Writing is a key skill for everyone. No scientific investigation is
complete until it becomes known to the world. Scientists do this by
writing papers and publishing them. Too many important discoveries have
been ignored because the scientists did a poor job of writing up the
results, in ways that other people could understand.
I will therefore assign a paper, over 1200 words long, due on the
last day of instruction. These papers may be on any topic in
contemporary or historical astronomy, space exploration, or related
sciences. Since I take this so seriously, I personally read and grade
every one, so make them good!
I want these papers to be well-thought-out, polished, beautiful little
gems, not big loads of ore. It will help to focus on a specific topic. A
1200-word paper titled "Stars" can't be very good; stars are complex, and
whole books have been written about them. A 1200-word paper on star
formation would be a little better, but still, star formation is a vast
topic in itself. More like it would be a 1200-word paper on the youngest
protostars (also called Class 0).
For ideas, see the text, including chapters we haven't yet read, as well
as current and back issues of reputable popular magazines such as Sky & Telescope, Astronomy, Mercury, Scientific American, and New Scientist. Articles in
these magazines are what your papers should be like.
Feel free to use the World Wide Web for research, too, but be careful of
what you use, since there's a great deal of rubbish on the web. When
using the web for research, be sure as always to reference your sources,
by listing their web addresses, also called URLs. Because everything on
the web is subject to change without notice, it is also essential to list
the date that appears on the page to indicate when it was last updated.
If no such date appears on the page, list the version number appearing on
the page. If there is no version number, then list the date you consulted
the page.
Having something to say in your paper is essential. How you write it is
also important: good content is so much better if it's written in a
way that's clear and easy to understand. For hints on writing, see The
Elements of Style, by W. B. Strunk and E. B. White. There is now an online version, too.
Read it from cover to cover twice a year, for life!
A typed (or computer printed) paper title and short summary
(between 100 and 250 words) is due on Monday, November 23. This is
a distinct and separate assignment from the paper: one item turned in will
not satisfy the requirements for both assignments. Still, you are
allowed to change your topic after this if you discover something better:
this is something I like particularly about science. A list of example
paper topics is available online, at:
http://zimmer.csufresno.edu/~fringwal/psci21.paper.topics
Papers must be typed (or computer printed), on standard 8.5-inch x 11-inch
paper with standard, one-inch margins, and preferably double-spaced. Use
a readable 12-point serif font such as Times or Computer Modern
Romannot Arial, Chicago, Helvetica, Monaco, or Geneva, which are sans
serif and hard to read in large doses.
These papers must provide a list of at least eight references,
or works cited. Not doing so can turn an "A" paper into a "C" paper, or
worse. If you want an A, there should be substantially more.
Here are some useful ways to list references:
For a journal article:
Ringwald, F. A., & Naylor, T. 1998, The Astronomical Journal, volume 115,
pp. 286-295,
"High-Speed Spectroscopy of a Cataclysmic Variable Wind: BZ
Camelopardalis"
For a magazine article:
Ringwald, F. 2000, Astronomy, vol. 28, No. 6, p. 48 (June issue),
"The Sky Down Under"
For a book chapter:
Ringwald, F. A. 1998, in the Third Conference on Faint Blue Stars, edited
by A. G. Davis Philip, J. W. Liebert, R. A. Saffer, and D. S. Hayes
(Schenectady, New York: L. Davis Press), p. 425,
"PG 1002+506: a Be
Star at Z = +16 kpc"
For a book:
Warner, B. 1995, Cataclysmic Variable Stars (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ.
Press), p. 221
(Don't forget to include the specific page that
contains the
information you used. It's too much to expect your reader to wade through
the entire book to find what you mean.)
For a web page:
Ringwald, F. A., 1998,
http://zimmer.csufresno.edu/~fringwal/comp2.3lis
"Composite-Spectrum and Related Stars That Are Candidate
Detached Post-Common-Envelope Binaries, v. 2.3" (March 29)
Knowing how the references were used is also important. You should
therefore cite references in the text, especially when making statements
of fact that aren't well-known or immediately obvious. Give the author's
name and the year of publication, so your reader can easily match up the
statements with the references. Here are three different examples of how
to cite references in the text:
"Although doubt had been expressed in the past about whether this approach
was feasible (e.g., Smith 1993), the problem was solved by Horne (1994),
and described in detail by Warner (1995, p. 221)."
Here, Smith (1993) and Horne (1994) were journal articles, but Warner
(1995) was a book. Note that with the case of Horne (1994), one can put
the author's name into the sentence, useful for emphasizing that Horne did
this work.
You need not use this exact format for citing references, but do use a
format precise enough so that I can look the references up myself. I get
frustrated whenever a student writes something interesting, but gives a
reference that's so imprecise, I can't find out more about it!
Other tips on writing:
- Don't write about feelings. Some high school teachers
encourage students to do this, but college students need to go beyond
this. Write with facts, they speak more convincingly than feelings.
- Avoid gratuitous opinion. If you can substantiate an opinion
logically, fine, that's what it's all about. If you can't, you really
should, since even the most ignorant people have opinions. Back up your
claims with evidence!
(Opinions are like children: anyone can have them, but you may keep them
only if you support them.)
I will admit that, to enliven my lectures, I sometimes do inject opinions
and value judgmentssuch as my opinion that total solar eclipses are
amazing phenomena that everyone should see, at least once. There is a big
difference between spoken and written communication, however. Avoid
imitating this when you write: stick to the facts. Also avoid using
the words "you," "me," "my," and especially "I"!
- Thoughtful students may wonder whether my insistence on logic,
facts, evidence, and quality composition and style "inhibits creativity."
The answer is no: no more so than the format of the minuet
inhibited Mozart, or the form of the sonnet stifled Shakespeare. The
truth is, when given well-defined sets of rules, creativity does
well. Your imagination and originality are greatly encouraged, and
will be rewarded. They must be disciplined, thoughget your facts
right, and explain carefully and clearly: Why do you think what you
think?
- Do not confuse the following:
"It's" is the contraction of "it is."
"Its" is the possessive of "it," as with "hers" or "his."
This error may be common, but it drives me wild, and can be bad for your
grade.
- Avoid clichés like the plague, they're old hat and hard to
swallow in this day and age, and don't hold water when you should be
thinking outside the box. (See how trite they sound?)
- Avoid hype, it makes me vomit. Seriously: science is about truth,
remember?
- Use the word "unique" sparingly. Unique specifically means
one-of-a-kind. It's therefore never necessary to write "very unique."
- Use the word "interesting" sparingly. It smacks of opinion.
Anything can be interesting to a nerd.
- Words loaded with value judgements, such as "amazing" or
"wonderful," should be used sparingly. If you must use them, remember that
"amazing" specifically means able to amaze. "Wonderful" specifically means
able to inspire wonder. As Michael Faraday said: "Nothing is too
wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature."
- Don't write "very important," unless what you're describing is
worthy of a Nobel Prize. Use "important" sparingly. Don't use "very."
(Mark Twain wrote that instead of "very," you should write "damn." Your
editor should remove every instance of this, and your writing will become
as it should be.)
- Avoid writing in the first person ("I," "me," "mine") or the
second person ("you," "yours"). If you must refer to yourself, do so in
the third person (i.e., "the author," not "I," which sounds so
egotistical). Academic writing is more formal than the average e-mail
message. This doesn't mean that your writing must be stuffy or boring.
Write in a way that seems natural to you, but avoid slang, colloquialisms,
and clichés.
- Avoid using the following words or phrases: "very," "nice,"
"good", "bad," "I/me/my," "you," "big," "a lot," "fact that," "hopefully."
- Omit needless words. Omit needless words. Omit needless
words.
(See The Elements of Style, by Strunk and White.)
- Avoid putting a numeral at the beginning of a sentence, since it
makes the sentence confusing. For example, don't write this: "94% of the
students who took this course in Fall 2000 passed." Instead, write this:
"Ninety-four percent of the students who took this course in Fall 2000
passed." Another way is: "Of the students who took this course in 2000
Fall, 94% passed."
- The names of Earth and other planets, such as Mars or Venus,
should be capitalized, since they're places. Some older references do not
capitalize "Earth": they should be informed that we're living in the Space
Age. Our "Solar System" should be capitalized, since it is a proper name,
but "solar systems" in general (more properly, stellar systems, or
extrasolar planetary systems) are not. "The Sun" should be capitalized,
but "sunlight," "sunrise," and "solar energy" are not. "The Moon" should
be capitalized only when referring to the Earth's Moon, but not for any of
the many other moons of the planets (which more properly should be called
satellites). Again, "moonlight" and "moonrise" are not capitalized.
"Galaxy" should be capitalized only when referring to our own Milky Way
Galaxy (often called just "The Galaxy"), or as part of the proper name of
another galaxy (e.g., The Great Galaxy in Andromeda, also called M31).
"Universe" should be capitalized, because it is a place; "universal," when
used to mean general or ubiquitous, should not.
- Italicize the names of spacecraft, such as Hubble Space
Telescope or Chandra X-ray Observatory, or missions, such as
Apollo 15.
- The plural of "phenomenon" is "phenomena." This also holds with
other Latin words, such as nova (novae) and spectrum (spectra).
- Avoid sexism. In the 1960s, it was "manned" spaceflight; it's now
called human spaceflight. "Unmanned" spacecraft are no longer called
that: they're now called robotic spacecraft, or space probes, or robots.
Sputnik was the first artificial satellite, not the first "man-made"
satellite. It's not "mankind," it's "humankind," or better, "humanity."
Avoid exclusive use of male pronouns: if Shakespeare could use "they" in
the singular, so can you. Don't overzealously mangle the language,
either: don't use contrivances such as "his or her" or "he/she" or
"he/she/it" or "she/he/it" (which sounds like something I've heard said in
Texas). Be natural: for example, "To boldy split infinitives where no one
has gone before..."
- Stonehenge is a topic on which a great deal of unreliable
information has been published. Beware in particular of the book
Stonehenge Decoded, by Gerald Hawkins. It over-interprets the data with
its claim that Stonehenge was used to predict eclipses. Stonehenge was
certainly used for astronomy, but it was never that accurate.
- Although the course texts may be used as references, they do not
count as the eight required references. Research should mean doing some
reading on your own.
- Encarta, Wikipedia, dictionary.com, or any other kind of
encyclopedia or dictionary do not count as the eight required references.
Avoid using encyclopedias: college work requires more detailed, and
expert, sources. Do not use Wikipedia: it's so unreliable and
misleading, it's less than useless.
- Proofread carefully, to spot missing words, jumbled sentences, or
other ill effects of writing with a computer.
- Always run a spelling check! Not doing so makes you look
sloppy.
(It is not called a "spell check," it's a spelling
check. I don't know what a "spell check" is: it sounds to me like software
used by witches, to make sure they've cast the correct spells.)
This is how the papers will be graded:
- F = This paper was handed in late, or it was not typed (or
computer printed), and so will not be counted. Papers that are
plagiarized, either fully on in part, will earn an F for the entire PSci
21 course.
- D = This paper showed a basic lack of understanding of what
science is about. Examples of this include not knowing the difference
between astrology and astronomy, making claims without providing evidence,
providing dishonest evidence, being an opinion piece only with no attempt
at research or reporting evidence, or being unrelated to contemporary or
historical astronomy or space exploration (e.g. papers about the Green
Revolution or shock absorbers: but then, preventing papers like this is
the reason for the assignment on paper titles and summaries). Such a
paper that is also full of composition errors, with five or more per page,
will get an F.
- C = This paper was full of errors in spelling, grammar, or style
(as described by The Elements of Style, by W. Strunk and E. B. White),
with five or more per page, or it was clearly too short, or it was
factually incorrect otherwise poorly researched, or it lacked a reference
list.
- B = This paper contained more than two errors in spelling,
grammar, or style per page, or it was was skimpily and begrudging
researched, with barely more than the minimum references.
- A = This paper was well written and well researched, and was a
real pleasure to read because I learned something from it. Papers like
this are almost never written the night before they are due. They are the
result of a great deal of careful thought and preparation. There will be
no A+, A-, B+, B-, C+, C-, D+, or D- grades.
For more on how papers are graded, see the California State
University, Fresno General Education Writing Rubric.