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Writing Tips

Writing Tips. By Phil Roberts For Soils 201 Spring 2007 March 21 st and 22 nd. The Goal. The goal of your assignment was: to familiarize yourselves with scientific literature to summarize your findings from an article to relate a piece of research to soil formation. Grading Format.

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Writing Tips

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  1. Writing Tips By Phil Roberts For Soils 201 Spring 2007 March 21st and 22nd

  2. The Goal The goal of your assignment was: to familiarize yourselves with scientific literature to summarize your findings from an article to relate a piece of research to soil formation

  3. Grading Format Organization References Format Editing Content

  4. Scientific Writing Introduction – relate your topic to a large audience Thesis is the last sentence of this paragraph Support – Use research to back your argument Conclusion – Restate the thesis with relevant supporting points References – In alphabetical order using the guidelines provided

  5. References and Citations This is how to cite your textbook: Brady, Nyle C., and Ray R. Weil. 2004. Elements of the nature and properties of soils. 2nd ed. Pearson Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ. This is how to cite a journal article: Moore, I.D., A.R. Ladson, and R. Grayson. 1991. Digital terrain modeling: A review of hydrological, geomorphological, and biological applications. Hydrol. Processes 5:3-30.

  6. Internal Citations 1 author ……….. (Brady, 2004). 2 authors ……….. (Brady and Weil, 2004). 3 or more authors…… (Moore et al., 1991). et al. is an abbreviation of et alia, which is Latin for ‘and others’.

  7. Internal Citations Every Reference Should have an Internal Citation if you didn’t cite it, why should it go into the references list? Citations should be used within the body of a paragraph they help develop an idea and should not be used at the end of paragraphs

  8. Don’t Use Quotations!! Any robot can copy and paste from another author. Your task is to review current literature and summarize what you have found. Don’t re-state another author’s arguments. Make your own.

  9. Format Did you follow the instructions? Length requirement MS Word Defaults (font, size, margins, etc.)

  10. Editing Both Grammar and Scientific Tone The tone of these paper are very terse This not like writing for an English Class Sentences should be short and direct Avoid any use of emotional phrases/words Use Metric … Everybody else does Avoid 1st or 2nd Person

  11. Common Errors Affect Effect a verb a noun Its It’s possessive a contraction Leach Leech eluviation blood suckers Un- Non- undone never done Hummus Humus bean dip SOM

  12. Scientific Writing Words to avoid: That Like Alter Modify Interestingly Significant Surprisingly Change Effect Affect

  13. Scientific Writing Some Highlights: -In soil today there are five factors that make up soil formation. -Either there is an excess that allows materials from upper layers moving to lower soil layers. -There are five main soil forming factors and a few minor ones (like ghosts). -With a combination of all the factors I’ve talked about already topography effects yield of farmers, which is one area of great importance to them.

  14. Scientific Writing More Highlights -Topography reminds me of an old saying “Sh*t always runs down hill (Phil Roberts)”. -This group is larger than 2 mila meters and include specimen like mice, moles, ants, earthworms, spiders and many more. -Even though antibiotics you are going to give me an A are tightly adsorbed by clay particles, they are still biologically active and may influence the selection of antibiotic resistant bacteria in the terrestrial environment (Reganold, Roberts, et. Al, 2007). -This can have an extreme effect on the soil.

  15. Content The goal of your assignment was: to familiarize yourselves with scientific literature to summarize your findings from an article to relate a piece of research to soil formation

  16. Essay Assignment #2 Focus on a specific piece of literature Use the searching tips from the website Edit your papers carefully!!!

  17. New Materials on Website: ASA-CSSA-SSSA References Guidelines this link was given in the assignment sheet Tips for Searching– WSU library services staff When to Cite and Why – WSU library services staff Plagiarism Tutorial– WSU library services staff Class Website

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