Oceanography Research Paper
RESEARCH TOPIC: Coastal Vacation Destination
Where would you like to go on vacation near the ocean? Choose anywhere in the world!
1. Why visit – What made you think of this destination? How much is the airfare to/from San Jose? Why do you want to go there? What types of activities do you want to do when you visit?
2. Environment – What types of plants/animals are native to that area? If it is a city, what was it like previously? What role does the ocean play in the environment? What types of natural disasters happen in this destination?
3. History – Why did people settle in this area? What did the ocean and rivers have to offer them? Were there wars or invasions? Any famous landmarks there? Any other stories about its past?
4. Today – Why do people live in that area? What type of employment is there? What damage have humans caused to the environment? Are the rivers and ocean polluted? What would make it a better quality of life there?
The purpose of the paper is to learn something about a destination that interests you. I am your audience so write the paper thinking how you can share your knowledge with me. Feel free to include personal stories.
DEADLINES and ASSIGNMENTS which are all due by 10PM on Canvas
March 21 Research paper topic (5 points) and references (5 points).
Topic: Your name, date, paper topic and one paragraph describing what you will write about.
References: An alphabetical list of at least 3 references that you will use to write this paper. The list must be written in MLA format. See EVC library website for directions.
http://www.evc.edu/AcademicAffairs/Documents/Research Guide-MLA7th.pdf
www.easybib.com is a website that lets you type in the author, date, title… and it will compose the correct MLA format.
References can be books, scientific journals, magazines, newspapers, websites, or other computer information. The three references cannot include interviews with people, television information, or something another instructor told you. Every piece of information you hear can be found in a reputable written source. A maximum of 2 references can come from webpages written by unknown sources. An example of this type of webpage is Wikipedia. It does not list the authors who wrote the page.
Students will NOT get points if the reference list has a copy/paste of a URL from a webpage. The library MLA directions show how to properly site a webpage.
Most of the time you will find articles on a website with a title, date, author and those also have a proper way to be written in a reference list. See the library directions.
April 4 Outline of the entire paper. This is 1-2 pages showing a mini-version of your paper. No photos should be on this outline, just the skeleton of the paper. This should include a little bit about each piece of the paper: visit, environment, history and today.
April 11 Entire paper is due by 10PM. Minus 5 points each DAY that it is late. Feel free to send it a day or two early if you are worried about time. Any paper with over 10% “similarity index” will not be graded.
GRADING
The final paper is divided into 9 sections for grading purposes:
Title page = 2 points
• A creative paper title, your name, class title, date, my name
Introduction = 2 points
• At least one paragraph introducing the destination and the reason you chose to write about it
Visit = 10 points
• How to get there, things to do, famous sites
Environment = 10 points
• Plants, animals, climate, pollution, ocean/rivers, weather
History = 10 points
• Famous sites, explorers, native people, stories
Today = 10 points
• Has the location changed, tourism, employment, ocean quality
Conclusion = 2 points
• A wrap up of your discovery and opinion on this vacation destination
References = 2 points
• This should be a list of the references in alphabetical order. References should be written in the MLA format to get full credit.
Photos = 2 points
• Color photos with titles
Spelling or Grammar mistakes (-1 each with a max of -5 points)
WRITING: What is a paragraph? To refresh your memory, a paragraph has a topic sentence which has the overview of the entire paragraph. Then there are 3-4 supporting sentences which elaborate on the topic sentence and give more detail on the subject you are discussing. Each paragraph has only one main topic. The last sentence of a paragraph should be a transition sentence. It is a lead-in to the next paragraph so that your reader is not hastily thrown into a new topic.
Some students make the mistake of writing an entire page with no paragraph breaks. It is better to chop up the page into smaller paragraphs than to go on and on.
REFERENCES:
When writing a paper where the information comes from written sources, we are required to give credit to the author of the written source. We are also not allowed to copy any direct sentences from the written source and put them into our own paper. That is called plagiarism and it is immoral and against the law to copy an author’s work. Yet to support our own papers, we have to learn about the topic by reading. After reading several pages and taking notes, we can rewrite our notes in our own words. This is very important because if we write exactly the same words as the author, then we are guilty of plagiarism.
After rewriting the thoughts in our own words, we still have to give credit to the authors by citing their work. This means that we acknowledge their ideas in our paper with a small notation that refers the readers of our papers to the original source of information. With this, we are giving the author credit for his or her idea, admitting that we are borrowing information, and letting the reader of our papers know where to find the original source of information.
To cite the work, put the (Author) in your paragraph like this. This way when you write the information you acknowledge the original source.
WARNING: All papers will be checked for plagiarism using software commonly found in EVC English classes. The software compares student papers with websites and other papers submitted by students. When students turn in the paper, look for the “similarity index”. If it is over 10%, take a look at the paper again and re-write sections that are copy/pasted. The reference list is not included when your paper is compared to others.
PAPER REQUIREMENTS: carefully check to see that you have each of these done
? Paper must be typed and the font should be 12 point
? Double spacing between the lines
? Margins of 1 inch on all sides
? Page numbers required on each page
? The minimum number of typed pages is 5. The maximum is 6 pages.
? The list of references are not to be considered part of the minimum of 5 pages. They will have their own page and are the very last page of the paper
? References need to be cited in the paper with the author’s name (author) in the text like this.
? The title page will also not be considered part of the minimum of 5 pages.
? A figure or photo is required and also not part of the minimum pages. Photos should be placed at the very end of the paper.
? Grammar and spelling will be graded. Grammar mistakes are -1 point each with a maximum loss of 5 points.
? Do not quote any book or person
? Italicize scientific names of animals and plants
? A conclusion at the end of the paper
COMMON MISTAKES
1. Forget to write about the ocean.
2. No conclusion.
3. Spelling/grammar errors which could be prevented by proofreading.
4. No page numbers.
5. Poor organization of the main section about visit, environment, history and today.
6. Copy/paste from internet with a “similarity index” of greater than 10% = 0 points.
We can write this or a similar paper for you! Simply fill the order form!
