Biocore WritingManual F98



Writing Manual for Research Report

PLB 423 Wetland Plants and Algae

1. About This Manual

This writing manual is adopted directly from the manual used in the Biocore program at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Dr. Janet Batzli, Associate Director of Biocore, and I developed the components of this manual when she was at MSU.

2. Avoiding Plagiarism

Plagiarism is presenting someone else's words or ideas as your own. You are all aware that copying word for word from a source without quotation marks and a citation is plagiarism, but so is paraphrasing or using ideas without citing the source, and so is paraphrasing another student's lab report.

You all conducted your wetland research as a member of a team. We want you to work together and to discuss the progress of the project and the ideas that you have about them with your team members. Science often is a collaborative enterprise. However, this research report must be your own individual work. If this were a group report, you would identify your collaborators, just as all scientists do.

Do not put yourself and our teaching team in the unpleasant situation of having to deal with academic misconduct. If you use someone else's exact words, you must put them in quotation marks and cite the source. If you use someone else's ideas, even if you paraphrase them, you must cite the source. This includes your classmates' work as well as published sources.

The following excerpt from a handout prepared by the UW-Madison Writing Center illustrates what is and is not appropriate.

Paraphrasing, and Acknowledging Sources

To Create a Successful Summary or Paraphrase

1. When reading source material, treat each passage as a discrete unit of thought to be assimilated into your own thoughts. Try to understand the passage as a whole, rather than pausing to write down ideas or phrases that seem, on first inspection, significant. Read purposefully, with a larger conceptual framework in clear view, and integrate each reading into that controlling purpose.

2. After reaching a clear understanding of the ideas contained in the source, summarize that information in your own words. Remember that you are taking notes, not copying down quotations. Your task is to extract, distill and compress essential content that will be useful in creating a paraphrase. Occasionally you may find it useful to quote words or phrases directly from the source, but limit yourself to very brief quotations, and be sure to use quotation marks and to record page numbers in your notes.

Sample Paraphrases--Unsuccessful and Successful

Based on paragraph A below, consider two improper ways of handling source material: (B) word-for-word plagiarism and (C) "The Mosaic." Finally, paragraph D provides a model of a legitimate paraphrase.

A. The Source

"How important is our power of nonanalytical thought to the practice of science? It's the most important thing we have, declares the Princeton physicist historian Thomas Kuhn who argues that major breakthroughs occur only after scientists finally concede that certain physical phenomena cannot be explained by extending the logic of old theories. Consider the belief that the sun and the planets move around the earth, which reigned prior to 1500. This idea served nicely for a number of centuries, but then became too cumbersome to describe the motions of heavenly bodies. So the Polish astronomer Copernicus invented a new reality that was based on a totally different `paradigm' or model--that the earth and planets move around the sun" (Hoover, 124).

B. Word-for-word plagiarism

Non-analytic thought is considered very important to the practice of science by Princeton physicist historian Thomas Kuhn who claims that major breakthroughs happen only when scientists finally concede that some physical phenomena defy explanation by extending the logic of old theories. One idea which served nicely for many centuries but then became too cumbersome was the belief that the sun and planets revolved around the earth. This was held prior to 1500 until Copernicus invented a new reality: the earth and planets move around the sun.

The underlined words are directly copied from the source. Notice that the writer has not only "borrowed" Hoover's ideas with no acknowledgment, he or she has maintained the author's method of expression and sentence structure. Even if the student-writer had acknowledged Hoover as the source of these ideas, this passage would still be plagiarized because much of its exact wording comes from Hoover with no quotation marks to indicate that the language is Hoover's. It's not that using a single phrase such as "prior to 1500" without quotation marks constitutes plagiarism; it's the repeated use of exact wording and sentence structure without any quotation marks. If, for example, you used just that one phrase without quotation marks--a phrase whose language isn't particularly distinctive--and acknowledged the source of the ideas, that would be fine.

If quotation marks were placed around all material directly taken from Hoover, this paragraph would be so cluttered as to be unreadable. If you like the ideas and the wording of the original this much, if it is important to your paper, and if it is stated more concisely in the original than it would be in your paraphrase or summary, then quote the original.

C. The Mosaic

Intuition plays an important role in scientific progress. Thomas Kuhn believes that nonanalytical thought allows scientists to break through the logic of old theories to formulate new paradigms to explain a new reality. Copernicus' invention of one such model (a reversal of the Ptolemaic view which reigned prior to 1500) claimed that the earth and planets rotate around the sun.

Note the underlined phrases that have been borrowed from the original and shifted around. Hoover's structure has been modified to a certain extent by the writer, but numerous key phrases have been retained without quotation marks, and the source has not been credited.

D. A Legitimate Paraphrase

In "Zen: Technology and the Split Brain," Hoover suggests that the power of intuition--that suprarational half of our intelligence--is more important to scientific advancement than the function of the left hemisphere of our brain--the rigidly logical and process-oriented portion. He cites the revolution in thinking created by Copernicus' new paradigm of cosmic movement, a leap in understanding made possible only by the creative invention of "a new reality" after rational consideration of the old reality had exhausted itself (124).

Hoover's ideas and specific language have been documented (by direct references to the author, by citations to his article, and by quotation marks where specific language has been used). Notice too that Hoover's language and structure have been modified to fit this student-writer's own purpose.

Please keep these guidelines in mind when using sources in your papers.

3. Structure of a Research Report

(See the Paper Review Form at the end of this section for evaluation criteria.)

A primary way that scientists communicate with one another is through scientific papers. We will model our research report on the format most commonly used by scientific journals. (Some journals deviate from this format, and you should always consult the guidelines for the particular journal before preparing a manuscript for submission.) Your research reports should follow the guidelines described below.

1. Title

2. Abstract

3. Introduction

4. Methods and Materials

5. Results (including figures and tables)

6. Discussion

7. Literature Cited

Each section of the paper (except for "Title") should begin with one of these terms as its heading.

Target audience. We consider the target audience for the research reports to be fellow students who majoring in a biological science within CNS or CANR; the target audience for

oral presentations (posters and Powerpoint) are your peers in this course. A clearly written report should provide a person in the target audience with enough information that she could completely understand, critique, and duplicate your experiment. This sort of clarity depends on a solid understanding of the concepts behind the research, sound logic, careful organization, and proper English usage.

Listing you Teammates

Normally, scientists who work together on an investigation write the paper collaboratively and include all researchers names as authors. Here, we ask for individual lab reports because we want to give you the opportunity to work on your writing and thinking skills. Thus, your teammates are not co-authors, but list them as contributors at the top of the page in alphabetical order.

Title

The title is a clear, specific statement of the subject of your report. It introduces the reader to your paper and lets them know what to expect. Titles should be concise and informative and need not be complete sentences. Avoid filler words like "Studies on" or "Investigations of" and opening words like A, An, or The. Be as specific as possible. Avoid abbreviations and jargon. A particularly effective title states the results.

VAGUE: A Study of Aquatic Plants in a Pickle Jar

SPECIFIC: Competition Between Elodea canadensis and Ceratophyllum demersum in a Model Aquatic Ecosystem

Particularly EFFECTIVE: Drosophila melanogaster Wingless Gene Maps to

Chromosome 2

If your report constitutes the results of an experiment where you manipulated variables and analyzed the result, include the independent and dependent variables, the direction of your results as well as the study organism/ subject in your title.

PARTICULARLY EFFECTIVE: Addition of caffeine (INDEPENDENT VARIABLE) to aquatic

culture decreases (DIRECTION) the stem length (DEPENDENT VARIABLE) of Phalaris arundinacea, reed canary grass (STUDY ORGANISM)

Abstract

The Abstract is often the most difficult step in writing a paper since it forces the author to distill the essence of the paper to a very brief summary (100-200 words). Always write the Abstract last, after you thoroughly understand the research and its meaning. Use the Abstract to highlight the rationale behind the research, the general approach you took, and the principle results and conclusions. One way to do this is to summarize, in one sentence each, the 4 sections of your paper.

Abstracts must relate the main points of the paper and should be understandable without referring to the rest of the paper. Samples are widely available in electronic databases, and many readers use the Abstract to decide whether they want to find and read the entire paper.

Introduction

This section provides background information and a clear explanation of the purpose or biological rationale, the general approach of your investigation, and your hypothesis.

Elements of the Introduction:

• Background information: key issues, concepts, and terminology needed to understand the reason for the investigation (the biological rationale), the logic of the experimental design (the approach), and the types of data you collected. Remember to be concise and only include relevant information given your audience and your experimental design.

• Study Question: This question flows directly from your background information based on an observation or previous research.

• Biological Rationale: This is the purpose of your investigation. It may help to think about the rationale as an answer to the questions—how is this investigation related to what we know AND how will this investigation add to our knowledge? You should not over emphasize the relevance of your investigation and the possible connections to large-scale processes. Be realistic and logical—do not over generalize or make grand predictions that are not sensible given the structure of your wetland system.

Rationale That Needs Work: Global warming hypotheses predict an increase in average global temperature of 1.3°C in the next 10 years (Seetwo, 2003). Daphnia magna are small zooplankton that live in freshwater inland lakes and are thought to increase a sexual mode of reproduction in response to extreme temperatures. Therefore, Daphnia magna may also be sensitive to increased temperatures and may serve as a good environmental indicator for global warming.

Better Rationale: Daphnia magna are small zooplankton that live in freshwater inland lakes with an average surficial summer temperature of 20°C and are queued to reproduce sexually in response to extreme conditions (Mitchell 1999). Lake water temperatures in effluent from power plants, paper mills, or chemical industry facilities may be more than 10% higher than the average summer lake temperatures and could affect the survival and reproductive cycles of many resident aquatic organisms including Daphnia magna as a sensitive environmental indicator species (Baker et al. 2000).

• Hypothesis: Your hypothesis is a specific prediction or set of predictions that you will test during your investigation. This statement should include the independent variable (what you manipulate), the dependent variable (what you measure), the organism or system, the direction of your results, and comparison to be made.

Hypothesis that needs work: We hypothesized that the addition of 1% n-butanol to Sacchromyces cerevisae culture exposed to alpha factor will increase the sexual mating response. [The dependent variable “sexual response” has not been specified enough to be able to make this hypothesis testable or falsifiable. In addition, no comparison has been specified— increased sexual mating response as compared to what?]

Better Hypothesis: We hypothesized that Sacchromyces cerevisae [study organism] grown in the presence of alpha mating factor and 1% n-butanol [indep. var] would exhibit a reduced [direction] amount of budding [depend. var] and increased [direction] transcription at the FUS1 promoter [depend. var] as compared with S. cerevisae exposed to alpha factor and grown in n-butanol free medium.

• Experimental Approach: Briefly give the reader a general sense of the experiment, the type of data it will yield, and the kind of answers you expect to obtain from the data. Do not confuse the experimental approach with the experimental protocol. The experimental protocol consists of the detailed step-by-step procedures and techniques used during the experiment which are to be reported in the Methods and Materials section.

• In the case of field investigations, include a description of the type and location of the site studied.

Be Concise yet Specific: As you write, keep asking, "Is this necessary information or is this irrelevant detail?" For example, if you are writing a paper claiming that a certain compound is a competitive inhibitor for alkaline phosphatase and acts by binding to the active site, you need to explain (briefly) Michaelis-Menton kinetics and the meaning and significance of Km and Vmax. This is not necessary if you are reporting the dependence of the activity of the enzyme on pH because you do not need to measure Km and Vmax. Another example, if you are writing a paper reporting the increase in Daphnia magna heart rate kupon exposure to caffeine you need not describe the reproductive cycle of the organism unless it is germane to your results and discussion. Be specific and concrete, especially when making introductory or summary statements.

Poor: Many factors affect the general well-being of Daphnia.

Better: Daphnia growth and survival are dependent on temperature and food availability, but not on the kind of food available.

Background information can come from our class discussions, your textbooks, or the lab manual. In some cases you are also expected to use the library. If you use information from the text or lab manual, put it into your own words. Whether you paraphrase or quote an idea directly, you must cite the source in your paper. (See the sections on Avoiding Plagiarism [pp. 2-4] and on Citations and References [pp. 9-10].)

One of the most important features in the introduction is a statement of the study question, hypothesis and/or associated problem. The paper should be structured so that the background leads logically to your question, your rationale and then your hypothesis followed by a concise explanation of experimental approach.

Defining the rationale is probably the most critical task for a writer. Correctly done, it will simplify the writing process because it provides the logical framework for your paper. You identify where you are going and how you expect to get there. Articulating the purpose and approach forces you to identify the main point(s) you will address in the Discussion section, the types and sources of evidence, and how you expect to use the evidence to support the points you make. Understanding this will help you organize your thinking and will help your reader follow your train of logic throughout the paper.

Defining the rationale may also be difficult. To do it correctly you must clearly understand the whole point of the experiment. Expect to spend time and mental effort on this before you begin writing the paper. You may have to do considerable digging into the scientific literature to find out how your experiment fits into what is already known and why it is relevant to pursue. It may take several attempts to write a statement that seems consistent with the experiment and the data you will obtain. Furthermore, be open to the possibility that as you work with and think about your data, you probably will develop a deeper, more accurate understanding of the experiment. You may find the original rationale needs to be revised to reflect your new understanding. Achieving this type of understanding takes effort, but it will lead to a better paper.

Methods and Materials

This section is often the easiest to write since it is simply a clear explanation of the specific procedures, techniques, and materials you used. Provide enough details that the reader could replicate the experiment. This will also allow him/her to evaluate whether to trust your findings. Focus on essentials that affect the results. For example, in a genetics experiment with flies, it is important to state whether the females used for the crosses were virgins; it is not necessary to list the type of food or anesthetic used. However, these details would be important if your experiment was testing how different diets affected fruit fly activity level or some other physiological parameter.

Mathematical manipulations or statistical analyses applied to the data are part of the experimental methods and should be explained here, but keep these brief. Although calculations are not normally included in a scientific paper, be certain to show your calculations with Charlotte or me to check the accuracy.

In cases where detailed protocols are given, (e.g., Nitrate test a la Hach), merely cite the appropriate chapter of the Hach manual, note any details relevant to the experiment but not specified in the protocol (e.g., collection of soil samples that were totally humus), and describe any manipulations you made that are not outlined in the manual. Include only what is vital for the reader’s understanding of how the results were obtained. Drawing white poker chips out of a 1 quart vanilla flavored ice cream container to get two numbers to pace out and place quadrats is not as important as the fact that quadrat placement was random. If you are having trouble deciding what to put in and what to leave out, consult with us.

Organize the procedures in the Materials and Methods section logically: use subheadings, put related methods together, and describe procedures in chronological order (if it makes sense to do so). Since you refer to procedures that you carried out in the past, use the past tense for this section.

Results

The Results section is a logically organized presentation of your observational and numeric data. In many cases the organization and subheadings of this section should be consistent with those of the Methods and Materials section. There are usually two parts to this section:

1. text

2. tables and figures.

Text

The key purpose of the text in the results section is to point out and emphasize trends/ patterns in your data. These patterns are often illustrated in figures or tables. However, each figure and table needs accompanying text to point out the obvious—or sometimes the not so obvious. Briefly describe, but do not interpret, key results. (Interpretation of the data belongs in the Discussion section.) Refer your reader to Table 1 or Figure 1 as you explicitly identify relationships, patterns, or general trends that you see in the data. Remember that relationships that are obvious to you may not be obvious to someone who has not carried out the experiment. Never write a sentence that just tells the reader where the data are. Observe the general trends in the data, then refer to the figure or table parenthetically.

Poor: The data from the competition experiment are presented in Figure 1.

Better: The Selenastrum outcompeted the Gomphonema in every treatment (Figure 1).

The Results section should not be controversial since you are merely reporting findings, not saying what you think they mean. Avoid judging your data as "good" or "bad." Data are facts and facts simply are what they are. Remember: you are not graded on your results you are graded on how you handle them. Always report what you saw, not what you think you should have seen. Again, DO NOT interpret your data in this section. Leave interpretation for the discussion.

Tables and Figures

Tables are organized lists of numbers, ideas, or other data. Figures are graphs, charts, diagrams, or photos. Tables and figures are key elements of a scientific paper. First, they offer a concise way to present a large amount of information. Second, they carry the bulk of the experimental evidence needed to support your conclusions. Third, they offer the reader a chance to assess your data and determine whether or not your conclusions are valid. Finally, the values in them can be used by other scientists who wish to build on your work. Usually, summarized (e.g., averages and measures of variation) rather than raw data are included in a paper. Always make it clear whether you are presenting actual data or averages. (In some cases we will ask you to include raw data as an appendix.) Please refer to the section 11 on production of figures using Excel.

Each table or figure should be referred to in the text of your paper at least once. If you have nothing to note about a particular table or figure, leave it out. Identify and number tables or figures according to the order they appear in the text (Table 1, Table 2, Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.). This way the reader will know exactly what data you are discussing.

Tables and figures should be neat, logically organized, and informative. If properly prepared they can stand independently of the paper. Always remember that readers are not familiar with your data. A table or figure that seems self-explanatory to you may not seem so to a reader.

Here are some rules for presentation graphs and tables:

• Present your final data in table or graphical form. The choice of table or figure should be based on the type of data you have. If you are trying to show trends or simple comparisons it may be best to use a figure. If you have long lists or many comparisons to be made across groups a table may be more appropriate. [DO NOT present the same data in both table and graphic form.]

• The most common way to present graphical data is either an XY scatterplot for continuous data or bar chart for categorical data.

• Keep it simple! The amount of time it takes a reader to interpret a figure is inversely proportional to how well those data are presented. Do not over use transformations or ratios if they are unnecessary for accuracy and clarity of your results.

• Clearly label all axes or columns including units (e.g. Moisture (% dry weight), Nitrate (ppm)). Provide a key for any symbols used.

• Table and figures should always have a legend (description) that fully describes them (so that they can stand alone). Avoid using the term vs.

o POOR LEGEND: Species diversity vs. pH

o BETTER: Frequency distribution of Typha along a pH gradient in a marsh and bog.

o

• It is not necessary to create titles for figures or tables. A simple legend is sufficient numbering each table and figure consecutively is sufficient. Do not use titles like “Chart 1” that are automatically generated by Excel.

• For graphs that present an average value as a single point or bar, include error bars and state what they represent. Usually, this will be 1 standard deviation (SD) or 1 standard error (SE) on either side of the mean. For tables presenting means, include some measure of variation (SD or SE).

• State the number of samples used to calculate an average. If you measured the height of 20 Juncus plants and reported an average height of 82 cm, indicate the number of samples used to generate that statistic as n=20.

• Do not connect the points on a line graph unless you really mean to say that the values in between the points shown should follow the line drawn. Trend lines have very limited predictive value or validity when connecting 3 points or less.

An example of a well-labeled figure with an effective legend is shown below.

[pic]

Figure 1. Metabolic rate (in kcal/min) of a female subject while stepping on an exercise step at two different stepping rates (110 and 122 steps/minute) and with backpack loads of 0, 10, 29, and 42% of her body mass. Each point represents the average of two days. Error bars are + or - 1 SE. Lines are the best-fitting lines for each stepping cadence.

Discussion

This is where you interpret your results for the reader. It is the most important part of your paper and often one of the most difficult to write; be sure to allow enough time to work on it. The purpose and approach statements from the Introduction should guide the organization of the Discussion. Be specific. The following is not an appropriate conclusion: "The results were pretty much what we expected (see Results section)." State specifically what you conclude and the specific reason(s) for that conclusion. The Discussion should lead the reader through the specific conclusions drawn from the data to their more general implications beyond the experiment.

Here are some key elements to think about for the Discussion section:

• State your conclusion(s) clearly in the opening paragraph. Restate your hypothesis and whether you accept or reject your hypothesis based on what you expected given what you observed. (Note that finding that there was no difference between 2 treatments is still a conclusion.)

• Science cannot prove anything. Without getting into too much philosophical detail, the role of science is not to find proof, but rather to move closer to truth by disproving what is not true. Therefore, you will not be ‘proving your hypothesis’ in an experiment. You will be merely accepting or rejecting your hypothesis given the construct of your experiment and the data you have gathered.

• Guide your readers through the steps in your reasoning that lead you to your conclusion. Present the arguments that explain how your experimental approach and the pieces of evidence (data) convinced you of your conclusion. Form an argument (see section on writing logical arguments)

• Do not over-interpret your data. Recognize the magnitude of the variation within your data and the level of departure you would need to find to conclude true differences.

• In most cases you are trying to attach meaning to a group of numbers generated by some procedure. Help your readers make sense of these numbers by explaining how the patterns and relationships you observed reflect the biological concepts or issues you set out to explore. How does your data fit with your biological rationale?

• For experiments where you carried out a literature search, compare your findings with information from the literature, citing appropriate references. How do your findings add to those that others have observed? Are your results consistent or inconsistent with others findings—why or why not?

• In some cases you may discover unexpected inaccuracies in your data or that the methods you used were not appropriate or precise enough to address your question or test your hypothesis. Address the errors, unresolved issues and speculate how the experimental approach might be improved.

• Inconclusive results may show that you weren't asking a relevant question in the first place or that the experiment was not able to test the question you posed. This, in turn, can generate specific new questions and experimental approaches.

• Evaluate the strengths of your experiment and speculate on the implications of your findings. Implications are specific, reasonable extensions of your results or the meaning of your results for the larger picture. Your results may lead to new insights about relationships in nature. An unexpected result (if it holds up on repeating the experiment) may yield insight to guide a more effective experimental approach.

• Science is built on an iterative cycle of questions, experiments, results and conclusions. Often it is appropriate to suggest the next step in the investigation. Be sure to include the reasoning that leads to your insights. They may be speculative, but they should be well reasoned. Your experiment will likely provide many opportunities to ask new questions.

• End your paper strongly with a clear, brief conclusion that relates directly to the question, hypothesis, or problem you stated in the Introduction.

If you get stuck:

The hard work of making meaning of data will be easier if you have a clear idea of what it was that you set out to do in the first place. Re-read your biological rationale or purpose statement. Do your results allow you to answer the question posed in your statement? Do you understand your data? If not, discuss with your instructors. Be sure to discuss your results thoroughly with your research team. They may have some insight, intriguing literature for comparison, or thoughts about the data that could benefit your interpretation.

Other things you can do:

Make a concept map. This is especially useful for seeing new connections, structuring ideas, and finding interactions at multiple levels.

Explain the experiment and its significance to a friend who knows nothing about it. If you understand the full content, context, results and relevance of your experiment, you should be able to explain what was done and what it means. This should help provide some organization to your paper.

Literature Citations and References

Citations

You must cite all information that you use from published or unpublished sources in the body of your paper and then give the complete name of the author(s) and source in the References section at the end of the paper. Use the parenthetical author-date system preferred by most scientific journals. Within a sentence or at the end of a block of text, give the last name of the author(s) and the date the work was published, both enclosed by parentheses: Global warming is a looming threat to biodiversity (Peters and Lovejoy, 1992).

If you wish to cite more than one source, list them in chronological order: e.g. (Jones, 1992; Smith & Jacobs, 1993; Torrez, 1995). If a work has more than two authors, you may list the first followed by et al. (Latin for “and others”) and the date: (Jones et al., 1995). However, the names of all of the authors must be included in the list of references at the end of the paper.

The format for unpublished information or data communicated to you by a colleague is the source followed by "personal communication" or "unpublished data": e.g. (Maria Rodriguez, personal communication 2002; Biocore 302 class, unpublished data). Use these sparingly as they cannot be verified. Personal/unpublished communications do not go in the list of references at the end of the paper.

References

List all works cited in the text - and no others - alphabetically in the References section at the end of your paper. The specific format used for references varies depending on each journal's conventions, web-site format and the type of source to which you are referring. We would like you to use the format demonstrated below. Each reference should include the names of all the authors, the date the article or book was published and/or the date the website was accessed and its title.

We will use the format used in Bioscience:

Journal article:

Include the author(s), title of the article (with only the first word capitalized), name and volume of the journal, and pages for the article.

Vitousek PM. 1994. Beyond global warming: ecology and global change. Ecology 75: 1861-1876.

Post WM, Emanuel WR, Zinke PJ, and Stangenberger AG. 1982. Soil carbon pools and world life zones. Nature 298: 156-159.

Internet Sources

Include the author(s), title of the work (in quotation marks), title of the complete work or site, if applicable (in italics), website URL or address (except for personal email), and date of visit or message. (The method for citing online sources has not yet been standardized.)

email:

Carbon JJ. "Physiology data." Personal email (7 July 01).

listserv or newslist:

Blystone RV. "Setting up a digital classroom and other stuff." biolab@hubcap.clemson.edu (10 May 96).

World Wide Web:

Waterman M, Stanley E, Soderberg P, and Jungck JR. "Kingdoms entangled: molecules, malaria, and maise." BioQUEST Curriculum Consortium. Accessed: 10 Aug. 99. URL:

Macreal H. "Large Fish, Small Pond." April 10, 2001. Accessed: April 20, 2001. URL:

Splice G. "Mutations are the Ultimate form of Variation" University Press Weekly 21 July 2000: 22. Electric Library. Accessed: 17 Oct.1997. URL: .

*Note: Do not write out a website address as a parenthetic citation within the text. Whenever possible, list the author. If you can’t find an author, list the organization that provided the information. If you can’t find the name of the organization, question the quality of your source.

Book

Include the author(s), title, edition number (if it is not the first edition), the publisher, the city of publication, and the state (omit the state for well known cities like New York).

Kuhn TS. 1962. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Purves WK, Sadava D, Orians GH, and Heller HC. 2001. Life, the Science of Biology, 6th ed. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates.

Chapter in a Book

Naes A. 1986. Intrinsic value: will the defenders of nature please rise? pp. 504-515. in Soulé ME., ed. Conservation Biology: the Science of Scarcity and Diversity. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates.

Formatting Your Lab Report

We want you to use a computer to write your papers. This will make it easier to revise, edit, and spell check your paper. Avoid disasters by saving papers often (e.g., every 10 minutes) and backing up all important files. Spell check and proofread before turning it in.

Please use the following conventions for your reports:

• Double space your text. This allows your TA or peer reviewer to write comments between the lines without struggling to squeeze words into the margins.

• Use a 10-12 point font.

• Keep a 1 inch margin around all of your text. Margins make your papers easier to read and provide room for comments.

• Use headings. Headings and subheadings help you to organize your paper and provide clear signposts for your readers to follow. Examples of headings are the major sections we described above (Introduction, Methods, etc.). Long sections and those that include distinct parts should have subheadings. For example, the Methods section of an ecology paper might have the following subheadings: Organism, Study Sites, Statistical Analyses. Use a 2 point larger bold font for headings and a bold font for subheadings.

• Don’t prepare a title page - save a tree. Simply center the title at the top the first page of your report. Likewise, don’t bother with a special folder for the report - a single staple in the corner is sufficient.

Paper Review Form

Author: Reviewer:

Key: + = Excellent √ = Adequate NW = Needs work 0 = Missing NA=Not applicable in this paper

Title

| |Specific (e.g., includes the independent and dependent variables to be tested, and the organism or subject that is the focus of the |

| |study) |

| |Conveys the main point of the paper |

| |Appropriately concise |

| |All authors / contributors names beneath the title |

| |

|Abstract |

| |key points; biological rationale, hypothesis, experimental approach, brief methods, major results/conclusions; Concise (absolutely |

| |essential in an Abstract) ................
................

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