Ecology - PCB 3043 - Writing Assignment

The purpose of the writing assignment is to introduce you to the scientific (professional) literature. Scientific literature differs considerably from popular writing (e.g. National Geographic, Time, Newsweek). The assignment will be spread over the semester. This is a library project and you will have to learn how to use the FIU library resources. Visit the Green Library to get help. The staff are very friendly and helpful.

You must work independently and you must not plagiarize. I will catch you if you copy each other and if you "lift" someone's ideas without citing them. This is cheating and is against University policy. If you cheat you will receive zero points for the assignment.

Part I: Selection of an ecological theme - You must send me an email by 15 September to have your topic approved .

This part of the assignment is worth 5 points. You need to send an email to me (donnelly@fiu.edu) and tell me what theme you are selecting. There are several possibilities including: organismal ecology (ecological studies of a single species or a group of species -- Ecology of Dolphins, Ecology of Redwood Trees, Ecology of Coral Disease), population ecology (e.g., population ecology of bacteria, factors regulating population growth in plants), physiological ecology (studies of how animals physiological respond to their environments), the ecology of interactions (e.g., ecology of predators and prey cycles, pollination studies, competition as a factor regulating communities), community ecology, ecosystem ecology, conservation biology. If you are struggling to find a topic, flip through the text book and see what catches your eye or look in the index and try to find a topic.

You will receive a zero if you are late for this part of the assignment.

Part II: The Bibliography. This is due on 8 October 2003. This must be typed and is worth 10 points.

You must find 10 articles from the primary scientific literature related to your theme. Three of the 10 papers must come from one of the following journals: Ecology, Ecological Monographs, or Ecological Applications (all published by the Ecological Society of America). The bibliography must be alphabetized (by the first authors last name; if you have more than one paper by a single author, put them in chronological order starting with the oldest paper and working towards the most current. Put scientific names in italics. You must include the names of all authors, the year, the full title of the paper, the name of the journal (in italics), the volume number, and the page numbers:

Butler, D., H. Gee, and C. Macllwain. 1998. Museum research comes off list of endangered species. Nature 394:115-119.

Colwell, R. K., and J. A. Coddington. 1994. Estimating the extent of terrestrial biodiversity through extrapolation. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B 345:101-118.

Fagan, W. F., and P. M. Kareiva. 1997. Using compiled species lists to make biodiversity comparisons among regions: a test case using Oregon butterflies. Biological Conservation 80:249-259.

Foster, M. S. 1993. Research, Conservation, and Collaboration: The Role of Visiting Scientists in Developing Countries. The Auk 110:414-417.

Foster, M. S., and P. F. Cannell. 1990. Bird specimens and documentation: critical data for a critical resource. The Condor 92:277-283.

Taylor, E.H. 1969. A new caecilian from Brasil. University of Kansas Science Bulletin 48:307-313.

Wake, M.H. 1986. The morphology of Idiocranium russelli (Amphibia: Gymnophiona), with comments on miniaturization through heterochrony. Journal of Morphology 189:1-16.

For each of the 10 papers you select, you must print off/copy the first page of each paper. Attach the typed bibliography to the 10 pages of article pages. The assignment will not be longer than 12 pages.

You will receive a zero if you are late.

Part III: Selection of three papers via email. You must send me an email message by 22 October 2003 indicating which three papers you are going to critique for Part 4 of the assignment. This is worth 5 points. You will receive a zero if you are late.

Part IV: The critiques and answers to the questions - Worth 80 points and due on 19 November 2003.

For each paper you must write a two-page critique that is double spaced (12 point font and one inch margins all around). The critique should include the following: A paragraph describing the paper -- what the subject is, what approach the authors used to study the subject, what the authors found, what the authors think the results mean. You should have a paragraph that describes what you liked about the paper, and you should have a paragraph describing what you did not like about the paper. You should conclude with a sentence or two that ties it all together.

Click here to see example critiques:

In addition to the critiques you must answer the following questions. The answers must be typed (double-spaced, 12 point font, one inch margins all around). Each critique is worth 10 points for a total of 30 points)

1. What ecological them unites the papers you selected? (10 points, one page maximum)
2. What hypothesis or hypotheses did each study examine? (15 points, three pages maximum)
3. What paper did you like best and why did you like it? (10 points, three pages maximum)
4. Based on the results presented in the three papers you selected, what ecological study would you conduct to advance the research theme (15 points, five pages maximum).

The entire final part of the assignment should not exceed 18 double-spaced pages. If you are late, you will lose five points per day.