BSC 5936, Scientific Communication

Term Paper Schedule, 2006

Important notes:

All typewritten material that you turn in for this course should be double-spaced. The one exception is the letter of submission, the final draft of which should be single-spaced.
A major source of term-paper problems is failure to read and to follow carefully the instructions on this sheet. Another is failure to do the assigned reading, particularly the paper by Gopen and Swann (1990) and the assignments in Woodford (1986). You have been warned.
Each stage of the term paper is due at the last class meeting of the week listed.

Week of January 16: Paper topic

Turn in (a) a short description of the research project that will form the basis of your term paper, no longer than a page; (b) the name of your target journal; and (c) your reasons for choosing that journal.

Week of February 6: Sentence outline

Turn in the sentence outline of your term paper, complete with working title and abstract, literature cited, and figures and tables. You should have completed steps 1-12 of the system described by Woodford (1986). A sample sentence outline is available at http://bio.fsu.edu/~thistle/sentences.html.

Week of February 27: First draft

Turn in the first draft of your term paper and literature cited, as described by Woodford (1986).

Week of March 20: Revised version

Turn in a revised and polished draft of your term paper. By this draft, organizational problems should have been solved, discrepancies between the text and the tables and figures should have been corrected, the paper should conform in most ways to the instructions to authors, and my comments on the previous draft should have been dealt with. You may also turn in a draft submission letter, if you would like my comments on it before the final draft is due.

Week of April 10: Final version

Turn in the final version of your term paper (the one intended for submission to your target journal) and a letter of submission to the editor. This version should conform in all details to the instructions to authors of your target journal; style, usage, and grammar should be polished; and the tables and figures should be in final form, suitable for submission.

Department of Biological Science
Florida State University

Instructor:

Dr. Anne B. Thistle, 334 Conradi Building
644-5131, thistle@bio.fsu.edu
Office hours: TBA and by appointment