term paper

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A lengthy piece of written work required of a student on a topic drawn from the subject matter of a course of study.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun A substantial research paper written by a student over an academic term or semester which accounts for a large amount of a grade and makes up much of the course.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun a composition intended to indicate a student's progress during a school term