General Tips for Students

1. Let your mentor know that you are delighted to be working with them.
2. Be sure that you know how to contact your mentor and that they know how to contact you both by phone and by email.  Find out their preferred method of contact. Be sure to check your messages and email every day, particularly on the day(s) before you are scheduled to work with your mentor.
3. Keep careful records of your work in a laboratory notebook.  Your notebook can also include notes on papers that you read and seminars that you attend.  Data should be thoroughly documented at the time that it is acquired.  Do not assume that you will have time to fill in the blanks later.  Be aware that your advisor may want your laboratory notebook for permanent records, ask if you can xerox a copy at the end of the project.
4. Provide your mentor with copies of final computer files that you generate.  Be sure to include what is called metadata: time, location, comments (for example about possible sources of error).  ALWAYS BACKUP YOUR FILES!!
5. Provide your mentor with copies of any papers that you write using the data collected in their lab.  Ask your mentor before using the data for projects other than your senior thesis.
6. The majority of thesis mentors plan to publish their work with you if the project works out well.  If you would like to be involved in the publication process, let them know.
7. If the work that you are doing was funded from a proposal, ask your mentor for a copy of  the body of the proposal.  Read the proposal and look up the references that are cited.  This will give you a head start on literature research for your thesis project.
8. Make sure that you meet all the deadlines as given in the schedule. We will deduct 1/3 of a grade from your final grade per day that you are late when submitting your final thesis proposal. You must make at least two copies, one for your thesis mentor and a second copy for your advisor in this seminar. 
11. Your first draft of your fall paper is due at the group meeting at 6 p.m. on Tuesday Nov. 23rd.   I will be discussing these first drafts will you at individual meetings during the following week (Nov 29th to Dec 3rd.)   The final draft of your paper is due on Tuesday Dec. 7th.   You should make at least two copies, one for your thesis mentor and a second copy for Dallas Abbott.  YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR GIVING A COPY OF YOUR FINAL DRAFT TO YOUR THESIS MENTOR ON OR BEFORE DEC. 7th.

HOW TO WRITE A THESIS

EXAMPLES:

ABSTRACT: from Comings and Goings of Global Glaciations on a Neoproterozoic Tropical Platform in Namibia

INTRODUCTION: same paper

BODY OF PAPER: from Speculations on Laurentias First Gigayear (2.0 to 1.0 Ga)

GOOD FIGURES: from Coming and Goings

       Recycling and Volatiles

       Energy R and D

       Nitrogen Input versus Food Output

       Biomass Cycle

EXAMPLES OF DIFFERENT WAYS TO PLOT THE SAME DATA

Complete time series of temperature: West Point

Temperature vs time with seasonal effects removed

Temperature plotted on 30 year monthly means

Mean monthly temperature anomaly: warm period

Mean monthly temperature anomaly: cold period

Linear regression of mean monthly temperature anom.
 

IMPORTANT THINGS TO REMEMBER

1) LETTERING ON FIGURES SHOULD BE LEGIBLE FROM THE BACK OF THE ROOM

2) A GOOD FIGURE WILL FIT ON A 3 BY 5 INDEX CARD AND STILL BE LEGIBLE

3) READ YOUR PAPER ALOUD- THEN HAVE A FRIEND READ IT ALOUD.

4) SIMPLE WORDING IS GENERALLY BETTER

5) YOU SHOULD HAVE READ YOUR PAPER OVER ABOUT 15 TIMES BEFORE THE THESIS IS IN FINAL FORM

6) ALWAYS SPELL CHECK

7) (FOR JOURNALS)-HAVE ONE UNIMPORTANT PART OF THE FIGURE VERY SMALL- THIS KEEPS THE JOURNAL FROM REDUCING THE REST OF YOUR FIGURE TO ILLEGIBILITY

8) TRY STACKING PLOTS ONE ABOVE THE OTHER FOR CLARITY RATHER THAN PLOTTING TOO MANY THINGS ON THE SAME GRAPH.

9) EVERY PARAGRAPH SHOULD HAVE AN OPENING SENTENCE AND A CONCLUDING SENTENCE.

10) IF YOU GET COMMENTS THAT SEEM COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT TO YOU, YOUR PAPER IS NOT WRITTEN CLEARLY ENOUGH.
 

1) Make an outline of your paper before you start writing.   Make figures and write figure captions.  Papers are generally written in the following order.
a) Figure Captions
b) Discussion of Experimental Techniques and Data Gathering Procedures
c) Discussion of your Data
d) Inferences from your Data
e) Conclusions
f) Introduction
g) Abstract
h) Bibliography

This order may seem backwards. However, it is difficult to write an abstract until you know your most important results.  Sometimes, it is possible to write the introduction first.  Most often the introduction should be written next to last.

The introduction poses the problem or problems (hypotheses) in the paper.  It sets the scene.  The introduction should draw the reader in by proposing an interesting problem and suggesting several possible solutions.  The reader should be intrigued and should want to read your paper.

Think of a scientific paper as being much like a detective novel.  In the beginning, you are posing a problem that has not been solved.  The data are the clues.  You put the clues together to solve the problem.

There are some differences between writing a paper and a detective novel.  A novel usually has a definite solution to the problem.  This is not true of all scientific papers.  Usually, you can answer some questions, but other questions remain or pop up.
It is important to express these remaining questions at the end of the paper.

2) Try reading your manuscript aloud.  If your sentences seem too long, make two or three sentences instead of one.  Try to write the same way that you speak when you are explaining a concept. Most people speak more clearly than they write.

3) Never use a complex word if a simpler word will do.  Try looking at the longest words
in your paper.  Could you substitute something simpler?

4) Take a scientific paper that you liked and analyze it.  Why was the paper clear?
Try to incorporate the same literary techniques into your writing.

5) Make cartoons using a scientific drawing program.  Depending upon the subject of your paper, a cartoon might incorporate the following:
a) a picture of the scientific equipment that you are using and an explanation of how it works;
b) a drawing of a cycle showing steps, feedback loops, and bifurcations: this can include chemical or mathematical equations;
c) a flow chart showing the steps in a process and the possible causes and consequences.

The whole process of making a drawing is important for two reasons.  First, it clarifies your thinking.  If you don’t understand the process, you can’t draw it.
Second, good drawings are very valuable.  Other scientists will understand your paper better if you can make a drawing of your ideas.  A co-author of mine has advised me: make figures that other people will want to steal.  They will cite your paper because they want to use your figure in their paper.