Instructions for preparing paper, poster, or other creative submission

The paper, poem, poster, brochure, or whatever creative effort you decide to submit on November 23rd should involve at least 8 hours of effort (research, preparation, writing). The paper is worth about 50% of the grade so it requires your attention. The letter grade will reflect effort, quality, and imagination.

1. Select a topic for research that is well-defined e.g. a single landform (e.g. kame), a type of deposit (till), a sedimentary structure (cross-beds), a single process (e.g. dune formation). Avoid poorly defined topics or ones which are too large in scope (e.g. diary entry summary of entire trip).

2. Start your article with a statement of why you selected the topic.

4. Label and provide a separate text for each illustration. Refer to each illustration in the text. e.g. Striations are clearly visible on the erratic (Fig 1).

5. At the end of your report provide a list of literature and web references. Refer to these by number in the order they are used in your text. Your paper may include as many web references as you like but must contain at least two book or journal references from the library.

Example of a citation in the body of the text.

The Campbell strandline is higher to the north than it is to the south (1)

In the References

1. Brevik, E. C. 1994. Isostatic rebound in the Lake Agassiz Basin since the Late Wisconsinan, unpublished masters thesis, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, 127 p.

There are many types of reference styles but for each type use a similar format; e.g. author last name, initials only, date, title of article, source (for journals or periodicals list title, volume, page numbers, for books list title, total pages, publisher, place of publication, for book chapters list as a journal but add In: names of editors, title of book, pages of article, publisher, place of publication).

For web publications

e.g. in text

The basic morphology of parabolic dunes is described in a USGS publication (2).

In the references

2. Watson, K., 1997, Types of Dunes < http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/deserts/dunes/>, accessed 10 Oct., 2001.

Show the author (s), date, title of the page, url, last date you visited

For other types of presentation e.g. posters, poems, etc

In addition to the creative work submit that includes:

1. A one paragraph statement of why you chose the topic

2. A list of references used in the preparation

CAUTIONS

1. The project must represent your own research and writing

2. The project must not be part of a cooperative effort unless pre-arranged with the instructor

3. The project must not contain plagiarized materials. From my interpretation, this involves the copying of large parts of sentences, or entire sentences, from source materials. No distinction is made whether the source is paper or web-based.

4. I have access to software that makes it relatively easy for me to detect whether text that has been copied from web pages.

5. Projects which contain shared or plagiarized materials will automatically result in a fail for the course.