The paper is worth 15% of the final grade:

• 10% is for the completed paper;
• 5% is for your review of another student’s first draft.

Papers will be graded on information contained, depth of background research, and presentation (organization, spelling, grammar, etc.).

All papers should be double-spaced with one-inch margins (top, bottom, and sides). Papers should be organized to include a title page (including your name, date and paper title), an introduction, separate sections for principal topics, a summary, and a list of cited references. Use the format of papers published in the journal "Geology" as a guide.

A good report should:

• summarize the key points of the research of people who have examined this topic;
• include plenty of references
• not contain spelling errors
• be revised several times before submission
• include concise, factual sentences rather than long, wordy opinions
• illustrate points with appropriate diagrams or maps (copied from cited papers).

Get out a piece of blank paper and think about:

• the points you want to cover in the paper
• what the reader needs to know to understand what you are saying
• the information you've collected so far
• what else you need to know to complete the paper.

Write this stuff down. Just slap it down on paper; don't worry about organizing it, just write. The key here is to get ideas on paper. You can add more stuff later on but this will get you focused on the task at hand. This is not an outline. Do not try to write a shorthand version of the paper. You not ready until you've collected your ideas together (that's what the outline is all about).

Why are people going to read your paper? It is because they want to learn something, so you must organize your ideas to make that as straightforward as possible.

What is the subject? - Stress and strain in the foreland of the Appalachian orogen.

• You must be prepared to discuss systematic variations in stress and strain throughout the Appalachian foreland. Stress and strain associated with the Appalachian orogen will be defined by deformation in Pennsylvanian and older rocks.

How will you gather information? -

• read the discussion of regional joint patterns in the textbook, p.261-262;
• examine the references cited in this section of the book (Engelder and Geiser, 1979, 1980b; Engelder, 1985; Engelder and Oertel, 1985 - note that most of these are specific to New York but they may contain references to other relevant papers);
• examine other structural geology text books for discussion of the Appalachian orogen and foreland deformation;
• see, Hudak, P.F., 1992, Terminal decollement tectonics in the Appalachian Plateau of northwestern Pennsylvania: Northeastern Geology, v.14, p.108-112.
• learn how to use the GeoRef computer search system in the Science Library to find references to structure topics. The most recent Georef references are already on the computers, older references are available on CD-ROM, ask a librarian. Some key words to try in various combinations: stress, strain, Appalachian, foreland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, etc.

In addition, I have two Masters theses, Dixon (1976) and Thompson (1980), that contain data on joint orientations in northeast Ohio. I will give you copies of parts of each thesis and you may borrow them from me (for short periods) or from the science library.

Good scientists read as widely as possible about a topic and cite these sources in their papers. Poor writers sometimes leave out references in an effort to create an impression of unwarranted wisdom, this is called plagiarism. Neither you nor I know much about the assigned topic, nor have we done any original research on the subject. By writing these papers, you will learn a lot about regional patterns of stress and strain in the foreland of the Appalachian orogen. All else being equal, I will give higher grades to students who review several papers and reference these sources, than those who have few citations.

What do I do with all this information? - Once you have assembled the appropriate information, you must extract the material that is relevant to your paper. Its time to make some notes. For each information source, take a piece of paper or index card and:

• record the reference citation (author, source of article [date, volume, issue number, pages], title);
• make notes on information that is relevant to your paper. Don't copy whole sentences, that makes it more difficult to phrase ideas in your own words;
• copy key figures that you might use in your paper.

Start writing - Now is the time to make an outline for your paper. Remember, this is an outline not the paper itself; keep is simple, keep it brief.

• Break the paper into logical sections and briefly list the topics to be covered in each section. In this case you might decide to arrange your material by region (New York, Pennsylvania, etc) or by topic (stress, strain, etc).
• Are the sections of the paper balanced? Are the points of equal importance and the sections of approximately equal length?
• Use subheadings to divide individual sections into parts (if necessary).
• Review the outline to look for gaps in the information. Fill the gaps by searching for more data.

• Initially, focus on content and come back later to check spelling and grammar. You will find gaps in your data as you write because writing is an important part of the thinking process. You can fill in the gaps later when you review the first draft.

Rewriting is rethinking - Your first draft helped you think about what you were trying to say but you probably didn't spend too much time thinking about how you were expressing your ideas. The difference between poor writing and good writing is the willingness of the author to make revisions. Reread each sentence:

• Can it be written more clearly?
• Can it be written more accurately?
• Can it be shortened?

If possible, set the paper aside for a couple of days before revisions. This will make you a more objective reviewer. Use a spell-check or grammar-check if they are part of the word processing program you are using.

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