BIOLOGY, NATURAL HISTORY, CONSERVATION STATUS AND CONSERVATION EFFORTS CONCERNING A BIRD SPECIES FOUND IN MASSACHUSETTS
Guidelines for Bio 130 Final Paper I. Summary You will be completing one paper focusing on the biology, natural history, conservation status and conservation efforts concerning a bird species found in Massachusetts. The paper itself will consist of about 7-10 pages on your topic, not including images or your references page. You should have a minimum of 5 references that are cited within the text of the paper and in a references section at the end. So if you provide some information (in your own words, of course) that you found from a particular resource, you would follow that sentence with the author’s last name and year of publication (Newton, 2018). If there are two authors, you would put both last names (Newton and Smith, 2018), and if there are more than two authors, you would put the first author along with et al., which means ‘and everyone’ (Newton, et al., 2018). The full reference including all author names, year of publication, article title, journal title, volume, number and page number would be listed in the references section at the end of the paper. Probably the most important advice I can give you is to make sure you write the paper in your own voice! It is okay to quote another author (putting the text in quotes and citing the quote properly as stated above). However, you want to be sparse in your use of direct quotes, rather synthesizing the material yourself. Even if you synthesize the material in your own words, you should still cite the source since the general information came from someone else’s work. Do not copy and paste sections in from other sources and try to pass it off as your own work. Not only is that unethical (and slightly ironic in an ethic course), but it will guarantee you a zero as your final grade. I am very good at picking out plagiarized portions of student papers, so make sure you follow these guidelines! The paper counts as your final exam, or 20% of your overall grade, so read through this guide to help do your best! II. How to do a paper A. Choose a topic. Your topic for this paper will simply be writing about a particular bird species found in Massachusetts. However, you will also be exploring the biology, natural history, conservation status and conservation efforts regarding this species, so make sure it is a species that you are interested in, or for which you think has an interesting conservation or natural history story. B. The Getting-to-know-your-topic Research phase Obviously, the topics listed in the syllabus are pretty broad, but they may be helpful in conducting the first stages of your research. For instance, looking over the topics covered in this course, you may ask the following: -How is this bird classified? What is the taxonomic placement of the bird? (Is it a passerine? What order does it fall into? What characteristics of the bird help place it in that order or make it similar to or different from other related birds?) -What are the feathers/plumage types for this bird? Is it sexually dimorphic or not? What do the chicks and juveniles look like? (You can use photos if you cite the sources.) Are there any specialized feathers for flight or display? -What is the primary diet for the bird? Does it travel to pursue that diet through migration? Does the diet change over the course of its life (breeding/feeding chicks, getting ready to lay eggs, etc.)? -Are there any interesting adaptations regarding the anatomy of this bird helping to suit it to its environment? -What is the vocal behavior of this species? Do both males and females vocalize? When? Why? -What do we know about the mating behavior of this species? Is it polygynous or do they exhibit another breeding style? – [unique_solution]What is the breeding behavior of your species (how many eggs, how do they take care of the chicks if at all)? -Where/when does this bird migrate (if at all)? -Do these birds live in communities? Do they defend territories? -Any interesting behaviors (or common behaviors, even if you don’t find them particularly interesting!) that this bird exhibits? Don’t be afraid to use your own original research into bird behavior if you decide to write about one of the birds you also covered in your bird behavior study. -What is the current conservation status of your bird? Is it endangered in Massachusetts? Federally endangered or threatened? Are there any important bird areas that this bird inhabits? What type of ecosystem would be important to this bird that might be considered as an important bird area? How might other threats to conservation (habitat loss, climate change) impact this species (you might want to check the “Audubon Birds and Climate Change Report” for this information at climate.audubon.org/) -Are there any current conservation efforts geared for this bird in Massachusetts? Any other general conservation efforts (such as the Migratory Bird Act) that might impact this bird’s conservation? C. The Serious Research phase Your paper should have a minimum of five references, but once you start hunting down all of the information listed above, you should have no problem meeting that minimum. Your references should also be from peer reviewed literature, or it can come from an education source (an “.edu” or associated with an “.edu” such as the Cornell Lab or Ornithology). I will also accept information based on long-term studies done by organizations such as Audubon (see climate change report above). However, “Joe’s bird guide” or “birds.net” would not be a reliable source, you so need to get to the original source material. Textbooks are generally considered secondary references, but you may use your textbook or a bird field guide as a reference, since these are also reviewed by editors so the information is vetted. When you’re doing this research, and this is important – take notes, jot things down. Do it electronically – if it’s online research you can cut and paste into your own “research notes” document. This why you have facts and ideas that are related collected. When you write your paper you can go back to them without have to have every source in front of you, without having to redo the search for the article, etc. This helps organize your thoughts as well. Make sure to put a note about what source the note is from, what page, etc. Most likely, this will muddy things in your brain for a while and that’s ok – in fact, it should at first. But after a while, you will start to see the kind of information come up again, the same kind of arguments, the same actors who are involved in the discussion, the same historical references, etc. –things should start to come into focus. This is kind of like when an athlete says, “The game started to slow down for me.” Somewhere in this time, you’ll have what is often called, “the Ah-HAH! Moment,” where something clicks, something jumps out at you, it makes sense, the path is clear, and you have really figured out what your paper is about. D. The Outline/First draft phase Outlines are very helpful in organizing your thoughts before you actually dive into the heavy writing phase of your paper. A basic outline can often look like this: I. Intro – overview of what species you’ll be covering and some general II. Natural history of the bird—subheadings: when/where it breeds, migrates, what it eats, etc. III. Details about biology/anatomy of the bird IV. Details about behavior—subheadings: mating, vocalization, migration, etc V. Conservation status and protection measures (You can add sections as needed to these suggestions above.) If you don’t know how to do an outline, get some help (see part F, below). When I say a “hybrid” between outline and 1st draft – maybe you write some things with more detail, like introductions to sections, and leave other things until later, with bullet points or notes holding the place for the time being. One way or another, however, I strongly suggest you get all the way through the paper at least once to plan what you want to say before you actually write it completely. While you are doing this, make quick notes about where you got pieces of information that aren’t yours – did you interview someone? Books, articles, etc. – jot down whatever you need to know which source it came from, what page, so when you do your endnotes you don’t spend wasted hours trying to find where that gem of a fact or idea came from. I can’t tell you how much time I’ve wasted trying to re-find source information. “I know I read that, but where? Grrrrr….” I started making a master list and giving each source a number or letter and write that letter next to point/bullet/whatever. For the first draft stage, you should have many of these sections flushed out into paragraph form. Having that draft available for a consultation with your instructor would be very helpful in getting good feedback on your paper before it’s due. E. College resources Your tuition pays for the folks at the Learning Commons and the library staff. Use them. By all accounts they are good people and eager to help – that’s why they are there after all. They can help with research, they can help with writing, and they can help with reviewing your paper. We have librarians at each of our branch libraries who would be thrilled to help you—even if you’re located off campus. We also have a writing center that can look over any stage of your writing process—from picking a topic, to forming a thesis and writing an outline, to revising drafts. F. Getting to and doing the Final draft Set your outline or first draft down overnight and then come back to it. Then, look to tighten it up, bolster arguments that come across as weak, check your introductions and conclusions and make sure the paper, each section, and each paragraph take the reader down a relatively clear and walkable path to your conclusion/recommendations/ideas. Proofread and spell check, but you also have to read it closely yourself because computer aids cannot (yet) catch everything. Good ways to do this include in one way or another, slowly and carefully reading it OUT LOUD, word-by-word. Reading it out loud is a good way to check for awkward-sounding sentences, grammatical errors, and just listening for your true voice. Does it sound like something you would write, or are you relying too much on the style of writing in your sources? I want to hear YOUR voice in plain English—not in the stiff language you might come across in scientific journals (which are the preferred source materials for this paper). You can also plug it into an app that will read it aloud to you. Are there sentences that sound awkward that could be rephrased? Sentences that are too long and would sound better if you broke them up into separate ideas? Threaten your younger brother that you’ll tell Mom and Dad the truth about how that dent got in the car when you were kids if he doesn’t read it aloud to you. Whatever. G. References Everyone hates doing them. It’s why people who write a lot like to have people working for them to do this unenjoyable bit of dirty work for them. But you HAVE TO DO IT because stealing people’s work, ideas and words is, literally, a crime. Sometimes it’s criminal, sometimes it can ruin your reputation, sometimes it can get you fired. It’s cheating. Get over it and do it. Some rules of thumb: If you take an exact phrase or quote or name of some concept of more than a few words or maybe more than a subject, verb and a clause and you don’t quote it, or foot/end note it, it’s plagiarism. “He went to the store,” doesn’t need a footnote or quote because it’s very common. But if you write, a word-for-word quote like, “he went to the store to buy extra-large FDA-approved organic brown eggs for the reception.” And don’t quote that, even as boring and relatively benign as that may seem, it’s plagiarism. If it’s a number, a statistic, a formula, whatever not based on original research, testing, etc., not described elsewhere in your paper, and there’s no foot/end-note, don’t use it. It could very well be a lie. You want to get to the original sources and then cite those sources. It’s okay that you haven’t done research on the success of various programs to combat opioid abuse—just don’t try to pawn off that research as your own. Cite it in the text of the paper, and then list the full reference at the end. If it’s an idea, a concept, a philosophy, whatever, that you rework and try to pass of as your own, when it’s not, and you do so knowingly, it’s a theft of intellectual property. If your page paper includes more than a page or maybe two of quotes, block or otherwise, it’s not your work and it will be refused. The great news is that if you do good research, you can literally foot/end-note every sentence except a few where you develop your own ideas, and that’s totally ok. It just means you’ve found a number of strands of evidence that you have woven together to reach your point. But you can’t just cut and paste everything in. You have to write it – you can’t quote a page of how birds attract mates, you have to describe it yourself, based on your research. If you include original research that you did (for instance, from your bird behavior study), by all means cite your own paper! If you’ve been keeping track as you’ve been going along, however, as described above, this isn’t that big a deal. And there are programs out there that can help with footnotes, as I’m sure you know. Just make sure they do it correctly. Keep in mind that I have been reading your writing all semester, so I am familiar with your writing style. I was also a professional writer for many years so I’m sensitive to different people’s “voice,” so I can easily pick out plagiarized sections of papers. Oh, and we have programs that can go through papers to tell us if it’s original work or not, so just changing some words around won’t work either. If you plagiarize, you will get a zero, so just say no to plagiarizing! H. Finishing touches Although you will be uploading these to the Blackboard space, I will be printing your paper to sit down with and grade. So check that a printed copy would look right, that the margins are right, pagination looks good, etc. Details matter. A cover page is nice but not necessary. Make sure you upload your final paper in a .doc or .rft format (NOT Pages—I can’t open those). And don’t just send me a link to a google drive doc. Remember, you’re in college, and many of you want to transfer to a four-year school, so this is the standard, and I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t hold you to it. If you haven’t learned this before, this is your chance. Use me, that’s what I’m here for. And remember – details and being precise matter. Adapted with permission from James W. Newton, BCC Instructor, 2017 i need it by may 11th