GUIDELINES FOR TERM PAPERS
1. Required Length: 2000 words
(approximately five pages of text), not including
references and not including quoted material.
2. Required references: a minimum of
five relevant scientific articles and/or
internet sites related to the topic. This is the
minimum amount of reference material -- you may need
more to do an adequate job of researching your topic.
I recommend using PROQUEST to find scientific
articles.
3. Things to focus on in your research
- what is the importance or significance of the
topic?
- what methods have scientists used to investigate
the topic?
- what kinds of information and data have
scientists found?
- what major results and conclusions have
scientists made, based on the above?
4. Format of the paper
- lead off with a separate title page,
containing: title, your name, course name/number,
college name, date
-
abstract per A.P.A. specifications (summary
of paper contents)
-
body of at least five pages of text (~2,000
words):
-
- begin the body with an Introduction: a
section (one or two paragraphs) that clearly
states the purpose of the paper and reviews the
main points that the paper will cover
- break up the paper into logic sections using
Subheadings to identify the subject of the
different sections
- end the paper with a Conclusion (one or two
paragraphs) that wraps up and summarizes in
specific ways the main points of the paper
- spell-check and grammar-check! (sloppy
spelling errors and poor grammar will result in a
poor grade)
- a page (or more) of references per A.P.A.
guidelines
5. REFERENCES (A.P.A. Format).
You must cite your references completely and
properly, both within the text of the paper and in a
page of “References” at the end of the
paper. For guidelines about how to cite references,
follow the A.P.A. guidelines as found on the
MiraCosta College Library web site.
NOTE: WIKIPEDIA IS NOT ACCEPTABLE AS A
REFERENCE!! NO WIKIPEDIA!! NO NO NO!!
Wikipedia is fine for informal browsing and for
beginning to learn about a subject. But you
can never trust the information there because
anybody can post to Wikipedia, even if they
don't know a darn thing about the subject!
Don't be a dupe! Don't trust Wikipedia!
Also not acceptable are other online
encyclopedias like “Britannica” or
“Encarta.” Encyclopedias are
secondary sources of information and are NOT
appropriate references in a college-level
course.
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6. Submitting your paper.
Submit your paper in electronic format, preferably in
Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format (paper
format optional).
7. Plagiarism.
Cheaters occasionally try to foist plagiarized papers
on me. Therefore it is sometimes necessary to screen
papers using plagiarism-detection software, which
searches for matches between blocks of text in the
paper and literally thousands of sources on the
internet (including papers available at cheater sites
that sell pre-packaged term papers). By now everyone
should be well aware of my policy on plagiarism,
which you can review on our class website.
POSSIBLE TERM PAPER TOPICS
This is only a suggested list. You are welcome to
choose any topic on this list, and you can pursue the
topic without prior approval from me. You are also
welcome to come up with your own topic, but if you do
that please check with me about its suitability
FIRST, before spending too much time researching the
topic. The topic definitely needs to be scientific in
nature, and related to geology.
Regional Geology
- pick your favorite place, state, National Park,
etc., and learn about its geology and geologic
history.
Geologic Resources
- formation of petroleum and natural gas
- formation of coal
- the future of petroleum supplies on earth
("Hubbert's Peak")
- fresh water resources: where will future supplies
come from?
- fresh water from the ocean: a viable source of
water for the future?
- geologic sources of building materials: sand,
gravel, stone, cement, etc.
- alternative energy resources: wind energy
- alternative energy resources: solar energy
- alternative energy resources: geothermal energy
- ocean energy resources (energy from waves, tides,
currents)
- formation of gold and gold deposits
- the California Gold Rush
- diamonds and kimberlite pipes
- hydrothermal circulation and metallic sulfide
deposits at mid-ocean ridges
- mining methods (gold, silver, coal, etc.)
- the environmental impacts of mining
Geologic Hazards
- building earthquake resistant structures
(buildings, bridges, freeways)
- how vulnerable is San Diego County to
earthquakes?
- predicting earthquakes -- what are the methods?
why don't they work!?
- mass wasting in southern California -- problems
and solutions
- impact of a large meteorite -- a realistic
threat? what can be done about it?
- flooding: causes, effects, and mitigation
- coastal erosion in San Diego County
Miscellaneous topics
- rising sea levels and global warming
- glacial retreat: evidence of global warming?
- fertilize the oceans to slow global warming?
- sequester CO2 in the oceans (or
elsewhere) to slow global warming?
- glacial ice as a record of climate change
- tsunami warning systems
- desertification -- causes and solutions
- atmospheric problems: ozone layer depletion
RESEARCHING YOUR TOPIC
The Internet is an excellent source of information
for researching your term paper topic. But you must
be careful about the type of information you find.
There is no "quality filter" for information on the
net. Be sure the sites you use are from legitimate
professional organizations and/or individuals
concerned with scientific research. There are three
good places to start: PROQUEST, the web site of the
U.S. Geological Survey, and the Earth / Geotimes
Magazine web site.
PROQUEST
One requirement of the term paper is that you have
scientific articles as part of your reference
materials. I recommend using PROQUEST to search for
articles related to your chosen topic. PROQUEST is an
online database for retrieval of full-text articles
that you can access through MiraCosta College.
- Go the MiraCosta Library home page:
http://www.miracosta.edu/StudentServices/Library/index.htm
- Click on the link for ProQuest.
- On the next page that comes up you will see boxes
for User Name and Password. Use your SURF ID and
SURF password. (The same things you used to
register. Your SURF ID begins with a “W”
followed by numbers.)
- When the ProQuest page comes up, here is a quick
step that will save you time. Click on the
"Databases selected" link in the upper left corner.
On the next page that comes up, click "Clear all
databases." Then scroll down and check the box next
to "Sciences Module". (This will limit your search
to only scientific articles in the ProQuest database,
and save you time sorting through lots of articles
from non-scientific sources.) Once you have done
this, scroll all the way down and click the
"Continue" button at the bottom.
- In the Search box, type in some subject words of
a topic that interests you. The more specific your
subject words the better. Before you click Search,
check the box next to "limit results to full text
articles only." This will save you time by showing
you only full text articles, as opposed to just
abstracts and summaries.
Your search will list a number of articles. There
are several options for downloading the article,
including directly printing out the article or
sending it to yourself by email.
U.S.G.S. WEBSITE
I recommend looking at the United States Geological
Survey site, which has information on nearly every
field of geology: http://www.usgs.gov/
"Earth" Magazine (formerly known as Geotimes)
This publication is the official news magazine of the
American Geological Institute. The website may be
found at http://www.earthmagazine.org/ and
has an excellent searchable archive of past articles.
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