 | Abstract
 | A short statement, not more than one page, which gives a quick
overview of the rest of the report. |
|
| Introduction
| The introduction will introduce the reader to important concepts for
the report. A review of pertinent literature is a must, and a good
review will be a good source of points. Typically, this might
include a hypothesis statement, but since there was no
"experiment" done, a hypothesis is not necessary. |
| Although we will all use the same dataset, every report can be really
unique because of the literature that you choose to cite in the
introduction. Is there one particular aspect of the report that
you like--perhaps the wetlands community, the insects, the crayfish, the
water quality? |
|
| Materials and Methods
| Unfortunately, many students simply cite "the lab manual"
for this section of most of their lab reports. Fortunately, there
was no lab manual for this exercise, and you must write your own
materials and methods section. Be sure to also include a
discussion of the study site, and feel free to include a map.
Include a mention of the formulae for Shannon Index and Evenness. |
| You might choose to cite any handouts or manuals that you received
while at the Wetlands Center. |
|
| Results
| Straightforward, but points can be lost here due to poor
formatting. When presenting the data set as a graph, be sure to
include such important features such as units on your axes, and a clear,
easily understood legend. |
| Include calculations and resulting values for Shannon index and
evenness. |
| See data set below. |
|
| Discussion
| Be sure to relate the results to your review of literature. Is
what we found what you might expect from the literature that you found? |
|
| Literature Cited
| The format will generally be of APA style, but with particular respect
to that of papers typically found in Ecology (a journal easily
found in the library, or on J-stor). The strength of your
literature cited section will greatly affect the effectiveness of your
introduction and discussion sections, so be sure to spend plenty of time
finding literature. |
| Helpful websites on APA style:
|
| A minimum of five references are required. This section of your
paper will be graded on quality of sources, as well as their pertinence
to your report. Maximum point yield will occur if all are either
primary or secondary literature from scientific journals such as
Ecology, Journal of Ecology, Journal of Widlife Management.
Generally speaking, sources such as Time, Newsweek, and Scientific
American are magazines, and will result in moderate grade
reductions. References to websites will significantly weaken your
paper, so avoid getting any information from them. |
| Tips for your literature search: |
| 1) Start early! The more time you give yourself, the more
complete your bibliography will be. |
| 2) Use the database search engines in both Galileo and J-Stor.
Galileo has two that are particularly good: Academic Search Premier and
Ecology Abstracts. Each has
its own strengths and weaknesses, so use them in combination.
 | Here's a hint with using the online databases: learn how to use
each by clicking on its help button |
| Galileo's Academic Search Premier, for instance uses the Boolean
operators AND OR NOT.
| It will yield nothing when searching on
"invertebrates Georgia". |
| It might give a ton of papers
when searching on "invertebrates and Georgia". |
| This can be found by clicking on Academic Search Premier's
"Search Tips". |
|
|
| 3) When using databases, try experimenting with many different
combinations of keywords. Naturally "invertebrates"
alone is too broad, and will come up with too many hits to be useful to
you. Likewise, "invertebrates Clayton water authority
wetlands County October" is unlikely to yield any useful
information, as it is too narrow of a search. |
| 4) Having trouble finding that obscure scientific journal in our
library? Try using our Interlibrary Loan Service! A free
copy of the scientific paper that you need may be available in as little
as a week when you request it from the "Services" portion of
the library's website. |
|