1. The Manuscript

As evident from the schedule for this quarter (HO-1), drafts of your research papers are to be submitted in at least two phases using E-submit and pdf format. The first will consist of the Introduction, Methods, and Results sections, together with References and appropriate tables and figures, and is due at 5 PM on Monday, 30 April. We will read over these sections and return them to you no later than Friday, 4 May with written comments about the general content and writing style. A draft of your entire paper, including revisions from the first draft, will be due at 5 PM on Monday, 14 May. This submission should include Results, Discussion, Conclusions, Abstract, Non-Technical Summary, References, and should include all tables and illustrations. This draft will be reviewed to you by Friday, 18 May. Throughout this review process you are encouraged to discuss specific interpretations of your data with your project advisor(s). If you desire a draft review by an external adviser (an excellent idea in many cases), you should set this up independently.

Your drafts will be graded for quality and completeness and on how well you have responded to suggestions and criticisms. Note from the 444 Grading Criteria that 20% of your grade (two draft submissions) will be based on how well you take advantage of this iterative review process. Manuscript review is something all scientists take very seriously. Nearly all published papers are reviewed by no fewer that 3-5 peer scientists via several iterations.

Your final product, including all revisions, is due at 5 PM on Friday, 25 May. A length of about fourteen to eighteen double-spaced pages (excluding non-technical summary, acknowledgments, references, appendices, tables, figures) should generally be sufficient to get your ideas across. If your project is more complex, you should expand the scope and text as necessary. This final paper will be graded for scientific content, writing quality, and adherence to the style guide. The graded papers will be placed in the Ocn 444 mailbox or returned to you electronically no later than Monday, 11 June; the goal of advancing your writing and interpretive skills will hardly be achieved if you never see our final criticisms and praise.

II. Oral Presentations

On Thursday, 3 May each student will give an 8-minute-long presentation of their Introduction, Methods, and Results. This presentation will serve as a practice for the final symposium and should be aimed at the same audience. We recognize that analytical work will still be underway and that the Results section will still be under construction to varying degrees. However, this presentation should emphasize your Results to the degree possible depending on your progress to date. For the final Symposium (31 May) each student will be given 15 minutes for their presentation; you should plan on 13 minutes for the talk, with 2 minutes for questions. Either overheads or PowerPoint® are acceptable methods of providing visual aids in support of your talk. As in the case of the web posting described below, it is not unusual for a figure that is acceptable in a manuscript to make a poor ‘slide' for presentation purposes; design your visual aids accordingly. Facilities can be made available for rehearsal prior to either of the presentations.

III. Web Postings

The Ocean 444 Senior Research Projects web site will be linked to your home pages, as it was for Ocean 443. As you carry out your research, you might wish to consider posting progress notices on your home page. These could consist of the date and a sentence or two on your progress. Place the next notice above the previous one so that browsers see the most recent notice when they open your web site.

A copy of your final paper, including all figures and tables, must be posted on your web site by Wednesday, 30 May, at 5 PM. Your entire paper must be available for viewing on your web site. Note that a manuscript that conforms to a journal's style guide might not make an effective web presentation. You should plan on appropriate format modifications, keeping in mind that the content must be the same as the manuscript. Computer labs on campus are notorious breeding grounds for all sorts of electronic microbes. There have been instances of students inadvertently spreading computer viruses by incorporating them into downloadable files. Because of this, web postings that require a viewer to download your paper will receive no credit.