Guidelines and Deadlines: Final Paper and Presentation

We are looking for about a 5 to 10 paper, not including your figures and figure captions.The paper should be a prelude to your final presentation, which will have about 10 figures and will last about 10 minutes. If you would like me to read a preliminary version, I will need it by Friday afternoon, July 19^th.I’ll be able to return it on Monday July 29^th (or earlier if I get it before the end of Friday, July 19^th).If your advisor wants to do the proofing, you can arrange with

them on a later deadline. I suggest no later than Thursday July ^th.Abstracts are due at noon on July 29^th.PowerPoint presentations (if you are using PowerPoint) are due by 4 P.M. that day.This is a firm deadline! Please email me where to find them in your sun directory. (the complete path) or give me a CD or Mac Zip disk with the presentation on

it. I’ll copy them all onto a master CD so we can cut down on the time lag beween presentations.If you are planning on using overheads instead, please let me know.

Below is information on the paper.

Regards,

Dallas

I. Paper structure

Title Page

title (including subtitle), author, institution, department, date of delivery

Abstract

length: ~ 2 paragraphs, approx. 400 words
information in title should not be repeated
state what was done, note methods
state major results
point out one significant implication

Introduction

do not repeat the abstract
include statement of the problem, thesis + note: this is not a review paper, we are looking for original work/interpretation by you
scope of work
what report is about
why work was undertaken
explain background, including citations of relevant references
break up the section into logical segments by using subheads

Region

Much of the research done at Lamont involves a certain part of the world. If your data is regional, the first figure in your paper (and in your final presentation) should be a location map. You should explain why this area was selected for your scientific study.

Methods

this section contains a description of your materials, procedure, theory
include calculations, technique, procedure, equipment, and calibration plots
provide enough detail so that someone could replicate the study
detail limitations, assumptions, and range of validity
citations should be limited to data sources and more complete descriptions of procedures
do not include descriptions of results

Results

factual statement of observations, including statistics, tables and graphs
indicate information on range of variation
mention negative results as well
do not interpret results - save that for the discussion
lay out the case as for a jury - present sufficient details so that others can draw their own inferences and construct their own
explanations
use S.I. units (m, s, kg, W, etc.) throughout the thesis
break up the section into logical segments by using subheads

Discussion

start with a few sentences that summarize the most important results
should be a brief essay in itself, answering the following questions:

what are the major patterns in the observations? + note: refer to spatial and temporal variations
what are the likely causes (mechanisms) underlying these patterns?
what are the resulting predictions?

interpret results in terms of background laid out in the introduction
this section should be rich in references to similar work and background needed to interpret results
break up the section into logical segments by using subheads

Conclusion

what is the strongest and most important statement that you can make from your observations?
refer back to problem posed, and describe the conclusions that you reached from carrying out this investigation
consider the broader implications of your results
do not repeat word for word the abstract or introduction

Recommendations

* make recommendations for remedial action to solve the problem and further research to fill in gaps in our understanding

Acknowledgments

advisor(s) anyone who helped you:

technically (including materials, supplies),
intellectually (assistance, advice)
financially

References

cite all ideas, concepts, text, data that are not your own
if you make a statement, back it up with your own data or a reference
all references cited in the text must be listed
cite single-author references by the surname of the author (followed by date of the publication in parenthesis)

... according to Hays (1994)
... population growth is one of the greatest environmental

concerns facing future generations (Hays, 1994).
cite double-author references by the surnames of both authors (followed by date of the publication in parenthesis)

e.g. Simpson and Hays (1994)

cite more than double-author references by the surname of the first author followed by et al. and then the date of the publication

e.g. Pfirman, Simpson and Hays would be: Pfirman et al. (1994)

do not use footnotes
list all references cited in the text in alphabetical order using
the following format for different types of material:

Hunt, S. (1966) Carbohydrate and amino acid composition of the egg capsules of the whelk. Nature, 210, 436-437.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (1997) Commonly asked questions about ozone. http://www.noaa.gov/public-affairs/grounders/ozo1.html, 9/27/97.
Pfirman, S.L., M. Stute, H.J. Simpson, and J. Hays (1996) Undergraduate research at Barnard and Columbia, Journal of Research, 11, 213-214.
Pechenik, J.A. (1987) A short guide to writing about biology. Harper Collins Publishers, New York, 194pp.
Pitelka, D.R., and F.M. Child (1964) Review of ciliary structure and function. In: Biochemistry and Physiology of Protozoa, Vol. 3 (S.H. Hutner, editor), Academic Press, New York, 131-198. Sambrotto, R. (1997) lecture Environmental Data Analysis, Barnard College, Oct 2, 1997.
Stute, M., J.F. Clark, P. Schlosser, W.S. Broecker, and G. Bonani (1995) A high altitude continental paleotemperature record derived from noble gases dissolved in groundwater from the San Juan Basin, New Mexico. Quat. Res., 43, 209-220.
it is acceptable to put the initials of the individual authors behind their last names, e.g. Pfirman, S.L., Stute, M., Simpson, H.J., and Hays, J (1996) Undergraduate research at ......

I suggest using endnote for your references. It is in the version of word on the intern computers in oceanography. That way you only have to type each reference in once.

To put the reference in the text, select go to endnote under tools. Open your reference library under file. Then find the citation in your endnote library and select insert citation under tools. Every so often, select format bibliography under tools and it will format your citation in the text and also add it to the bibliography. Your endnote library must be open when you do this.

If this work is ultimately submitted to a journal, the formats for references will vary. You can put the references into a new format in endnote with one command (no retying at all!). This is also useful if you are planning to use this paper as a start on your senior thesis. You can put the references into whatever format is required by using a single command. (When you leave Lamont, be sure to save your private endnote reference library on a disk or CD and bring it with you.)

It is also possible to download references from georef and have them go directly into endnote. To do so, email the references to your self. Then cut and paste the references from the mailtool into a word document. Save as TEXT ONLY! Then use the import function in word after going to endnote to open the file and import the references.

II. Figures and Tables

the actual figures and tables should be embedded/inserted in the text, generally an the page following the page where the figure/table is first cited in the text

all figures and tables should be numbered and cited consecutively in the text as figure 1, table 1 etc.

include a caption for each figure and table, citing how it was constructed (reference citations, data sources, etc.) and highlighting the key findings

include an index figure (map) showing and naming all locations discussed in paper

you are encouraged to make your own figures, including cartoons or sketches that illustrate the processes that you discuss

figures should be oriented vertically, in portrait mode, wherever possible, if you must orient them horizontally, in landscape mode, orient them so that you can read them from the right, not from the left, where the binding will be

Order of Writing

A paper is not written in the same order as it is presented in. The following gives you some idea how to proceed.

You should write up a preliminary version of the background section first. This will serve as the basis for the introduction in your final paper. As you collect data, write up the methods section. It is much easier to do this right after you have collected the data. Be sure to include a description of the research equipment and relevant calibration plots.

When you have some data, start making plots and tables of the data. These will help you to visualize the data and to see gaps in your data collection. If time permits, you should go back and fill in the gaps. You are finished when you have a set of plots that show adefinite trend (or lack of a trend). Be sure to make adequate statistical tests of your results.

Once you have a complete set of plots and statistical tests, arrange the plots and tables in a logical order. Write figure captions for the plots and tables. As much as possible, the captions should stand alone in explaining the plots and tables. Many scientists read only the abstract, figures, figure captions,tables, table captions, and conclusions of a paper. Be sure that your figures, tables and captions are well labelled and well documented.

Once your plots and tables are complete, write the results section. Writing this section requires extreme discipline. You must describe your results, but you must NOT interpret them. (If good ideas occur to you at this time, save them at the bottom of the page for the discusion section.) Be factual and orderly in this section, but try not to be too dry.

Once you have written the results section, you can move on to the discussion section. This is usually fun to write, because now you can talk about your ideas about the data. If you can come up with a good cartoon showing your ideas, do so. Many papers are cited in the literature because they have a good cartoon that subsequent authorswould like to use or modify.

In writing the discussion session, be sure to adequately discuss the work of other authors who collected data on the same or related scientific questions. Be sure to discuss how their work is relevant to your work. If there were flaws in their methodology, this is the place to discuss it.

After you have discussed the data, you can write the conclusions section. In this section, you take the ideas that were mentioned in the discussion section and try to come to some closure. If some hypothesis can be ruled out as a result of your work, say so. If more work is needed for a definitive answer, say that.

The final section in the paper is a recommendation section. This is really the end of the conclusion section in a scientific paper. Make recommendations for further research in this section. If you can make predictions about what will be found if X is true, then do so. You will get credit from later researchers for this.

After you have finished the recommendation section, look back at your original introduction. Your introduction should set the stage for the conclusions of the paper by laying out the ideas that youwill test in the paper. Now that you know where the paper is leading, you will probably need to rewrite the introduction.

Be sure to include a hook at the beginning of the introduction. This is a statement of an important/interesting scientific problem that your paper either solves or addresses. You should draw the\ reader in and make them want to read the rest of the paper.

The next paragraphs in the introduction should cite previous research in this area. It should cite those who had the idea or ideas first, and should also cite those who have done the most recent and relevant work. You should then go on to explain why more work was necessary (your work, of course.)

You must write your abstract last. A good abstract explains in one line why the paper is important. It then goes on to give a summary of your major results, preferably couched in numbers with error limits. A good abstract is concise, readable, and quantitative.

Make sure that you use complete sentences throughout your paper, spell check your document.

proof read your paper a few times and give it to others to read and comment

use metric units