A custom term paper is a paper that one produces specifically for a given assignment, in contrast to re-submitting papers that one has written for previous courses. Instructors usually assume that all papers are custom term papers. . . .

Students may write term papers on AIDS for several different academic disciplines, such as biology, nursing, cultural studies, and counseling. Students may write term papers on AIDS even for courses that do not immediately relate to AIDS, such as literature or art courses. For example, one may write a term paper on the life and work of Michel Foucault, a prominent literary critic who was a victim of the disease. . . .

A geography term paper may cover a wide variety of subjects, depending on the needs of the course and the interests of the writer. Students may write geography term papers on, for example, weather patterns, imports and exports, political boundaries, agriculture, or any number of other subtopics of geography. . . .

College students often have to write argumentative term papers, in which they offer their opinion on a topic that they have researched. These term papers frequently appear in the humanities and the fine arts, which are disciplines that rely heavily on subjective experience and on the discussion of ideas from many angles. . . .

Because chemistry classes usually focus on a combination of textbook work and laboratory work, the instructor who assigns a chemistry term paper probably has a specific reason for doing so. Perhaps the instructor wants the students to explore an important event or person in scientific history, perhaps the instructor wants to hear the students' thoughts on a certain experiment they conducted, or perhaps the instructor simply wants the students to discuss a scientific topic in a term paper for the purpose of integrating one's scientific thinking with one's writing skills. Whatever the reason, the student should ascertain immediately what the instructor's purpose is in assigning chemistry term papers. . . .