Term paper description

TOPIC
Please write a term paper for this course that suits your own research needs. The best paper is one that can used for some other purpose (e.g., publication, part of your thesis, can be submitted to granting agency, etc.). Use this assignment to get feedback on scientific writing that you should be doing anyway.

EXAMPLES
1) Review article (see TREE for examples)
2) Research proposal (as would submit to a thesis committee)
3) Grant proposal (e.g., NSERC grad school application or small-monies research grant)
4) Introductory chapter to thesis (that reviews the literature and poses your thesis topic and questions)

REQUIRED ELEMENT
The only required element is that your paper place a current topic of research in the larger context of ecology and evolutionary biology. You paper should review the literature and synthesize how the discipline has arrived to the focal question or issue of your paper. This review might trace the origin of a central idea or outline alternative hypotheses that have been posed for an ecological or evolutionary phenomenon. Your paper will likely include other elements depending on the type of paper your write, but no other particular element is required.

PROJECT APPROVAL
Your project/paper idea should be approved by Jessica or Andy. There is no page requirement, but you should the length and detail of your expected final product with us. Remember that concise is good! You'll be sharing your writings with others (see below) so save them the heartache of reading pages and pages!

WRITING WORKSHOPS
A rough draft of each paper will be read and discussed by the class. Starting March 10, we will discuss three papers per week, focusing on the strengths and weaknesses of each. The goal is to give constructive feedback to the author and learn from each other's writing. It's also a time to learn how to take and give friendly and constructive criticism; critiques are a cornerstone of our business.

DUE DATES
Rough draft (in a form suitable for sharing): March 3
Final draft: Two weeks from the date your paper is reviewed and discussed in class

GRADING
This paper will count toward 50% of your grade for the year. The remaining will be based on your preparedness of class and class participation (25% last term, 25% this term).

Your paper will be graded based on its overall quality, but we will particularly focus on the quality of the writing (how well do you meet the required element above? How well motivated is the topic?) and the improvements made to your paper between the rough draft and final product. Your final product should incorporate the comments of your classmates.