Class Project: For your research/writing project you will be preparing an annotated bibliography of five (or more) sources and a research paper, based on an outline, on a geoscience research topic of your choice. An annotated bibliography differs from a traditional bibliography in that each citation includes a short (6-12 sentence) summary of the article that explains its contents, significance, and purpose. An annotation is NOT an excerpt; as such it must be original work, not a series of quotes.

    All twelve sources in your bibliography must be scientific journal articles (Journal of Geology, GSA Bulletin, Nature, Science, etc.) or scholarly books (these include current, junior- or senior-level undergraduate and graduate level textbooks). No introductory textbooks, popular books or popular magazines (e.g. Time, Newsweek, National Geographic, Science News, Scientific American, Sea Frontiers, Oceanus) will be accepted as reference sources. Properly referenced, authoritative Internet sources will be accepted as additional sources for numerical data or graphics; however only a few (2-3) may be used in your paper and they are not considered part of the twelve required scholarly references.

There are several stages to the project. Each student must:

1. Do background reading and some library research on her/his own in order to select a specific, well-defined, and relatively narrow topic. [Exercise 1 (as well independent research time)]

2. Prepare and submit a typewritten draft sample of your work in the form of a proposal consisting of a brief topic description or thesis statement, and a brief bibliography of references cited in your proposal. [Exercise 3; Part C] [Sample proposal]

3. Prepare and submit a typewritten, complete tentative outline of your paper. [Exercise 5]

4. Prepare and submit a typewritten bibliography [Exercise 7], consisting of 12 to 15 correctly cited references with annotations of the five papers that are most critical to your paper [Exercise 8].

5. Prepare and submit a 1500- to 1550-word topic review (i.e. "research paper") with a 75-word abstract. Neither the abstract nor the bibliography should be included in the 1500 word count for the paper. There will be one rough draft plus the final draft of this paper. Note: the bibliography that you submit with your paper SHOULD NOT be annotated.

    This project will demand considerable time and effort on your part and a great deal of diligence. You are required to meet several deadlines. This will help me to assess your progress and help you to stay on schedule. Each missed deadline results in points being deducted from your score; each additional weekday the assignment is late is one extra point subtracted.

    Because this is a writing class, I will only stress one thing at this time. That is, the approach to this paper should be VERY focused. For example, if you decide on "methane hydrates" as your research topic, don't tell me what methane hydrates are, where they are found, and what they might be used for. That is what you do in high school for a book report.

    This is a research topic review paper. Therefore, you must write about specific characteristics of your topic that were only recently determined and reported in geoscience journals. Tell me about the latest research discoveries concerning "methane hydrates." Tell me about differences of opinion over how methane hydrates form, what compounds serve as their organic source, or their potential effects on global warming. General topics can be worked in around these major points, but they cannot be the bulk of the paper.

    This will be challenging for two reasons: you must put other people's work into your own words (i.e. be very careful to avoid plagiarism) and yet, you must manage to write with clarity on a technical subject. However, that is what this assignment is meant to do -- make you a better writer.

Helpful resources: Below are links to a variety of information that should prove helpful to you. I prepared these for another class, but they should still come in handy.
 

Paper format - a general idea of what your paper should look like

FAQ's - Frequently asked questions (not all apply, but this still might prove helpful)

A sample research paper - a senior in biology did this in my Oceanography class; a good effort but it lost points because the paper was too short by at least 25% (note word count).

Another sample research paper - notice just how SPECIFIC and DETAILED this paper is. This author (a freshman in an Earth Science class -- admittedly an honors section) obviously knew a LOT about her topic -- but not before she started researching it for this report.