ENV-100: INTRODUCTION TO
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
TERM PAPER OUTLINES, SOURCES, AND
CITATIONS
1)
Outlines
Your
(approximately) two-page term paper outlines with sources are due no later than
next Thursday, March 6. Please use a standard outline format where major,
primary topic headings are given roman numerals, secondary headings are given
uppercase letters, third-level headings are given standard numbers, and
fourth-level headings are given lowercase letters. I find that a good way to
think of headings in an outline is as follows: Primary headings should be for
your paper's major sections, secondary headings for individual paragraphs or
subsections, third-level headings for individual sentences, and fourth-level
headings for individual bits of data or information. Of course, your own paper
may or may not fit this model exactly.
2)
Sources and Citation Format
As I
mentioned to you earlier in the semester, all sources of information, data,
figures, pictures, captions, tables, ideas, or words not your own must be
appropriately cited.
I will be checking you on this very carefully. Many of you also have asked me about citation
formats. Obviously, there are numerous citation formats, many of them
discipline dependent. The one I will be giving you here is what I am used to
(see sample article I will provide for an example of my preferred citation
format). It is by no means the only appropriate format for your paper, but it
probably would be easier for everyone (especially me) if you used it.
Within the
body of the paper place the reference (authorÕs name, year) in parentheses
immediately after the data, sentence, paragraph, picture, picture caption,
table, diagram, etc. that contains the cited material; for example (Smith,
1998). You may also choose to put the page number in the reference (Smith,
1998, p. 4), although it is not required. In your alphabetical list of
references at the end of the paper you would give the complete citation if the
source were a journal, magazine, or newspaper as:
Smith, John
T., 1998, Why the sky isn't blue. Journal of Pollution, v. 18, no. 2, p. 1-22,
doi: 15.1072/1998JP000576.
If the
source were a book you would give the citation as:
Smith, John
T., 1998, The Dirty Sky. Rider University Press, Lawrenceville, New Jersey, 341
p.
If there
are two or more citations from the same author in the same year then give them
a, b, c, etc. designations. For example, if you used both of the above 1998
references from the same John T. Smith, the first one used would be cited and
listed as 1998a and the second as 1998b.
If no
author is given for a source (such as in many web sites) cite it as (Anonymous,
2001) and reference it as:
Anonymous,
2001, Twenty reasons to kill deer. I Hate Deer Web Site, New Jersey Society of
Deer Haters, www.deerhaters.org, 3 p.
Alternatively,
you could cite the above source in your paper as (Anonymous, New Jersey Society
of Deer Haters, www.deerhaters.org, 2001). Note that the year given is the year
the website was last revised or the year of the copy write, or if not given,
the year you looked at the web site (you could give the month and date as well
in the complete reference). Note also that the above reference gives my
preferred format for citing web sites.
If your
sentence or paragraph uses something from more than one source, cite them all
at the proper place. For example, (Brown, 1998, Jones, 1999a, Jones, 1999b,
Smith, 1999, and Smith, 2000) would indicate that the information or ideas
youÕre presenting comes from all the listed sources.
Finally,
you may notice that many journal articles and other sources available on-line
from multiple sites now have a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) number assigned
to them. This is done so that the original source material can be identified
even if the website name or URL changes. If a DOI is provided, include it in
the sourceÕs citation in youÕre alphabetical (by author) reference list at the
end of your paper. See the sample article provided for examples of how the DOI is
used.
3)
Reference Requirements
Again, you
must use at least six approved sources of information (I stress that this is an absolute
minimum), of which no more than half may be web sites. However, journal articles or other
written sources of information (books, newspapers, magazines, etc.) may be
retrieved from the web, the library, or electronically. Keep in mind that there
is a lot of junk on the web. Just because it is on some web site doesnÕt mean
itÕs scientifically valid. I would suggest that you try to limit your web site
sources to those sponsored by a governmental agency (e.g. EPA), educational
institution (college or university), professional organization (e.g. NAEP) or
recognized advocacy group (e.g. NAS). If in doubt about quality of a web site,
check with me. I'm sure I haven't covered everything so don't hesitate to ask.