The University of Toronto Mississauga Library staff has compiled  several links on researching and writing term papers. Look them up: Advice on Academic Writing | How do I write an essay?

You are asked to write an essay or a review essay on a book of your choice that deals with topics covered in this course. If you are working alone, the length of your paper should be approximately 15 pages, excluding the cover page and the bibliography. Teamwork is not allowed for review essays, but it is for essays. The length of the essays should be 20 pages for teams of two and 25 pages for teams of three. Keep in mind that I am expecting more from teams, both in terms of overall quality and bibliographical coverage.

The choice of topic or book must be approved by the instructor BEFORE turning in your proposal. Send me an e-mail with the course number in the title.

- For essays: In the message, tell me in one paragraph what you would like to work and, if applicable, who are your teammates.

- For book reviews: In the message, include the author's name, the book title, the book publisher, the year of publication and a link to the publisher's Webpage where I can find a summary of the book. If there is no publisher's page, give me a link to the Amazon.com page devoted to the book. (You can also use another Internet book seller. They key point here is that I want to read a summary of the book.)

Here are the detailed guidelines for the relevant step:

Proposal (deadline, January 23, beginning of lecture)

Term Paper (deadline, March 26, 5 PM)

or

Review Essay (deadline, March 26, 5 PM)
There will be a drop-off box in front of Room Davis 3284.

Penalties for lateness
Failure to turn in the proposal on time will result in a grade of 0.
Penalties for lateness for either the term paper or review essay will be 10% per calendar day.
 

What's the point of this?

The choice is yours. Here is my advice:

If you already have some background on one of the topics discussed in class or relevant to this course and like to work in team, a term paper might be more interesting because it gives you the opportunity to focus on a topic of your choice that might be narrower in scope than what you will find in most books. Remember that you are expected to be familiar with all the suggested readings listed on the GGR 329 Webpage that are relevant to your topic, but that you can use also the scholarly ones as primary references.

If you know next to nothing about the topics discussed in class and took this course because you need some credits to get on with your life, then a book review might be more appropriate. You should be aware, however, that a good review essay is not easier to write than a term paper. You must first read the book and the reviews. I am also expecting you to be familiar with all the relevant suggested readings listed on the GGR 329 Webpage. Besides, keep in mind that the instructor has studied these topics for a while and might have read the book in the first place.