Due by Monday, July 25th at 11:59 pm CDT (uploaded as a PDF to the Submission Portal under ‘Modules’)
Assignment Objectives: To give students the opportunity to complete scholarly research, and to synthesize and organize their research into a cohesive academic research paper.
Paper Specifications: Using the outline from your last assignment as a guide, write an 8 to 12-page paper on your Geoscience topic. Be sure to add a conclusion and complete all editing, using your instructor’s comments as a guide. This part of the writing takes the most work because you’ll need to identify important themes and determine a natural ‘flow’ for your paper.
NOTE: You will need to include the Title, Introduction and Bibliography that you’ve previously submitted. Be sure to consider the instructor’s comments and make any necessary corrections before you re-submit these components of your paper. This will ensure that you’ll maximize points!
Additionally, the 8-page minimum is to be composed entirely of your writing. This does not include a title page, images, quotes, tables, graphs, bibliography etc. Papers that do not meet these specifications (under the 8-page minimum or over the 12-page maximum) will have points deducted for not following instructions. Your paper should follow the typical essay format: introduction, body, conclusion, and bibliography. The body should be the largest section of your paper. It should include any background science or information on your topic, a review of the research literature up to this point and any other salient points etc.
Be sure to review the course syllabus on tips for success in this course. This section of the syllabus gives important information on citations etc. It is important that you paraphrase the author’s words (i.e. put their words into your own) and cite exact information such as data values, images etc. Avoid excessive quoting at all costs – that is, more than 2 short quotes or more than a single long one. Intensive use of other people’s words means you’re not doing the writing – they are!
I grade exhaustively on this assignment. However, if you make all the corrections and changes suggested by the instructor, you should (in theory) receive 100% on your final draft. The best papers in the course will be those that make the necessary corrections and use the instructor feedback to edit, re-write and ultimately, perfect their final draft.
Citation Style:
In this class, I require the APA formatting of all sources (within text citations as well as your bibliography). Here is a good source of information on APA formatting (both the link below and the left hand menu of the page it directs you to):
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/in_text_citations_author_authors.html
(Links to an external site.)
I am not concerned about a title page, running head on each page or other elements of the APA style. I am mainly concerned with correct use of APA style for citation of referenced materials in your paper. You must use the APA citation style correctly and consistently in your paper when citing information derived from your research. Here is a brief look at the APA citation style for citing within the text or body of your paper. If you reference a specific point, data, quote etc. cite at the end of the sentence as follows:
The geology of coal seams and related geology are inextricably linked to their geographic placement throughout history. Coals and shales tend to be located within 5 degrees of latitude of the Pangean paleoequator where humid, tropical climates once prevailed (Kent et al., 2000).
This work should then be referenced in the Bibliography at the end of your paper as follows:
Kent, D. V., & Olsen, P. E. (2000). Magnetic polarity stratigraphy and paleolatitude of the Triassic–Jurassic Blomidon Formation in the Fundy basin (Canada): implications for early Mesozoic tropical climate gradients. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 179(2), 311-324.
NOTE: plagiarism-detection software is being used to identify incidences of possible plagiarism. The good news is that I’ve allowed you to see a copy of the plagiarism report so you can see what I see on my end. I have omitted bibliographic materials.
Additional specifications include:
Your name, NetID and Title on the paper’s first page. (Title Page is not required)
One-inch margins all around. (No more and no less)
Paper must be double-spaced (Bibliography excluded)
Font size of 11 or 12 with an easy-to-read font style such as Arial, Lato etc.
A minimum of 5 credible scientific articles from academic geoscience journals
At least 1 supporting graphic (a table, graph, image etc. that helps explain your topic). This graphic can be taken from an external source or it can be self-generated. Remember to reference the source of this graphic. NOTE: if you use an image that you took yourself, cite it as follows: (Source: Author). If you make a table yourself, you need to cite the source of the data. Ex: (Source: USGS) and then include the full reference in your Bibliography.
An introduction (make any necessary corrections to your previous submission)
A solid concluding paragraph (or two) that wraps up the paper nicely and ties together any loose ends. A conclusion can also specify the research still needed on this topic. If there is little research interest, speculate as to why this is.
Remember to use separate paragraphs for separate ideas and to indent new paragraphs. Ex: if my paper is on rip currents, I would have one paragraph explaining how they form, another on how they can be identified and another paragraph on how lifeguards warn the public etc.
Cite any idea, fact, value, graphic, quote etc. that is not your own. You must always credit the original author for his/her work.
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