In this class you have the option of writing a brief research paper for a consid

In this class you have the option of writing a brief research paper for a considerable amount of extra credit (100 pts.). While the paper is brief (only 1000 words) I expect a good-quality paper for the full amount of extra credit. The paper is due in stages. The first stage is a topic and list of references (5 pts). The second stage is a rough draft (25 pts). The final stage is a final draft that must include the revisions I suggest from review of the rough draft (70 pts). Total is 100 pts!If you do not correct your final draft based on the suggestions I make from the rough draft, you will not receive credit for the final draft. You may not simply resubmit the rough draft as the final draft. It must be corrected and improved. There is also a rubric for the paper found under “Pages” on the Canvas site alongside this guide that you must read. Topic If the topic is chosen from among the list of topics I provide (see “Pages” section of Canvas), no approval is required. If you want to choose your own topic you need to obtain approval first to ensure you have a suitable and relevant topic. References and citations IT IS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY FOR YOU TO PROVIDE REFERNCES AND CITATIONS IN YOUR RESEARCH PAPER. IT IS PLAGIARISM TO WRITE A PAPER BASED ON SOMEONE ELSE’S WORK AND NOT PROVIDE THEM DUE CREDIT!! References and citations should be your #1 priority. A bad paper with good citations is infinitely better thana good paper with no citations or references. The latter isplagiarism (cheating) for which there are serious academic consequences. References are the sources you used for the information contained in your paper. For example, if you write your paper on the Yellowstone super-volcano, and you visit Yellowstone National Park Website to gather information, that is a reference. You must include a list of references for your paper. You need at least 5 scientifically-sound references. Scientifically sound means that they examine the topic from a valid scientific approach and not from a mythical, magical, artistic, religious, supernatural etc. point-of-view. It’s not that those things are not important, it’s just that they are not science and this is a science paper for a science class. Your references must be summarized in a “references” section at the end of your paper. In the references section, I don’t care what reference or citation formatting style you use, just be consistent. Please at least provide the author(s), title and date of the reference so that it can be easily located by the reader. If it is a website please provide the website URL. The rule of thumb is: THE READER SHOULD BE ABLE TO GO BACK AND EASILY VERIFY EVERY SINGLE FACT INCLUDED IN YOUR PAPER. Additionally, as you write the body of your paper, you need to cite your sources in the text. That means you have to tell the reader exactly where your information is coming from in the text. That is called a citation. Anytime you state something in your paper that is not common knowledge, you need to immediately cite a reference. An example of common knowledge that does not need a citation and reference would be something like this: This paper will examine the Cretaceous-aged granites of California. California is on the West coast of North America. Granite is a felsic, plutonic rock composed of quartz and feldspar minerals. That does not require a citation because anyone can easily verify that California is on the West coast or find the basic mineralogical composition of granite from a wide variety of sources. However, for information that is more specific that is not widely-known or easily verified you need to provide a citation to one or more of your references. An example of that would be: The Sierra-Nevada granite batholith in California is compositionally zoned, meaning that it consists of concentric rings or shells that are compositionally distinct (Glazner, 1999)… Notice the highlighted phrase, “(Glazner, 1999)” That is the citation. It is not common-knowledge that the Sierra-Nevada batholith is compositionally zoned, that information cannot be easily verified by a wide variety of sources. Therefore, if someone wants to fact-check your paper, you need to tell them where you are getting your information. In this case you are getting it from another paper by a scientist named Glaznerwritten in 1999. This citation will correspond to a paper in your reference list. Again, you can use whatever citation and reference format style you are used to but you need to make it easy for the reader to fact-check everything in your paper. ***your paper needs to include in-text citations. Your paper should include dozens of in-text citations. Note: every single one of your references in your bibliography must be cited somewhere in-text. If it is not cited, do not include it in the bibliography. If you submit a paper without in-text citations I will give it a zero and ask you to resubmit*** Plagiarism When you write a paper and put your name on it, that means, unless otherwise stated, that every idea, concept, fact and opinion contained therein is your own original work. Of course, for this research paper, it is NOT your original work. You are depending on the thought, facts and opinions of other people. In order to give those people due credit, you need to cite and refer to them as explained in the section above. When an authorneglects to cite their source(s) and takes credit for someone else’s work, that is called plagiarism. Listed below is a list of some common forms of plagiarism that I commonly encounter. DO NOT do any of the following in your paper: 1) Copy your source word-for-word and paste it into your paper without quotation marks and citation. 2) Copy your source word-for-word and paste it into your paper and change some of the words or phrases; that is still plagiarism. 3) Paraphrase your source without providing a citation. Please, just DO NOT copy and pate anything into your paper. Students almost always get in trouble with this practice. Another thing, PLEASE, do not copy and paste something into your paper and then change some of the words with a thesaurus—that is the worst. It produces incoherent gobbly-gook and it is still plagiarism. The bottom line is: if you looked at a separate source (book, webpage, magazine, video etc.) for some information included in your paper, you have to immediately cite that source in the text of your paper immediately and include a description of that source in your reference list. I need to be able to go through your paper and find, easily, where you sourced all the information contained therein. Do NOT use Wikipedia as a source or You Tube videos. The Title and Heading of your paper You should pick a sensible title for your paper that describes the scope of your research. It should be formatted to appear distinct from the main body text. The Introduction of your paper The introduction of your paper should introduce the topic and give some basic background about it. For example, if you are writing about the Sierra-Nevada Batholith, you need to let the reader know where the Sierra Nevada mountains are, what a batholith is, perhaps what a granite is etc. This is the place to give basic background information not to tell stories or personal anecdotes etc. You should also have a one sentence summary of each of your body paragraphs or sections in this introduction or an outline of the paper. The Body of your paper The body of your paper will consist of several paragraphs. Suffice to say, every paragraph you write should have a main point and should explore a different aspect of your topic. The first sentence of each paragraph should summarizes the main point of that paragraph. The remaining sentences of the paragraph should support the main point with evidence from your research. The body is not a place for your viewpoint, opinions or stories from your life. It is a summary of the scientific facts. The Conclusion of your paper Your paper should end with a concluding paragraph. Here you summarize the main findings from your research. This might be a place to have one or two sentences about your opinions such as conjecture about the future, important insights etc. MOST COMMON PITFALLS TO AVOID: • No in-text citations • Bibliography includes sources not cited in the paper • Body of the paper consists of opinions and subjective viewpoints instead of facts

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