Ecology 3060 Lab Reports

1. Ecology 3060 Lab Reports • Read pages viii-xiii and page 19 in the manual. • Be sure you understand your experiment. • I will grade by the rubric. • Read scientific papers to become familiar with scientific style. • Give me your best the first time. • Remember the importance of paragraph and sentence structure, grammar, and spelling. • Methods and discussion must relate to your results.

2. Plagiarism • Never copy anything word for word from anywhere, not even a phrase, not even if you cite it. • Plagiarizing in the first draft is also an academic honesty issue. • Copying another’s work while changing it just enough to not be plagiarism does not satisfy the requirements of this course. Guard your work. If someone else copies your paper, you are partly responsible.

3. Steps in writing an ecology paper • Read at least two scientific papers on Elimia flava, population estimation methods, and/or a subject you enjoy. • Read pages viii-xiii and page 19 in the lab manual. Highlight parts you think you will need to be reminded about later. • Write the methods, results, discussion, and introduction, in that order (but they will not be presented in that order). If you have not read enough material on snails and population estimation methods to complete your introduction and discussion, search for more articles (see page xi in your manual). • Write the abstract and title. • Proofread. • Read your paper out loud, to a live person if possible and/or have someone else proofread for you. • See your TA with any questions at any point during this process.

4. Paper is due emailed to me as a Microsoft Word document June 20/21 (at the beginning of lab). • Send it two hours early and I will check for errors such as attachment failures and Word version conversion errors. • Come see me!