More Information on the Term Paper 5Oct04
Points (25 possible) are distributed as follows:
List of two - three references plus research question: 1 point
Draft Introduction: 4 points
Final Paper: 20 points
Writing style/Grammar/Organization: 10 points
Analysis: 10 points
Late drafts lose 1 point per day and late final papers lose 3 points per day.
Reference list and research question: turn in a list of two-three primary references and the research question that is central to your term paper. For each reference, indicate the author(s), date, article title, journal, volume, and page numbers. One of the references must have been published in the current year. State the question as a question; for example, 'How does elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide affect decomposition rates?'
You may read reviews and book chapters, but your primary references should be original research articles. You may use older literature, but try to find the most current information. See me if you have trouble finding a topic and papers. Note that once you find an interesting paper, you can easily find related papers in the Literature Cited section. Because your selection of papers will influence the quality of your term paper, do not pick the first two-three papers you look at. Instead, select related papers after looking over at least six to eight papers. To 'look over' a paper, read the Abstract, Introduction, and Discussion.
Draft introduction: About 1.0 page long, the Introduction should briefly explain the problem or question and provide sufficient background so that the reader knows what the research papers and your term paper are about. Include the research papers' titles and objectives. I will return the Introduction with comments within 1 week.
Before writing your Introduction, you should 'brainstorm' and prepare a cluster diagram (read the brainstorm link). Learn the advantages of not starting with an outline, first paragraph, or perfect sentence. Rather, start by assembling all your ideas and considering how they relate: do this with pencil and paper. Don't worry about being neat and don't judge your thoughts too severely at this early stage.
After you have assembled information and recognized useful patterns, begin outlining and writing complete paragraphs. Of course, as you write you will decide that some patterns need to be changed or that some patterns are more important than others - we sometimes refer to this as 'thinking'. Continue to think, write, and revise until you finish your paper.
So that you will understand what I expect for the final paper, I grade and comment on the draft as if it were the final paper. If you respond to my comments on content and writing style, you will receive a good grade on your final paper.
Remember: half the paper is graded on writing style. I will comment extensively on the writing in your draft and we will discuss scientific writing in class. If you don't want to work on your writing, don't take the class.