Natural History

Course Information

Home
Syllabus
Assignments
Reading
• Style Guide
Copying / Plagiarism
Copyright

Lectures

Calendar

Biology 120 Natural History
Style Guide for Submitting Examinations

You may say a cat uses good grammar. Well, a cat does . . . but you let a cat get excited once; you let a cat get to pulling fur with another cat on a shed, nights, and you'll hear grammar that will give you lockjaw. Ignorant people think it's the noise which fighting cats make that is so aggravating, but it ain't so, it's the sickening grammar they use. . . . Mark Twain

Point losses for not following Style Guide:
Missing or improperly formatted first two lines (-2 points)
Missing or incomplete References section (-2 points for each missing source; five required)
Including question(s) in your exam (-5 points)

1. Exam Page Format

First Two Lines
The exam with these first two lines:
Line 1: Assignment and Number, for example, Exam 1
Line 2: Your name, your K-number, your course email address, and your animal login password.

Follow the header form below precisely but with your name, K-number, email address and animal code. You will lose 2 points if these first two lines are missing or do not follow this form exactly.

Exam 1
Jonathan Student K01234567 (jonathan.student@gmail.com) login: aardvark

Body
Number each answer but do not include the questions as part of the exam. Add your answers as a series of paragraphs with each paragraph separated by a space before and after. List all sources for all answers at the end of the exam; do not use in-text citations and do not list sources at the end of each question.

Use single spacing; do not double-space your answers. Do not use footnotes. Do not include illustrations or graphs. Do not include quotations. Your answers are to be narrative only and re-written in your own words.

The top of the first page of an exam will look something like this . . .

References
1. You must include at least five sources for each examination in a References section at the end of your answer(s). Do not skip to a new page; your References section should be two lines below the end of your last answwer. The course lectures and the online textbook must be used, and count as two sources. In addition, at least three outside sources must be included. These may be linked PDF files within the course, external books, periodicals and the Internet. See the References Style Guide below.

2. The minimum word count is 2,000 words for exams. There is no maximum word count. You will lose 1 point for each 20 words or part thereof that an examination is short the 2,000-word minimum.

3. You may NOT copy from or include quotations from any source. All material must be re-written in your own words. No exceptions. Copying, quotations and plagiarism (referenced or not) will result in a lowered grade and, if extensive, a score of zero. Do not copy a single sentence from any source; you will lose points.

4. Do not include illustrations in your examinations. Your examinations are to be entirely narrative.

References Style Guide
All sources used to write your examinations must be listed; however, list only books, periodicals, and Internet sources actually used in creating your essay. Be very certain that you have given proper credit by including all of your sources in the References section. Alphabetize your references by the first author's last name.

Enter your References section immediately following your essay or examination answers. DO NOT skip to a new page. Leave two vertical spaces between your last answer and the beginning of your References section.

Use the following format for your References section at the end of your essays and examinations:

If it is a book:
Author's last name, author's first name. Date. Title of book. Publisher.

Examples:

Brusca, Richard C. and Gary J. Brusca. 2016. Invertebrates, 3/e. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates, Inc.

Friesen, Larry Jon. 2019. Natural History. Kailua Kona, Hawaii: NatureJournal.

Hickman, Cleveland, Larry S. Roberts and Allan Larson. 2006. Animal diversity, 13/e. New York: McGraw-Hill.

If it is an article in a periodical:
Author's last name, author's first name. Date. Title of article. Title of periodical. Volume (if available).

Example:
Smith, Andrew B. and Charlotte H. Jeffery. March 1998. Selectivity of extinction among sea urchins at the end of the Cretaceous period. Nature.

If it is an Internet site:
Author's last name, author's first name. Date. Title of Internet site. URL for the home page of the Internet site. For Internet sites do not use only a URL. If no author is listed, use the parent organization name as the author as with the NASA website listed below. If a publication year is not listed, use the current year.

Examples:
Friesen, Larry Jon. 2019. Biology 120: Natural History Lectures. http://www.naturenotes.net/nature

Rothman, Robert H. Natural history of the Galapagos. http://www.rit.edu/~rhrsbi/GalapagosPages/Galapagos.html

NASA. 2001. 2001 Mars odyssey. http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/odyssey/

Submission of Completed Examinations
Your examinations will be submitted through Turnitin.com looking something like the form that follows.

It is your responsibility to assure that your exams have been submitted successfully. Once you have submitted an assignment, return to the Turnitin website to be sure that your assignment has uploaded successfully. Occasionally, a student does not realize that submission is a two-stage process. Once the submit button is clicked you are directed to a page that asks that you confirm the file that you have chosen and to click submit again. If you skip this last step, your file is not uploaded.

Exam 1
Jonathan Student K01234567 (jonathan.student@gmail.com) login: aardvark

Question 1
Charles Darwin (1809-1882) is perhaps one of the most influential scientists of our time. All of his life he worked toward understanding the reason why species are so diverse and how animals and their ancestors developed over time. His theory of evolution was formed during his trip to the Galapagos Islands while aboard the ship the HMS Beagle. et cetera

Question 2
Darwin had five main points in his theory of evolution: perpetual change, common descent, multiplication of species, gradualism, and natural selection. His theory of perpetual change basically is that the world around us is always changing and is neither constant nor cycling in a predictable pattern. This can be clearly seen in fossils of animals long ago and comparing them to their modern-day descendants. et cetera

Question 3
An important point in his theory is the idea common descent. Common descent means that every animal species on the planet originated from one common ancestor. This point was very hard to prove during Darwin's time, but can be easily supported now by comparing the structure of DNA between two species . . . et cetera

References

Brusca, Richard C. and Gary J. Brusca. 2003. Invertebrates, 2/e. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates, Inc.

Friesen, Larry Jon. 2019. Biology 120: Natural History Lectures. http://www.naturenotes.net/nature

Friesen, Larry Jon. 2019. Natural History. Kailua Kona, Hawaii: NatureJournal.

Hickman, Cleveland, Larry S. Roberts and Allan Larson. 2006. Animal diversity, 13/e. New York: McGraw-Hill.

MacMahon, J.A. The Audubon Society nature guides: Deserts. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.

NASA. 2001. 2001 Mars odyssey. http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/odyssey/

Purves, William K., Gordon H. Orians, H. Craig Heller and David Sadava. 1998. Life, the science of biology, 5/e. Sunderland, Massachusetts: Sinauer Associates, Inc.

Rothman, Robert H. Natural history of the Galapagos. http://www.rit.edu/~rhrsbi/GalapagosPages/Galapagos.html

Save your Digital Receipt from Turnitin

Once you submit your assignment through Turnitin, you will receive a Digital Receipt from Turnitin to the email address you used to establish your Turnitin account. Save this receipt as proof of submission and to verify to yourself that your submission was successful. Return to the Turnitin site and check to see that your submission has been successfully uploaded If you do not receive a Digital Receipt within 10-20 minutes, return to the Turnitin site and attempt to resubmit your exam.

Your Digital Receipt will look like the following.

Dear Jonathan Student,
You have successfully submitted the file "Midterm Exam 01" to the assignment "Exam 01" in the class [Class Number and Name] on [Date] [Time]. Your submission id is [numerical ID]. Your full digital receipt can be downloaded from the download button in your class assignment list in Turnitin or from the print/download button in the document viewer.

Thank You for using Turnitin,
The Turnitin Team

BODY
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Exam 1
Jonathan Student K01234567 (jonathan.student@gmail.com) login: aardvark

Question 1
Charles Darwin (1809-1882) is perhaps one of the most influential scientists of our time. All of his life he worked toward understanding the reason why species are so diverse and how animals and their ancestors developed over time. His theory of evolution was formed during his trip to the Galapagos Islands while aboard the ship the HMS Beagle.