Presenting Original Research Documenting Biodiver
This is a summary of an article for biodiversity.
All the instructions are below!! Please cite all references. If you have any questions,
please let me know. Thanks for taking on this task!!!
Summarize a primary (i.e., peer-reviewed)
research article (not a review article) presenting original research
documenting climate change effects on a species or ecosystem. Please do not
use the species examples already presented in the required materials for this
module. Please select an article that is not more than 10 years old. Use Excelsior
Library databases to find articles related to climate change effects. Please
read a quick tutorial on how to find articles in the Excelsior Library using
Keywords.
These Excelsior OWL links can help you
evaluate and understand sources: Evaluating Sources and
Evaluating
an Argument, and how to read visual aids like charts and graphs you find
in journal articles.
The summary should be about 500 words in
length (3 or 4 paragraphs) and it should essentially provide the answers to the
“who, why, where, when, how, and what” questions. The summary must be written
in paragraphs with sentences (no bullet points). Imagine your summary might be
published in a review journal/outlet. You should include the following parts:
1.Title of the article you are summarizing
2.Introduction
a.The topic
b.The author’s research question(s)/thesis statement
c.The author’s hypotheses or predictions and the reasons behind
those predictions
3.Methods
a.Brief description of the population/community studied, materials
and procedure, variables measured and controlled variables
4.Results and discussion
a.Main results
b.Discuss whether the results supported or contradicted the
hypotheses
5.Conclusions
a.Implications of the findings (especially in the larger context
of climate change effects) and applications of the study
b.Limitations of the study
6.Complete reference of the article you summarized following APA
style. See the Purdue Online Writing Lab for help with APA
formatting.
It is very important to keep in mind that this
summary needs to be written in your own words and thus avoid plagiarism and/or
lack of creativity in your writing. Watch this video on how to avoid plagiarism. Also, check this
Excelsior OWL video on types
of plagiarism.
This exercise emphasizes paraphrasing and
summarizing skills. Thus, also avoid direct quotations as they do not
demonstrate your skills of summarizing and your originality and direct quotes
are rarely used in scientific writing. Here is an Excelsior OWL example
on paraphrasing.
These are a couple of Excelsior OWL links
explaining summarizing: Drafting and Integrating Summarizing and Summarizing.
I recommend that you follow these steps:
1.First read the article without taking any notes to get a first
impression
2.Then try to explain in your own words (imagine that you talk to family
or friends) what you understood from the article. (It may take a second reading
to catch some of the subtleties of the article findings.)
3.Next, read the article again and take notes filling out the
information required above.
4.Then, write a first draft of your summary without looking
at the article or your notes. (If you find yourself stuck, you may need to go
back to reading the article and your notes once more before writing your first
draft. If you are still stuck, you may want to choose a different article.)
5.With your next draft, add any additional required details you
wrote in your notes
6.Proofread your work before submitting your final draft to the
dropbox in Turnitin and then in Canvas.
Remember, your overall aim is to write concisely
and clearly.
For more information on what a peer-reviewed
article is and how to find such articles through Excelsior Library, please
review the following two short tutorials and tip sheets from Excelsior
Library:
·Peer-Reviewed Articles: What are they? [PDF,
File Size 305 KB]
·Parts of a Peer Reviewed Research Article
[PDF, File Size 303 KB]