:
Horowitz, L. M., & Post, D. L. (1981). The prototype as a construct in abnormal psychology.
Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 90(6), 575-585.

Society, association, or institution as author:

Institute on Rehabilitation Issues. (1975). Critical issues in rehabilitating the severely
handicapped. Rehabilitation Counselling Bulletin, 18(4), 205-213.

NEWSPAPER ARTICLES:
No author:
More jobs waiting for college graduates. (1986, June 17). Detroit Free Press, pp. 1A, 3A.
MAGAZINES:
One author:
Powledge, T. M. (1983, July). The importance of being twins. Psychology Today, 19, 20-27.
No author:
CBS invades Cuba, returns with Irakere: Havana jam. (1979, May 3). Down Beat, 10.

9. SUBMISSION
Four copies of bounded report distributed as follows:
Supervisor
Department
UNIMTECH Main Library
Student
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