PCB-3043 Ecology Home

Writing Assignment - PCB-3043 Ecology

The purpose of the writing assignment is for you to learn how to find scientific literature in a particular field, read that literature critically and improve your writing skills (particularly in the scientific style).  I will teach you how to use the FIU library system to find literature relevant to your assigned topic.  You will then put together a bibliography (in a set style) of primary literature references that pertain to that topic.  Then you will write a summary of 3 papers from your reference list.  This will be turned in first as a rough draft so that you can learn ways of improving your critical thinking and writing using my comments and edits.  Your final draft will be graded based on your ability to improve the paper based on suggestions.  The steps to follow for your writing assignment are below. Assignments are due during class on the date provided. Late assignments are not accepted for any reason.

STEPS:

Step #1.  Topic (5%) - Find your topic from the (below) using the last 2 digits of your panther ID number.  If your last 2 digits are >50, subtract 50 from your number and use that topic.  If you don't understand your topic title, try to find references to it in your book and see me during office hours for clarification.  Then, e-mail me with your topic title with the header beginning with PCB3043 and your full name and the body of the message containing your panther ID # and topic title. You will receive a confirmation e-mail from me by the end of the day.  If you do not receive a confirmation e-mail this means I did not receive it and you should call 305-348-6145 and leave the same information as a phone message. Yes, all you have to do for this assignment is find your topic from the list and send me an e-mail, following these instructions, containing that title.

Step #2.  Bibliography (25%) - Prepare a bibliography including ten technical references on the topic assigned to you from the list below.  The references MUST be published from the primary literature.  Mark those references which can be found in the FIU library with an asterisk after the reference.  AT LEAST THREE MUST BE AVAILABLE IN THE FIU LIBRARY.  These references must be cited in the format used in the journal Ecology.  You must go to the library, find an issue of this journal and use it to establish this format.  All bibliographies must be typed and, in addition to your bibliography list, you MUST TURN IN THE TITLE AND ABSTRACT PAGE (photocopied from the paper itself) of each paper.  (You will turn in 1 page with your list and 10 additional pages of copies of the published abstracts, stapled together).  At the top of the first page put your name, Panther ID # and your topic (the topic title not the number).  I will accept bibliographies early, but not late.  All papers turned in late will be marked, but grades of zero will be assigned.  You must keep your marked bibliography to turn in with the next assignment (rough draft).  Your bibliography will be graded on the relevance of the references to your topic and how you conform to the citation style in the journal Ecology.  References not from the primary literature (books, book chapters, websites, reports) will not be counted.

Step #3.  Rough Draft (10%) - I will return the bibliography to you, and will circle in red three articles which you must read and summarize.  Each summary should cover 2-3 pages, double-spaced, for a total of 6-9 typed pages turned in.  Read "Writing Summaries and Critiques", previous student summaries and common problems (linked below) before you begin writing.  At the top of your first page put your name, Panther ID # and your topic (the topic title not the number).  Your rough draft will be graded on content, style and grammar. You must keep your marked rough draft to turn in with your final draft.

The rough draft must be submitted to me by 5:00 pm on the indicated date using the website www.turnitin.com. You will not be able to turn in the paper after this time, so make sure you start the uploading process early. Go to this website and click “new users”. Follow the login instructions. The turnitin class ID is 2344905 and the password is ecology. Complete the login instructions, click “end wizard and login”. Click on Ecology PCB 3043 and click “rough draft”. Click “submit”, enter your name and click “browse” to find your file on your computer and click “submit”. You will get a confirmation screen as well as an e-mail notifying you that the file has been uploaded and submitted. Make sure you get this confirmation (if you do not receive notification, I will not receive your paper and you need to try again).

Writing Summaries and Critiques

Example Summary

Step #4. Final Paper (60%) - The first draft of your summaries will be returned to you for revisions.  Revise your summaries following the comments marked on your first draft and turn in a final version.  The final grade will be determined by the total quality of your summaries, both content and style.  A key component of grading will be how well you respond to the feedback given to you.  The final draft will be graded more heavily on content and following instructions, including your response to our feedback on the first draft.  The final draft must be uploaded to www.turnitin.com in the same way as the rough draft (above) and is due at 5:00 on the indicated date.

TOPICS:

1.  Ecology of the Everglades	26.  Anti-predator defenses
2.  Ecology of Florida Bay	27.  Measuring biodiversity
3.  Phytoplankton ecology	28.  Chemical defenses in plants
4.  Habitat selection	29.  Competitive exclusion
5.  Reproductive success	30.  Density-dependent mortality
6.  Parasite ecology	31.  Environmental heterogeneity
7.  Sea turtle ecology	32.  Food webs
8.  Coral reef ecology	33. Forest gaps
9.  Deep sea ecology	34.  Inducible defenses
10.  Insect herbivory	35.  Interspecific competition
11.  Mammal population cycles	36.  Carbon cycling
12.  Nutrient flow	37.  Keystone predators
13.  Aquatic food webs	38.  Natural selection experiments
14.  Bird migration	39.  Old-field succession
15.  Mass extinction	40.  Predation risk
16.  Mangrove ecology	41.  Landscape ecology
17.  Population dynamics	42.  Trophic cascade
18.  Phenotypic plasticity	43.  Declining amphibians
19.  Primary productivity	44.  Metapopulation ecology
20.  Nutrient limitation	45.  Sea-level rise in coastal ecosystems
21. Island biogeography	46.  Global climate change
22.  Plant succession	47.  Stream ecology
23.  Adaptive strategies	48.  Disturbance ecology
24.  Foraging ecology	49.  Paleoecology
25.  Sexual selection in birds	50.  Invasive species

COMMON PROBLEMS:

Poor grammar:  Have someone proofread your paper before turning it back in.  The person should not have to be a scientist to understand what you have written.  Simplify!  I know the papers can be very complicated, but your job is to condense it into common jargon that can be understood by all.  Proofreading by a friend is even more important if English is not your first language.  You can obtain help from writing tutors at the FIU Learning Center at (305) 348-2180.  Be certain to call early because you can not simply drop in without notice, and they are probably busy at this time of year. 

Plagiarism.  It will not be tolerated!   It is illegal!   Put the summary in your own words.  Do not use quotes.  Read what the authors say and rewrite it in a simpler way.  If you talk about another related paper or research project in detail, include reference citation in the same style.

Poor organization:   Reread the paper and see if you gain a better understanding of what was done.   Often poorly organized papers result from an incomplete understanding of the research.  Make sure your summary flows from introductory material that states why the work was done, to methods that explain how, to results and conclusions.  Use transition phrases between sentences.  Paragraphs should begin with a sentence that leads the reader into what you will be talking about in that paragraph.  The intro should begin with something like "the researchers undertook the study to determine...".  The methods should start with "In order to understand..., the researchers conducted an experiment...".  The results should being with a bold statement of what was found and the conclusions should summarize how the authors think their work contributes to the field.  Make sure the summary is balanced.   Many student papers have way too much detail on the methods (simplify this to the bare minimum). 

Incomplete paper:  You must provide me with a summary for each of the three papers I checked on your bibliographies.  Each summary should be 2-3 pages, double spaced.  Points will be deducted for papers shorter than 2 pages or longer than 3.  The assignment is to do THREE SEPARATE REVIEWS, not one comprehensive one. 

Tardiness:  No late papers are accepted.  I will edit late drafts but these papers will receive 0/10 pts.

Style:  Each summary must follow the format provided.  This includes citing the reference at the top of the first page of each summary.  The summary itself should include an introduction to the problem examined by the authors, a review of the methods used to examine the problem, a consise statement of the results, and the implications of the results to the field of study.

Carelessness:  Your grade on the final draft is highly dependent on your response to comments on your rough draft.  THEREFORE, ROUGH DRAFTS MUST BE THE BEST QUALITY SUMMARIES YOU CAN WRITE.  The better your rough draft is, the more helpful and useful comments I can make on it.  A rough draft done hastily will have a poor chance for improvement because it forces my comments to be of a general rather than specific nature.