Download The Journal and your Research Papers

Dominica Journal
Guidelines and Grading
Journal Format
• The journal is an important part of the Dominica Study
Abroad field experience. A major goal of the journal is
to capture the experience in writing for your future
reference.
• The journal must contain both information of scientific
interest AND your personal observations on the ecology,
geography, and culture of Dominica. Your impressions on
people, food, music, and experiences will often prove to
be things that you will read and reflect upon in the
future.
Required Format for Journal
• Date/General Observations on Weather.
• Narrative of days events including:
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Places visited
New habitats or organisms observed
Progress on individual and group projects
Other activities of note
Impressions and reflections
• List of species observed, with scientific
names.
• Follow the format on the journal notes we
handed out in class
Journal Grading
• We encourage lots of personal expression
in the body of the journal entry, but the
journal is also part of a graded class and so
we have devised the following grading
system for the journal.
Journal Grades
• C Grade: You have journal entries for every day of the class,
but there is no format followed. Daily observations
sometimes address scientific aspects and at other times are
more personal. No attempt to summarize daily accumulations
of information.
• B Grade: Daily entries always cover both scientific AND
personal observations, but format is inconsistent. Some
attempt at summarizing information over the course of the
class.
• A Grade: Daily entries always cover both scientific AND
personal observations, but format is consistent in style, with
sections on basic observations (time, date, weather) habitats
visited, species observed, research completed, plus personal
observations.
Required Format for Reports
• Title followed by names of authors
• Abstract (Should be 200-250 word summary of objective of
study and major conclusions)
• Introduction
(Background information on why you did the
study and relevant cited work)
• Methods
(Material used, sampling and observational methods
employed, description of location of study)
• Results
(Should contain tables, figures, and presentation of
the research results only)
• Discussion
(This is where you get to discuss the relevance of
your results, how it relates to your initial research question as
presented in the introduction, and what possible errors etc
affected your study)
• Literature Cited
(We expect citations from the
literature, especially books and technical papers)
Premise of project is clearly stated in the Introduction, and is based on thorough
review of scientific literature and on-line material, including all relevant previous
20 points
Dominica projects. All research hypotheses or goals are clearly stated, as are
scientific questions to be addressed by the project.
All known relevant scientific literature, on-line material and previous Dominica projects
are correctly cited in the paper and assembled into a references cited section.
Student made effective use of all available field time for gathering data or
information, including number of experimental replications, or other observations,
10 points
20 points
including photographs, videos, sound recordings
Paper includes appropriate and clear methods for data visualization and/or statistical
analysis including tables, figures, charts and maps,
Comments and suggestions by instructors on one or more preliminary drafts are
effectively and conscientiously addressed.
The degree to which the project has provided clear tests of hypotheses, met the goals
set for the project, or helped to answer questions raised in the introduction are
10 points
20 points
20 points
clearly discussed in the Discussion, and new knowledge or discoveries resulting from the
project are concisely summarized.
Total
100 points