Ecology Summary one and half page for an Article

COMPOSITION SKILLS

When l determine final grades, I will deduct up to I 0 points from the total score of any student whose written work fails to exhibit college-level writing skills. You will receive the up-to-1 0-point deduction if more than two of the following errors appear on any single page of submitted work.

1. Scientific nomenclature. The scientific name of a species consists of its genus (capitalized) plus a species modifier (lower case). Scientific names are italicized or underlined.

Correct: Pinus strobus, Pinus strobus Incorrect: Pinus Strobus, pinus strobus

2. Use of articles ("the," "an"); Articles are not used in front of proper names unless the name is being used as an adjective to describe another noun.

Correct: The authors studied Pinus strobus (eastern white pine).

Incorrect: The authors studied the Pinus strobus (eastern white pine).

Articles are not used when referring to a subject in general, but they are used when referring to a speci fie subset.

Correct: Trees [generally] have leaves. The [specific] trees examined in this study have compound leaves.

Incorrect: Trees examined in this study have compound leaves

Correct: The authors found a significant difference between the mean height of males and females.

Incorrect: Authors found significant difference between mean height of males and females.

3. Sentences. A complete sentence has a subject (noun) and a verb. A sentence must have an independent clause. (The entire sentence cannot be subordinate.)

Correct: The sky is blue. Incorrect: Because the sky is blue. [No independent

clause]

4. Homonyms. It is important to distinguish between words that sound alike: affect/effect, there/their, its/it's, waste/waist, accept/except, etc. "Affect" is a verb. "Effect" is usually a noun. (As a verb, "effect" means "to bring about," rather than "to influence.")

Correct: Ambient temperature affects metabolic rates. Incorrect: Ambient temperature effects metabolic rates. Correct: The "Area Effect" in island biogeography

recognizes that large islands usually have more species that small islands.

Incorrect: The "Area Affect" recognizes that large islands usually have more species that small islands.

5. "You." There are very few cases where it is appropriate to refer to the reader as "you'' in formal writing.

Correct: In this paper, I will describe why .... Incorrect: Have you ever wondered about why the sky is

blue? In this paper, I will tell you why .... Correct: We used table salt.. .. Incorrect: We used your everyday table salt ....

6. Long, complicated sentences. Avoid long, complicated, and run-on sentences.

7. Verb tense. Maintain the same verb tense (past/ present/future/conditional/subjunctive) within a sentence or within a related series of sentences.

8. Subject-verb agreement. Single subjects must be matched with the singular form of verbs. Plural subjects must be matched with the plural form of verbs.

Correct: Our data suggest... Incorrect: Our data suggests .... [Note: "Data" is the plural of"datum." "Bacteria" and ''algae" are also plural.)]

9. Words that refer to quantity. "Few" and "number" are used with countable items. "Amount" is used with things in bulk or mass quantities. The adjectives "smaller" and "greater" (or "larger") are used with ''number" and "amount" (not "less" or ''more").

Correct: We found few beech leaves. Correct: We found a small number of beech leaves. Incorrect: We found a few number of beech leaves. Incorrect: We found a small amount of beech leaves. Correct: We found more oak leaves. Correct: We found a greater number of oak leaves. Incorrect: We found a more amount of oak leaves. Correct: We usee! a small amount of salt. Incorrect: We used a less amount of salt.

I 0. Para Jlelism. Use parallel construction when actions or objects are listed in series.

. Correct: We will describe our methods, rrcsent our results. and interpret the outcome of our experiment.

Incorrect: We will describe our methods, present our results, and we wi II interpret the outcome of our experiment.

II. Introductory phrases. An introductory phrase should refer to the subject of the sentence.

Correct: !;1 order to see if temperature had an effect, we repeated the exreriment in cold water.

Incorrect: In order to see if temperature had an effect, the fish were moved to cold water.

12. Commas. Usc commas before "and" or "but" when joining two independent clauses, at the end of long introductory phrases, and to separate words or phrases listed in series. Do not use commas (without "and" or ''but") to join two independent clauses (this is called a ''comma splice").

13. Noun/pronoun agn'ernent. Pronouns (he, she, it, they) must agree with the noun that they represent.