Table of Contents
PROGRESS REPORT [Introduction and Rationale]
[Guidelines]
[Grading Ru
ic for Summary]
[Suggestions and Strategies]
[Scientific Nomenclature]
[Tips for better writing]
[Peer Review]
Plant Physiology Guidelines for Progress Report [go to GEM guidelines document]
Introduction and Rationale
This assignment serves as an important checkpoint in your progress. Following the
example provided on OWL and in-class discussions, you will present a summary of results and
conclusions from each of two primary (research) articles PLUS full citations of two more scholarly
articles (EITHER both primary OR one primary and one secondary).
There are many benefits to this exercise, mainly, but not limited to, feedback. The
assignment allows us to check that you have reached the minimal standard of using four scholarly
articles (at least three primary) to cite within your essay.* The consequences of not meeting this
standard are severe, but is entirely preventable. This assignment also ensures that all your marks
are not based on a single assignment.
If it’s been a while since you’ve written anything, this assignment is a good start. Once
you’ve made your choices, all you need to do is summarize the results and conclusions. We get an
opportunity to provide comments and guidance, and we get a sneak preview of your topic.
You must commit to citing each of the four articles used in this assignment in your essay.
* YES! You may
ing in additional sources into your essay. We want to see ONLY FOUR in
this assignment.
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Guidelines
Use Times New Roman 12 pt font. Set 1” (2.54 cm) top
ottom/left
ight margins. Justify the text.
Proofread for grammar and spelling. Use either Canadian or American spelling throughout—do
not mix. Double space everything in this assignment. Do not put extra spaces between
paragraphs (set “before” and “after” to 0). Put an extra double space after the citation. Indent each
paragraph. Provide a word count after the last sentence (see Partial Example).
Your information (name, section, date submitted) belongs on the grading sheet. Make sure that the
grading sheet fits on one page. Do not create a header or add page numbers. To start the
assignment, type the heading Article #1 (PRIMARY) at the top left of the page and place the full
citation below. Follow Plant Physiology guidelines, which is available in the GEM guidelines
document.
Continue the assignment at the top of the second page with the second article and summary. The
third page comprises two additional scholarly articles without summaries PLUS citation practice.
A summary with a word count below 200 will be returned. Credit for the course will be
denied until a re-submission meeting the minimum is received. An email will be sent to you with
instructions to resubmit and a 25% penalty will apply. There is no set maximum for the word
count; however, do not go beyond one page.
After the assignment, attach the grading sheet followed by screenshots of the first page
of each article (ensure that the title, authors’ names and abstract are legible and the screenshot is
not a ‘cover page) on a separate, full page with url and description (PRIMARY or SECONDARY,
for example). Save the entire file as a pdf document and check the formatting before submitting
the file to TurnItIn.
To help you prepare for the final submission, submit a rough draft to TurnItIn and participate in a
peer review. Follow instructions and guidelines given in lecture.
Submit the final assignment before the deadline to TurnItIn through OWL only. Make sure
the assignment is complete before converting to pdf. Name your file as
follows: LastnamePROGREPuserid (example: GrayPROGREPtgray5).
*IMPORTANT*
If you participate in the PEER REVIEW, you will have an opportunity to improve your
assignment through consideration of your peers’ comments and through your own observations
of your peers’ work.
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SUMMARY Ru
ic (half marks available)
4: Concise summary of major results and conclusions explained with clarity, fluid style of
presentation, and skillful organization. Summary is accurate and easy to understand. Evidence of
thorough proofreading and attention to clarity and conciseness. There are no unnecessary details
(eg. Methods).
3: Adequate summary of results and conclusions, average style of presentation, organization less
apparent, elements may be present but lacking depth. Evidence of some proofreading, but minor
e
ors are present. Clarity could be improved. There may be minor instances of unnecessary
details.
2: As (3) above, but with two or more major e
ors in any of the above components that distract
from the overall summary. There is little connection to individual research.
1: As (3) above, but with significant systemic deficiencies in components as listed above.
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Suggestions and Strategies
Don’t write a “play-by-play,” that is, “the authors (or the results) found that…. and then they
went on to conclude that….”
Don’t critique the article.
Don’t write the title of the article or the authors’ names/affiliations in the summary.
Don’t refer to tables or graphics.
Don’t summarize the methods.
Don’t include citations or references in the text. You may write something along this line: A
previous study’s hypothesis was rejected because….
Don’t forget to focus on the skills that you are learning. This exercise is designed to help you
uild good habits and thought processes as you investigate biological phenomena and find
your way through the scientific literature.
Although you will need to understand the article, and you will take notes throughout to help build
your essay, we do not need to see more than results and conclusions.
Methods: No methods. We don't need to see how a test was done to understand the results. If
the results depend on a particular treatment or condition, then you can combine that condition with
the result. You do not need to "set up" the results with a summary of the methods. Look at the
Progress Report Partial Example to see how it can be done.
Results: You may "che
y-pick" the results to summarize; however, you need to summarize
MAJOR results. You'll have to decide which results are the most important. Notice in the example
that results pertaining to weight gain and the metals present in the soil were not included in the
summary. The major results (mortality) from the leaf and the artificial diet were summarized.
Next, you’ll want to decide whether to
ing in explicit or more general results. For example, if
system B has 3.6 units of whatever and system A has 1.7 units, then do we need to know these
numbers, or is it easier to write that system A had almost half that of system B? Patterns are easier
to understand than complicated numbers and measurements; however, at times numbers can be
helpful in seeing the bigger picture.
NUMBERS: Follow the rules in the Resource Manual excerpt available in Supporting Documents
folder on OWL.
WORD COUNT: Don't think about the word count when you're preparing your
draft. After you have determined that all content has been covered, then check/adjust the word
count. If you need to "pad" the word count, add content, not fluff.
FLUFF: We hate fluff. We have declared a war on fluff. Avoid these phrases:
The results show that…(OR SIMILAR WORDING). Restructure the sentence if needed after
emoving this phrase.
X was shown to be…. Suggestion for improvement: X was…
ACRONYMS: Present the full form before introducing the acronym in parentheses. For example,
you might come across the Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) boundary, formerly known as the
Cretaceous–Tertiary (K-T) boundary while you search the literature. The acronyms DNA and
RNA are not given in full form. Avoid inventing acronyms that do not appear in the literature.
Proper presentation of acronyms: Another way to check if a gene is
ancient is to determine whether it is a recipe for protein or RNA. This is an
important clue because some RNAs date back to an even earlier period
than the time when the last universal common ancestor (LUCA) lived. The
logic goes thus: if an RNA is older than LUCA, then LUCA had it too,
even if that RNA is no longer universal.
NOTE: The acronym follows the long form in parentheses.
(Adapted from http:
www.actionbioscience.org/newfrontiers/poolearticle.html)
DO NOT copy and paste sentences from the SUMMARY into your GEM. It's not plagiarism, but
it does fall under Academic Dishonesty. And, more often than not, it doesn't work well.
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Scientific Nomenclature
Read the section on Scientific Nomenclature in your Resource Manual excerpt available in the
Supporting Documents folder on OWL.
First mention: common name (Scientific name)
After first mention, stick with the common name. FOLLOW THE RULES FOR SCIENTIFIC
NOMENCLATURE AS LAID OUT IN YOUR RM.
Fortunately, the species pair of the common garter snake (Thamnophis sirtalis) and the
ough-skinned newt (Taricha granulosa) presents a toxin-mediated arms race that is exempt from
these problems (Figure 1)2. The common garter snake is the only known predator of the rough-
skinned newt and swallows the newt whole, which prevents toxin-sampling behaviours2.
From Zhang and Gray, 2017, doi:10.5206/wurjhns XXXXXXXXXX
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Tips for better writing
Keep your paragraphs unified: one main idea per paragraph.
Punctuation: understand when to use the en (think: number) and em (think: more) dashes. See the
GUIDE TO EFFECTIVE PUNCTUATION available in the Supporting Documents folder on
OWL.
Significance and co
elation: give the direction of the difference or co
elation. DO NOT use
these terms unless there is statistical evidence for their use. We don't need to see the statistical
output, but YOU need to know that there is such evidence.
Pronouns: The possessive never has an apostrophe.
Common nouns: The plural (without possession) never has an apostrophe. The possessive of the
plural always has an apostrophe, but the placement of the apostrophe has to be handled carefully.
SINGULAR: The author intended…. (subject) OR The author’s intent…(possessive)
PLURAL: The authors intended…. (subject) OR The authors’ intent…(possessive)
One species, more than one species. A specie has a different