Bio 169 Ron Coleman

Animal Behavior Scientific Term Paper

Date: January 23, 2023
File: d:\B169-2023\Bio169_term_paper.wpd

Summary

You are to write a scientific term paper about a topic related to behavior.

Goal

The goal is for you to produce a term paper that illustrates that you have investigated and thought in depth
about a topic in behavior and that you are aware of the current research about that topic. The term paper
will tell me that you understand the important issues in a particular field of behavior, whether that be
optimal foraging, parental investment, conflict, reproductive skew, etc.

This paper is NOT an essay. I do not want you to explain a topic to me, e.g., do not explain optimal
foraging to me. I want you to discuss current research on a topic. If you find yourself including extensive
background material then you are not doing the paper correctly. The paper is about the current research,
not just about the organism or the behavior.
The key to doing this paper is that for each of your source papers, tell me what the authors were
trying to investigate, how they did their investigation, what they found, and what it means.
It is very likely that you have never done this kind of paper before. If you are unclear about what you are
doing, ask me early on to clarify. If you think that this is like writing a typical term paper on a topic, then
you are dead wrong.

Most importantly, think of this as an opportunity to show me what you can do, not as something that you
have to do. I want you to discover something and to share that discovery with me.

Potential Topics

I suggest you look at the following journals for inspiration:

Science, Nature, Animal Behavior, Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, Behavioral Ecology,
Ethology, Behavior, American Naturalist

You may also find material in the journals devoted to particular organisms, e.g. Auk (birds), Copeia (fish,
herps), Journal of Mammalogy (mammals), etc.
If you have a specific area of interest, I can suggest particular journals that you might look in.

Source Material
Our library has some of the journals mentioned above, and I have others in my own personal collection. The
UC Davis library has many of the relevant journals and the UC Berkeley library carries just about
everything. It is highly likely that you will need to get, either in person or by interlibrary loan, material from
other libraries. This takes time, often many weeks. Plan for this eventuality. You may use online approaches
(e.g., Google Scholar) to get copies of journal articles such as in pdf form, but do NOT cite websites, unless
you are absolutely sure that they are primary literature (see below and ask me). There is a vast and
important difference between a journal article that you view online (i.e., in electronic format) versus the rest
of material found on a website.

Your task is to find the most recent research wherever that may be, not just material in our library.
Mechanics
You will use the primary literature, not secondary sources like reviews, summaries, newspapers,
magazines, encyclopedias or websites. I want you to read what the current researchers are writing, not what
someone else wrote about what the researcher wrote.

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Bio 169 Ron Coleman

Use the past tense when writing about research, e.g., “Jones (2015) studied...” not “Jones (2015) are
studying...”
A typical term paper will make use of 4 papers from the primary literature. None of this literature may be
older than 1998.
In writing the paper, you may need to cite some secondary literature as background material. So that I know
that you know the difference between primary and secondary literature, in the Literature Cited section of
your paper, you must put an asterisk in front of each paper you deem to be primary literature.

By the first due date, you need to email me (at [email protected]) with a typed one page proposal for
your paper along with the completed proposal checklist. This proposal must include your name, the current
date, the title, the full and proper citation of one paper from the primary literature that you intend to
use, and a brief description of your proposed paper (one paragraph), that cites that paper. Examine the
sample proposal online to see how this is done. See below for the proper way to format your citation.
The file name will be Lastname_Firstname_Bio169_Spring2023_proposal.docx (or .pdf)
Note that you cannot turn in Part 1 (see below) until you have received a check mark on your proposal.

By the second due date, you must email me (at [email protected]) the title page, the introduction, and
the analysis of one of your pieces of primary literature, along with the full and proper citation of the
literature that you have cited in your work, and the completed “Part I” checklist. The title page must include
your name, the current date (NOT the date it is due), and the title of your paper. It must be numbered as
page 1. The introduction begins on page 2 (all pages must be numbered). The introduction provides a brief
introduction to the topic, often citing some literature, and then briefly tells me how you are going to
approach this topic, i.e., provide a roadmap to the rest of the paper. You must introduce and cite all four of
your primary sources in the introduction. It should be one paragraph in length.

Do not use subheadings like “Introduction”.

You must attach all marked and checked versions of your proposal in this same email..

The file name will be Lastname_Firstname_Bio169_Spring2023_part1.docx (or .pdf)

Note that you cannot turn in the final term paper (see below) until you have received s check mark on your
proposal and on your Part I.

For the final due date, you must email to me (at [email protected]) the completed paper, which includes
analysis of all of your primary literature, along with the final checklist. You are allowed (and encouraged)
to turn this in before the final deadline.
You will attach all previous marked and checked versions of your proposal and Part I in this same email.

The file name will be Lastname_Firstname_Bio169_Spring2023_termpaper.docx (or .pdf)

It should go without saying, but I will say it anyway, that you cannot submit a term paper that you are
submitting, have submitted, or will submit, for another course.
You must have someone else read over your paper (to help you improve the writing) before you
submit it. I strongly encourage you to select a reader from among your classmates if possible. You must list
their name at the end of the checklist. You are to fill out the rest of the checklist, not them. Be sure to
leave enough time for the reader to provide effective feedback.

Types of Literature
The primary literature consists of the material published in journals (which are very distinct from
magazines), written by the scientist doing the work and reviewed by scientific referees. Reviews or books
(with rare exceptions) do NOT constitute the primary literature. Textbooks are NEVER primary literature.
These are considered secondary literature. Magazines like Scientific American, Biosciences, American
Scientist, Discovery or National Geographic are NOT primary literature.
Gray literature is particularly common in fisheries and wildlife work; beware of it. The California

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Department of Fish and Wildlife produces tons of it each year. Gray literature consists of circulars,
bulletins, reports, technical reports, in-house documents and the like which are printed but do not undergo
the typical scientific review process. These are used for internal purposes but because they have not
undergone any external review, they are not considered as scientifically valid as primary literature.
Nonetheless, some gray literature is useful, but it must always be evaluated with a strong sense of caution.
The title of the publication does not always tell you whether something is primary, secondary or gray
literature. For example, the Bulletin of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada (now Canadian Journal of
Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences) is the most highly regarded journal in fisheries research and is not a
"bulletin" in the typical sense (which is why they changed the name a number of years ago).

Similarly Transactions of the American Fisheries Society sounds like a list of Meeting minutes or some
such thing but is in fact a respectable journal of basic fisheries research. By contrast, Fisheries Bulletin is
exactly what it says it is: a bulletin of what is going on in fisheries and not a part of the primary literature.

If a journal is titled Reviews in Evolution, or something similar, with the word “Review” in the title, you
can be sure that nothing in it is primary literature. For example, the journal Trends in Ecology and
Evolution is NOT primary literature. That does not mean that you should not look at that journal for
inspiration, but the papers in it are not primary literature (with rare exceptions).

Sometimes the same issue of a journal will contain items that are primary literature and others that are
secondary literature. Many journals have a review article in the front of each issue. The word “Review” at
the top should be a strong hint that this is NOT primary literature. For example, the journal Science, one of
the most respected journals in science, often includes many news reports, etc. that are not primary literature,
as well as substantial primary literature, in the same issue.

If you are unsure as to whether a paper is primary literature or not, ask me about it. If you email me a copy
of the paper, I can tell you whether it is primary literature or not.

As a very simple litmus test: if a paper is really easy to understand, like it was written for non-scientists, the
odds are very high that it is NOT primary literature. Primary literature is densely written, often full of
unexplained highly technical jargon. It is that stuff that you need to use for this term paper.

As another test, if the paper does not have a Methods section, it is not likely primary literature; however, be
aware that a paper may have a Methods section that might not be explicitly named “Methods” and it may
appear at the end of the paper in some journals.
Format

The paper MUST BE TYPED -- I will not read handwritten papers under any circumstances.
The paper must be double-spaced with pages numbered, starting with the title page as page 1. It may be
printed on one-side of the page or double-sided.

This paper should be no more than, and not less than 9 pages (all inclusive) and must include a title page
with the title, your name, and current date.

e.g.,
Sperm competition in humans: fact or myth?
by
Ron Coleman
April 12, 2023

The Literature Cited goes on the last page, but not on a separate page, i.e., it starts right after the last bit of
text, preceded by the words “Literature Cited”.
Write clearly and precisely.

I am very unimpressed with spelling mistakes or grammatical mistakes. These kinds of mistakes can
DRAMATICALLY affect the grading of your paper. Use a spelling checker program to check your writing
and have a friend read it as well before turning it in. I expect a very high quality product.

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How to Cite Sources

The purpose of citing material in a scientific document is to properly credit the work of others. A citation
shows that the thought or information just presented is not that of the author of the current document, but
rather comes from someone else and that person deserves the credit (or the blame).
You do NOT cite what is regarded as general knowledge. But, and here is an important point to ponder, you
should not be writing much general knowledge in your paper anyway. For example if you are writing a
paper on the swimming biodynamics of tuna and you find yourself writing that tuna are fast moving fish that
live in the ocean, then there is no need to cite anyone for that, but equally, there is no need to write the
original sentence in the first place. We all know that tuna are fast moving fish that live in the ocean. Now if
you want to tell me something specific, like tuna are the fastest swimming fish, clocked at over 50 miles per
hour, you need a citation because I want to know who said that and then I can check it out myself if I do not
believe it.

The Literature Cited Section

The Literature Cited should contain ONLY citations to published work and must be set out professionally,
paying careful attention to having complete information, the order of the information and the format of how
that information is presented, i.e.,
journal article:
Galen, C., J.A. Shykoff and R.C. Plowright (1986) Consequences of stigma receptivity
schedules for sexual selection in flowering plants. American Naturalist 127:
462-476.

book chapter:
Plowright, R.C. and C.M.S. Plowright (1987) Elitism in Social Insects: A Positive Feedback
Model. Pp 413-436 in: Interindividual Behavioral Variability in Social Insects (Ed. R.L.
Jeanne), Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado.
book:

Moyle, P.B., and J.J. Cech Jr. (1988) Fishes: An Introduction to Ichthyology (Second Edition).
Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.
The Literature Cited should be listed in alphabetical order of the last name of the first author. In other
words, a paper by Connor, S. (2006) would appear higher in the list than a paper by Jones, A.B., and C.D.
Dunnit (2001).
You NEVER change the order of the authors within a particular reference.

Notice the placement of the various pieces of information, such as the year. Notice that the issue number is
not included, only the volume and pages. Write out journal names in full. Notice the use of hanging
indentation. This is NOT done by hitting the space or tab key. Ask me if you do not know how to do this
properly.

Some of the papers that you may encounter will be published in electronic journals, such as PloS ONE. This
is not the same as a website. Such papers often do not have page numbers. Instead they might have a
document number.
Important: Do NOT simply cut and past information from a source into the Literature Cited section. Doing
so will cost you at least a grade. Carefully examine the information and assemble this section as described
above.
How Citations Appear in the Text
The three citations listed above would appear in your text as, respectively, Galen et al. (1986), Plowright
and Plowright (1987), and Moyle and Cech (1988). Note that citations to papers with more than two authors
-- such as the first one above -- appear in your text as the first author followed by the words ‘et al.’ (Latin
for "and others") but the full list of authors is given in your Literature Cited section. Notice that in the
words ‘et al.’ there is no little dot after the word ‘et’ but there is a dot after the word ‘al.’. This is because
‘al.’ is an abbreviation, whereas ‘et’ is not an abbreviation.

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Unpublished work is referred to in the text either as "(A.J. Smith, unpublished data)" or "(J.G. Bloggs,
personal communication)", depending on the context, but is not listed in the Literature Cited.
DO NOT USE footnotes as a means to cite literature. In fact, do not use footnotes at all. Most scientific
journals do not allow them. Some journals use a numbering system when referring to literature. DO NOT do
that in this paper.
Do not ask me whether you should use APA style or MLA style. There is no “standard” style for biological
science journals no matter what someone else might tell you, so please follow the instructions given above.

Quotations

It is almost never correct to use quotations in scientific writing. This is because in science we are interested
in the ideas we get from others, not their exact words. If Jones wrote something interesting in 1992, then
paraphrase (but do not copy) what Jones wrote and give her credit. For example, the following might appear
in your paper,
The bluegill sunfish exhibits a diversity of reproductive styles (Jones 1992).
You do not need to put the words in quotation marks because you are telling us that Jones wrote a paper on
this topic. We now know that it was not you that first found out this exciting fact, but rather it was Jones and
we know where to look to find more details. But, do NOT simply copy the text from Jones. You must
paraphrase it. To simply copy it, whether you cite it or not, is plagiarism, a serious academic offense.

The only time you need to use quotations in science is when the actual exact words are very important. For
example, Robert Trivers wrote a very famous definition of parental investment in 1972 and this one line is
quoted extensively in the literature because each and every word in it is very precise and important.

Long Chunks of Text

Imagine that you are writing a term paper on sea snakes and you want to make extensive use of Roberts
(1999) paper on sea snakes.

You do NOT write the following:

Roberts (1999) wrote extensively on the ecology and reproduction of sea snakes. He found that
most sea snakes are livebearers (Roberts 1999). Fourteen of 26 species are striped (Roberts 1999).
They are found in all tropical oceans (Roberts 1999).

You would write the following:

Roberts (1999) wrote extensively on the ecology and reproduction of sea snakes. He found that
most sea snakes are livebearers. Fourteen of 26 species are striped. They are found in all tropical
oceans.
There is no need to put "Roberts (1999)" at the end of each sentence because it is clear that all of this
material is coming from Roberts' paper. By the same token, you do not just put “Roberts (1999)” at the end
of the paragraph, like you might do in an English essay.
The bottom line when citing material is as follows: you are trying to make sure that the reader knows
who said what and where the reader can go to find more information.
DO NOT QUOTE when writing in science.

Plagiarism
Do not copy material from a source and that includes copying references. With few exceptions, any time 4
or 5 words appear exactly the same in your paper as in a source, that constitutes plagiarism and you will
receive an automatic F. I may check this with the software Turnitin. I am very good at catching plagiarism.

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Check Lists
At the end of this document are three checklists that must be turned in, the first with your Proposal, the
second with your Part I, and the third with your final term paper. Do not ask me for a copy of the
checklist when you turn in your paper. Doing so makes it clear that you did not USE the checklist in writing
your paper and I will be very unhappy. A paper submitted without the proper checklist is worth zero. The
checklists are there to help you – use them!

Due Dates

Feb 22, 1:00 pm: Topic proposal due

Mar 15, 1:00 pm: Term paper Part I due
April 12, 1:00 pm: Final paper due
Note: You may turn in your paper before the due date if you wish. You are encouraged to do so.

Grading

The paper will be graded out of 20 points. One day late results in 50% loss of grade. After that, the
paper is worth 0.

If the paper is less than 9 pages, that will be a loss of 4 points.

Inappropriate literature will be a loss of 5 points at a minimum.

A paper lacking a proper checklist is worth zero.

A paper with the wrong file name is worth zero.

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[A sample proposal for a term paper]

Ronald M. Coleman
February 22, 2023
Bio 169 Term paper proposal

Camouflage: Winning at Hide and Seek

Organisms have evolved many different ways to avoid being detected and eaten by predators. One of these is called
camouflage. Camouflage refers to when a prey organism attempts to blend in with the background. How does such a
defense system work in a changing world? Snowshoe hares are large rabbits that live in the northern United States
and Canada (Zimova et al. 2014). They are preyed upon by various species, particularly Canadian lynx (a large cat).
To escape detection, snowshoe hares molt their fur color at the start of every winter from the brown color they have
during summer, to a snowy white fur. The latter helps them blend in with a snow-filled environment. They then molt
back to brown for the summer. Global climate change has caused the snow to arrive later in the fall and to disappear
earlier in the spring than in the recent past, and so Zimova et al. (2014) wanted to know if this has affected when
snowshoe hares change their coat color. For my term paper, I will examine this article plus two others on the topic
of camouflage.

Literature Cited

Zimova, M., L.S. Mills, P.M. Lukacs and M.S. Mitchell (2014) Snowshoe hares display limited phenotypic plasticity
to mismatch in seasonal camouflage. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 281: 201-
208.

Notes:
1. The proposal does not have to be long. It just has to tell me the topic you are pursuing, and it provides the
full and proper citation of one piece of primary literature. That literature must be cited correctly in the body
of the proposal and must be listed properly in the Literature Cited section.

2. Notice the use of hanging indentation for the Literature Cited

3. Do not involve yourself in the selection of the topic or the writing, e.g., “The topic I chose was...” or “I
have always been fascinated by...” A scientific paper is not about YOU.

4. You cannot make any statement of fact without citing a source. For exmple, if you had written the
sentence “Snowshoe hares are large rabbits that live in the northern United States and Canada” but failed to
cite a source, the reader would ask “What is your source for making such a statement? I have never seen a
snowshoe hare. I think you are making that up.” In science, it is not what you know, it is what you can
prove, that counts.

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[A sample introduction to a term paper]

Ronald M. Coleman
March 15, 2023
Bio 169 Term paper Part 1

Conflict and Cooperation: A review of biparental care

Biparental care is the name given to any situation where both parents (the male and the female) participate
in parental care of the offspring. Biparental care is the norm in birds, is widespread in mammals and occurs
sporadically in amphibians and fishes (Gross and Sargent, 1985). Biparental care is intriguing because it is a balance
between cooperation and conflict between the two parents (Houston and Davies, 1985). In many cases, the long-term
interests of the two partners are not aligned, e.g., when mating is only for a single reproductive event, and thus there
may be conflict in terms of how much each parent is willing to invest in the offspring. And yet, if the parents do not
cooperate to some extent, e.g., to protect the young, the offspring will perish and so some degree of cooperation is
necessary. What factors influence this careful balance between cooperation and conflict? In this paper, I will
examine four studies, from a diversity of taxa, which illustrate that the balance can be influenced by such things as
availability of other partners (Xiong and Chu 2009), age of the offspring (Hernandez et al. 2005), number of
offspring (Ngoro and Sheng 1998) and even characteristics of the parents themselves such as their relative sizes
(Coleman 2006). Together these studies show that parents incorporate diverse information into their biparental
investment decisions.

Notes:
1. The papers cited in start of the paragraph are for background information, i.e., Gross and Sargent (1985)
and Houston and Davies (1985). Some of them are secondary literature (e.g., reviews). These do not count
in the four primary literature papers you are to utilize for this assignment.

[Sample analysis]

Coleman (2006) examined biparental care in the convict cichlid (Archocentrus nigrofasciatus) using a
manipulative laboratory experiment to see the effect of relative value on the balance of biparental investment. In this
experiment, Coleman utilized 15 pairs of convict cichlids, which he bred in 15 different aquaria. The key to the
experiment was that Coleman deliberately created pairs of particular size combinations.... and so on....

Notes:
1. Do not describe the Methods in great detail, but give enough information so that the reader has a good
feeling for what was done, how many animals were used, whether it was a lab or field experiment, etc.,

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Proposal Checklist
Name: _____________________________ Date: ______________________
The Author (not the proofreader) must fill out and turn in this page with the term paper.
Overall
___ The date on the title page is the current date (not the date the paper is due). The date should be updated
with each revision.

___ The paper is double-spaced

___ You have read your paper carefully for spelling and grammatical mistakes

___ You have cited your literature in the body of what you have written
___ You have emailed me the proposal, as an attachment, with the following file name format
Lastname_Firstname_Bio169_Spring2023_proposal.docx (or .pdf)

General Punctuation

___ You have used the past tense when writing about the research, e.g., “Jones (2015) studied...”
___ There are no quotations in your writing

___ Every sentence ends with a period, exclamation point or question mark.

___ You have not used any contractions, e.g., “didn’t” instead of “did not”
___ Scientific names are written in italics, e.g., Lepomis macrochirus, including those in the Literature
Cited

___ The name of the Genus is capitalized and the specific epithet is NOT capitalized, e.g., Lepomis
macrochirus, not Lepomis Macrochirus
___ You have spelled out abbreviations or acronyms even if the original paper uses acronyms. The only
exceptions are very common acronyms such as DNA

___ You used “because” not “since” unless you were referring to time

Citation of Literature in the body of the paper

___ You used "et al." when there are three or more authors

___ You checked that "et al." is correctly written -- notice the "." after “al.” Do not put the words “et al.” in
quotation marks in your paper.
___ EVERY paper cited in the body of your paper is listed in the Literature Cited section
___ You did not write out the title of a reference in the body of your writing; you cited the paper.

Literature Cited section

___ You did not start a new page just for the Literature Cited section
___ The papers you cite are listed in alphabetical order by the last name of the first author

___ You did not rearrange the order of the authors within the listing of a paper
Continued on next page...

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Bio 169 Ron Coleman

___ You used hanging indentation

___ Papers with three or more authors have ALL authors listed fully (i.e., you did not use et al. in the
Literature Cited section)
___ EVERY paper listed in the Literature Cited section is actually cited in the body of the paper
___ The references are formatted in a consistent manner with respect to capitalization, punctuation, etc; you
did NOT cut and paste the reference listing from another source

Proofreading

___ You did not really read any of the instructions, but have just blindly checked all the lines. You agree
that doing so makes your paper worth a zero. Do not check this line if you do not want a zero.

___ The paper was read by a proofreader. Printed name of proofreader _____________________

Note: If you checked these things as being done that have not in fact been done, then your grade will also suffer
severely.

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Term paper Part I Checklist

Name: _____________________________ Date: ______________________
The Author (not the proofreader) must fill out and turn in this page with the term paper.
Overall
___ There is a title page
___ The date on the title page is the current date (not the date the paper is due). The date should be updated
with each revision.

___ The pages are numbered, starting with the title page as page 1
___ The paper is double-spaced
___ You have read your paper carefully for spelling and grammatical mistakes
___ You have written a careful analysis of RESEARCH on a topic, not a description of a topic

___ There is an introductory paragraph to introduce the topic and your approach
___ The introduction cites all four of your pieces of primary literature. It should be more than half a page
but less than one full page.
___ You have attached all drafts of the paper and proposal that were edited by me

___ You have emailed me a copy of the Part I paper, as an attachment, with the following file name format
Lastname_Firstname_Bio169_Spring2022_part1.docx (or .pdf)
General Punctuation
___ You have used the past tense when writing about the research, e.g., “Jones (2015) studied...”

___ There are no quotations in the paper

___ Every sentence ends with a period, exclamation point or question mark.

___ You have not used any contractions, e.g., “didn’t” instead of “did not”

___ Scientific names are written in italics, e.g., Lepomis macrochirus, including those in the Literature
Cited

___ The name of the Genus is capitalized and the specific epithet is NOT capitalized, e.g., Lepomis
macrochirus, not Lepomis Macrochirus
___ You have spelled out abbreviations or acronyms even if the original paper uses acronyms. The only
exceptions are very common acronyms such as DNA
___ You used “because” not “since” unless you were referring to time

Citation of Literature in the body of the paper

___ You used at least four pieces of primary literature, none older than 1998

___ You used "et al." when there are three or more authors
___ You checked that "et al." is correctly written -- notice the "." after “al.” Do not put the words “et al.” in
quotation marks in your paper.

___ EVERY paper cited in the body of your paper is listed in the Literature Cited section
___ You did not write out the title of a reference in the body of your writing; you cited the paper.
Continued on next page....

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Literature Cited section

___ You did not start a new page just for the Literature Cited section

___ The papers you cite are listed in alphabetical order by the last name of the first author
___ You did not rearrange the order of the authors within the listing of a paper
___ You used hanging indentation

___ You put an asterisk in front of each piece of primary literature in the Literature Cited section
___ Papers with three or more authors have ALL authors listed fully (i.e., you did not use et al. in the
Literature Cited section)
___ EVERY paper listed in the Literature Cited section is actually cited in the body of the paper
___ The references are formatted in a consistent manner with respect to capitalization, punctuation, etc; you
did NOT cut and paste the reference listing from another source

Proofreading

___ You did not really read any of the instructions, but have just blindly checked all the lines. You agree
that doing so makes your paper worth a zero. Do not check this line if you do not want a zero.

___ The paper was read by a proofreader. Printed name of proofreader _____________________

Note: If you checked these things as being done that have not in fact been done, then your grade will also suffer
severely.

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Term paper Final Checklist

Name: _____________________________ Date: _____________________________
The Author (not the proofreader) must fill out and turn in this page with the term paper.
Overall
___ There is a title page
___ The date on the title page is the current date (not the date the paper is due). The date should be updated
with each revision.

___ The pages are numbered, starting with the title page as page 1
___ The paper is double-spaced
___ The paper is 9 pages in total (including the title page) and is double-spaced
___ You have read your paper carefully for spelling and grammatical mistakes

___ You have written a careful analysis of RESEARCH on a topic, not a description of a topic
___ There is an introductory paragraph to introduce the topic and your approach

___ The introduction cites all four of your pieces of primary literature. It should be more than half a page
but less than one full page.

___ There is a concluding paragraph at the end, to bring the material together

___ You have attached all drafts of the paper and proposal that were edited by me
___ You have emailed me a copy of the Part I paper, as an attachment, with the following file name format
Lastname_Firstname_Bio169_Spring2022_termpaper.docx (or .pdf)

General Punctuation
___ You have used the past tense when writing about the research, e.g., “Jones (2015) studied...”

___ There are no quotations in the paper

___ Every sentence ends with a period, exclamation point or question mark.
___ You have not used any contractions, e.g., “didn’t” instead of “did not”

___ Scientific names are written in italics, e.g., Lepomis macrochirus, including those in the Literature
Cited

___ The name of the Genus is capitalized and the specific epithet is NOT capitalized, e.g., Lepomis
macrochirus, not Lepomis Macrochirus
___ You have spelled out abbreviations or acronyms even if the original paper uses acronyms. The only
exceptions are very common acronyms such as DNA
___ You used “because” not “since” unless you were referring to time

Citation of Literature in the body of the paper

___ You used at least four pieces of primary literature, none older than 1998
___ You used "et al." when there are three or more authors

___ You checked that "et al." is correctly written -- notice the "." after “al.” Do not put the words “et al.” in
quotation marks in your paper.
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Bio 169 Ron Coleman

___ EVERY paper cited in the body of your paper is listed in the Literature Cited section
___ You did not write out the title of a reference in the body of your writing; you cited the paper.

Literature Cited section

___ You did not start a new page just for the Literature Cited section
___ The papers you cite are listed in alphabetical order by the last name of the first author

___ You did not rearrange the order of the authors within the listing of a paper
___ You used hanging indentation

___ You put an asterisk in front of each piece of primary literature in the Literature Cited section
___ Papers with three or more authors have ALL authors listed fully (i.e., you did not use et al. in the
Literature Cited section)

___ EVERY paper listed in the Literature Cited section is actually cited in the body of the paper
___ The references are formatted in a consistent manner with respect to capitalization, punctuation, etc; you
did NOT cut and paste the reference listing from another source

Proofreading

___ You did not really read any of the instructions, but have just blindly checked all the lines. You agree
that doing so makes your paper worth a zero. Do not check this line if you do not want a zero.

___ The paper was read by a proofreader. Printed name of proofreader _____________________

Note: If you checked these things as being done that have not in fact been done, then your grade will also suffer
severely.

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