Term Writing Project

Nats101 Section 16

Fall 2007

last updated 10/2/07 (check back for updates).

Sept. 13 (Thursday) Your topic is due. (5% of project grade)

In our first class session it was strongly recommended that you read the whole Gore book within the first 3 weeks of class so that you would see the breadth of territory of global change science.  Find a topic that strikes your fancy, which you would like to investigate in more detail than is possible in class or in the book.  Seeing the movie may also help with ideas.  Come see the professors at office hours, or email us for additional help.  You may want to do some preliminary research just to see if the topic has legs.

Turn in a project title and about 2 sentences of explanation so it will be clear to us exactly what you are proposing. Try to focus and be specific in your goals.  For guidance on finding and focusing on a topic, see these fine suggestions from the University of Toronto and these from Purdue's Online Writing Laboratory.  Below is an example of a topic submission.

NATS 101 Section 16
Proposed Term writing project topic:
How is climate change expected to affect El Nino activity?
Ima Student, Sept. 13, 2007

I will investigate how scientists believe El Nino will change (or not) over the next century.  What tools are they using to draw their conclusions?  How sure are they of the results?

Sept. 25th (Tuesday) Feedback on your topic submission returned to you.

We will review your topics by the 25th and provide suggestions. If we see that you have the same topic as someone else, we will attempt to re-direct your topic so it is not exactly the same as anyone else's.

Sept. 25- Nov. 8.

Investigate and Research your topic with library and internet resources. Write, revise, revise, revise... 

Here is some advice from the UA Libraries and others on how to:

• Evaluate information you may find on the Internet.
• Avoid plagiarism in your note-taking and writing.
• Use journal articles and the popular press in your research.
• Use one of the more powerful scientific search engines, Web of Science.

Nov. 8 (Thursday) Your paper is due during class at 12:30pm. (95% of project grade)

Turn in your typewritten double-spaced paper. The font must be 12-point, and you should have 1-inch margins on all sides. The first page will be a title page with title, your name, course name, and date only. The title page should be followed with no less than 2 pages but not more than 3 pages of the text of your paper. Pages beyond this will contain your references (bibliography), and any figures/tables/images you are using to illustrate or support your findings. 

• We encourage you to bring paper drafts to office hours for help and advice.
  
• A grading rubric, or set of expectations for this assignment, is here.