ENV222 Project Skills

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ENV222 Project Skills
Practical 3 Report Writing
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ENV222 Project Skills

• Report Writing
• Report writing language and style
• Referencing and avoiding plagiarism
• Writing an abstract
• Jackie Pates Robert Blake

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Writing Style
For help on academic writing, see
http//www.uefap.co.uk/writing/
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For help on grammar and punctuation, see Peck
and Coyle, 2005, The Students Guide to Writing,
Palgrave Study Guides. http//www.palgrave.com/s
kills4study/studyskills/
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Writing Style
You should assume, unless requested otherwise,
that the reader has a general science background.
Keep in mind that the reader will probably not
be familiar with some of the detailed aspects of
your work so ensure that all abbreviations and
acronyms are fully defined. e.g. ENV200
write-up
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Writing Style
The narrative must be continuous, with no slang,
jargon or non-standard abbreviations. Make
sure that you use proper sentences and
paragraphs. If you wish to state lists, bullet
points may be the most effective way.
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Writing Style
Sentences (see Peck and Coyle, 2005)
Instead of Carrock Fell is situated in the Lake
District. It is a site of recent tungsten
mining. ? Write Carrock Fell, situated in the
Lake District, is a site of recent tungsten
mining.? Or Carrock Fell, a site of recent
tungsten mining, is situated in the Lake
District.? Note the change in emphasis in the
previous two sentences.
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Writing Style
Punctuation (see Peck and Coyle, 2005)
A question mark (?) acts as a full stop. For
example, Does Red Bull go well with ice cream ?
and does it really give you wings ? ? Is
incorrect and should be written as
Does Red Bull go well with ice cream and does it
really give you wings ? ?
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Writing Style
Punctuation (see Peck and Coyle, 2005)
A colon () allows you to introduce a list or
clarify definition. For example, Katie has
three pets a dog, a cat and a mouse. In
order to succeed second year students need to
concentrate on one thing time management.
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Writing Style
Punctuation (see Peck and Coyle, 2005)
A semicolon () allows you to break up a complex
list. Katie has three pets a dog, called
Harry a cat called Lucy and a mouse, who
doesnt have a name yet. A semicolon can also
be used to join two sentences, if they are
related in sense and topic.
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Writing Style
Punctuation (see Peck and Coyle, 2005)
Use an apostrophe () correctly ! The Lake
Districts weather isnt pleasant at this time of
year, and the pubs profits go up. However,
always avoid isnt, its, hasnt, etc. in
scientific writing.
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Writing Style
Names and capital letters
Use capital letters correctly, for
example, The Skiddaw Granite is the type of
granite occurring at Carrock. The river
flowing through the village of Mosedale is the
River Caldew
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Writing Style
Mathematical expressions can be parts of normal
sentences, for example, "The kinetic energy, E,
is given by E ½ m v2, where m is the mass of
the object and v is its speed".
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Writing Style
If the expression is too complex to do this or if
you wish to state an equation that will be
referred to later then use a separate line for
the equation and give it a number. For example,
The kinetic energy, E, is given by  
E ½ m v2, (1)   where m is the
mass of the object and v is its speed
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Writing Style
Refer to all figures (graphs, line diagrams and
photographs) and tables in the text. Each
figure must also have a caption underneath it.
Each table must have a caption above it. In
a formal report a table of figures is often
included following the contents page.
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Writing Style
Avoid using the first person, for example,
use "The circuit was designed to allow ...."
rather than "I designed the circuit to allow
.".
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Writing Style
Use the past tense when giving details of what
was done during the experiments. Use the
present tense when giving details of the
background to the work or when inferring
relationships from the data. For example,
"Measurements were made of discharge in the
stream at various times. The results show that
discharge increases with rainfall".
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Writing Style
Write in a scientific manner and avoid using
colloquial English, for example, The theory
falls down on two points and We come up
with the result that.
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Writing Style
Avoid compound structures (too many nouns grouped
together) "The surface barrier diode pulse
height analyser." Explain abbreviations fully
the first time they are used, for example, "XRF
(X-Ray Fluorescence) was used to determine total
metal concentrations in the samples".
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Using references
(see Appendix 1 in handout and http//www.uefap.c
o.uk/writing/referenc/reffram.htm)
Use the following style in the text The basic
theory of this method (Smith, 1927) was
developed by Smith and Brown (1935) and
applied by Brown (1937a, 1937b) and Smith et
al. (1938) to many problems.
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Using references
Make sure all cited work is in your
reference list. Use the following style in the
list
Jones, A.B., 1928, Book title in italics,
Publisher, number of pages. Smith, T.Q., 1927,
Article title, Journal title in italics, Volume
and part, page start page end.    Smith, T.Q.
and A.R. Brown, 1935, Article title, Journal
title in italics , Volume and part, page
start-page end. Smith, T.Q., A.R. Brown and T.
Smith, 1938, Article title, Journal title in
italics , Volume and part, page start-page end.
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Plagiarism
Not only includes copying entire work but
also sections of text, figures, data and ideas.
If you present any ideas, results, figures, etc.
from anyone else or any other work, then
you must acknowledge the source.
This is only applied to material that is
not common knowledge
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Plagiarism
Figure captions should cite the source
if applicable, for example,
Figure 5.1 View of the Caldew valley looking
east towards Carrock Fell and Mosedale. Source
Cooper and Stanley (1990).
Or, if you change the figure in any way,
Figure 5.2 View of the Caldew valley looking
east towards Carrock Fell and Mosedale.
Modified from Cooper and Stanley (1990).
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Plagiarism
If the source is not published, then you may need
to cite a personal communication, for example,
Similar characteristics have been observed over
the past five years (Semple, 2002, pers. comm.).
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Plagiarism
Using web pages
Most information on the web is not peer reviewed
and should (in most cases) not be treated as a
reliable source. If you must reference web
material, then make sure you cite the web site
and date you accessed, for example, GVU 8th
user survey, n.d., Retrieved 8 August 2000 from
http//www.cc.gatech/gvu/survey
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Writing abstracts
Usual form
Background, aims, methods, results, discussion,
conclusion Written as one paragraph, typically
about 200 words long.
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Avoiding Plagiarism
From Purdue University, http//owl.english.purdue.
edu/handouts/research/r_plagiar.html accessed 14
May 2003
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Which of these is plagiarism?

• 1. Copying a paragraph verbatim from a source
  without any acknowledgement.
• 2. Copying a paragraph and making small changes -
  e.g. replacing a few verbs, replacing an
  adjective with a synonym acknowledgement in the
  bibliography.
• 3. Cutting and pasting a paragraph by using
  sentences of the original but omitting one or two
  and putting one or two in a different order, no
  quotation marks with an in-text acknowledgement
  plus bibliography.
• 4. Composing a paragraph by taking short phrases
  from a number of sources and putting them
  together using words of your own to make a
  coherent whole with an in-text acknowledgement
  bibliography.
• 5. Paraphrasing a paragraph by rewriting with
  substantial changes in language and organisation
  the new version will also have changes in the
  amount of detail used and the examples cited
  citing in bibliography.
• 6. Quoting a paragraph by placing it in block
  format with the source cited in text
  bibliography.
• Carroll J. 2000 Teaching News November, 2000.
  Based on an exercise in Academic Writing for
  Graduate Students by Swales and Feale, University
  of Michigan, 1993 on http//www.ilt.ac.uk/resourc
  es/Jcarroll.htm Accessed 12/05/2003

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Writing abstracts
Example from an author information section in a
particular journal
The abstract should be 200-300 words in length
and should contain no figures, tables, equations
as well as no citations to figures, tables,
equations or other sections of the paper. The
abstract should concisely describe the salient
hypotheses, procedures, results and conclusions
presented in the paper. Authors are reminded
that frequently the first impression a reader or
reviewer forms of a paper comes from the
abstract.
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Writing abstracts
Example 1
Journal of Hydrology, Vol. 299(1-2) (2004)
p67-83 Estimation of natural recharge and its
dependency on sub-surface geoelectric parameters
R. Chand, S. Chandra, , V. A. Rao, V. S. Singh
and S. C. Jain National Geophysical Research
Institute, Uppal Road, Mail Box No. 22,
Hyderabad, AP 500007, India
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Writing abstracts
Example 1
Natural groundwater recharge is estimated using
the injected tracer technique in the Bairasagara
watershed of Kolar district, Karnataka (India)
comprising of medium grained granite and granitic
gneiss with weathering/fracturing up to 46 m
depth. On a macroscopic scale, it is estimated
that the weathered granites act as a uniform body
having a recharge capacity of about 6200 mm per
annum for an average value of rainfall of 968 mm.
Marked differences of infiltration rates (nil to
130 cm/year) were observed under cultivated and
dry areas. The water level fluctuation and
recharge are found to be minimum in the ayacut
area as compared to the catchment area. Studies
helped in demarcating recharge and discharge
areas. Qualitative correlation studies of
estimated natural groundwater recharge have been
carried out with depth to basement, resistivity
of subsurface layers, and water level
fluctuations. An attempt has been made to get
empirical relationships between recharge vs.
depth to basement, and recharge vs. water level
fluctuations. The paper discusses the studies
carried out, the result obtained, and the
importance of such studies in the evaluation of
groundwater resources.
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Writing abstracts
Example 2
Journal of Geochemical Exploration, Vol. 52
(1-2) (1995) pp. 57-65 Geomorphology and
pollution the environmental impacts of lead
mining, Leadhills, Scotland J.S. Rowan, S.J.A.
Barnes, S.L. Hetherington, B. Lambers and F.
Parsons Environmental Science Division,
Institute of Environmental and Biological
Sciences, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1
4YQ, UK
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Writing abstracts
Example 2
The Glengonnar Water has experienced severe
environmental degradation resulting from historic
lead mining operations. Though now abandoned, the
legacy of the mining era remains in the form of
river and floodplain sediments grossly polluted
with metals, particularly lead which exhibits
surface concentrations in excess of 75 000 mg
kg-1 total-Pb. Geomorphological investigations
link the most recent mining period to a major
phase of floodplain aggradation, which acted as
an efficient sink for particulate-bound metals.
The pattern of metal contamination within the
floodplain has been complicated by subsequent
fluvial entrenchment. However, preliminary
evidence indicates that lateral and vertical
variations of metals (both total and available)
can be accounted for in terms of age of deposit,
distance downstream and local hydraulic
conditions. The effectiveness of floodplains to
interrupt the delivery of sediment-bound
contaminants was highlighted by a metals budget
developed for the main channel length. This
confirmed that channel-bank erosion of
contaminated floodplains soils is now the major
source of metals to the fluvial system.
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A final check
Go through the check list in Appendix 4
before submitting any of your reports