Your Science PaperYour Science PaperYour Science PaperYour Science Paper

The First DraftThe First Draft

Powerpoint Includes:

• General paper guidelines• Title page format• Background information discussion• Parenthetical documentation

discussion.

What is Included in the First Draft

• Title Page• Introductory paragraph (thesis and

purpose)• Background information (research)• Final paragraph with hypothesis• Works Cited page

GENERAL GUIDELINES

• Double-space your entire paper. • Type in 12 pt Times New Roman• Set the margins of your document to 1

inch on all sides.• Create a header that numbers all pages

consecutively in the upper right-hand corner, one-half inch from the top and flush with the right margin. (Note: do not number the title page.)

GENERAL GUIDELINES

• Do not skip extra lines between paragraphs• When beginning a paragraph, use your own

words for the first and last sentences. Do not cite someone in those two sentences.

• No part of the paper has a title or header. It should all flow from one paragraph to another with good transitions.

TITLE PAGE• Center your title in the middle of the

paper, double spaced. • Capitalize each word in the title. This

rule does not apply to articles, short prepositions, or conjunctions unless one is the first word of the title or subtitle.

• Do not underline any word and make the title 14-16pt font size.

TITLE PAGE• In the bottom right hand corner,

double spaced, print your name, your full home address on two lines, your school name, and your grade. Write out “tenth” instead of using a number. Use 12pt font.

Background Information

• Starts on a new page. • Includes introductory paragraph with

thesis statement and purpose, background information

• Ends with summary paragraph that includes the hypothesis.

• You must cite your sources correctly. Failure to cite your sources will result in a zero for plagiarism.

Background Information

• This section should explain what prompted your research and what you hoped to achieve.

• It should include previous research as well as your own experiences.

• Review the literature (books, websites, journals, etc.) and summarize essential information so that we can understand it.

Background Information

• Include information about your independent and dependent variables.

• Establish a strong rationale for the study by emphasizing unresolved issues or questions.

The First Paragraph of Your Paper…..

• This starts on a new page, right behind the title page.

• This is the paragraph that sets the tone for your whole paper.

• It includes your purpose and your thesis statement.

• It introduces your topic.

The First Paragraph of Your Paper…..

• Your purpose should NOT read “The purpose of this project is…”

• State your thesis and the purpose of your research paper clearly. What is the chief reason you are writing the paper?

• State also how you plan to approach your topic.

The First Paragraph of Your Paper…..

• Explain briefly the major points you plan to cover in your paper and why readers should be interested in your topic.

• Do some critical thinking and write your thesis statement down in one sentence.

• Your thesis statement is like a declaration of your belief. The main portion of your essay will consist of arguments to support and defend this belief.

The First Paragraph of Your Paper…..

• Your thesis may change as your paper matures through its many drafts.

• Make sure your thesis is in the form of a statement, not a question. "Can we save the Amazon rain forest?" is an ear-catching question that might be useful in the introduction, but it doesn't express an opinion or perspective.

Thesis Examples• “The Amazon rain forest can be saved by limiting

tourist presence, boycotting goods made by companies that deplete the forest's resources, and generally educating people about the need to preserve the rain forest in order to preserve the earth's ecological systems."

• "The Amazon rain forest cannot be saved since the companies that deplete its resources in their manufacturing are so widely-spread throughout the world, so politically powerful in their respective countries, and wealthy enough to fight the opposition fully."

The First Paragraph:An Example

The tartness that distinguishes Lycopersicon esculentum, the tomato, from other vegetables is produced in part by acids. Practically all foods contain acids, either naturally or added later during processing (Gould 268). There are several important factors that seem to have an influence on the acidity of tomatoes. These include variety, maturity, handling and holding procedures prior to processing, and the processing itself (Gould 273). Does the pH of roma and plum tomatoes change once they are canned?

The First Paragraph:

An ExampleMost people notice that low-powered light

bulbs are dimmer than light bulbs with high power. They probably also see slight variations in the color of differently powered light bulbs. These everyday observations lead one to question what effect a light bulb's power has on its spectrum. Spectrum, according to Kurt Nassau's Experimenting With Color, is the pattern of colors in the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum (120). This experiment is designed to discover quantitatively what happens to the spectrum of a light bulb as its power source, in this case batteries, is gradually diminished.

Background Information

• This is your research.• This is where you talk about

different aspects of your project.• This is where you write about what

you have been researching.

Background Information

• When I read your hypothesis at the end of this section, I should already know what it is going to say because you have set it up through your research. What you write about leads to your hypothesis.

For Example:The hypothesis:If begonia plants are given Coca

Cola, they will grow taller than plants that are given just water.

So what should you discuss in your background?

You Should Write About:

1. What is a plant2. How plants grow3. What they need to grow4. Information about the specific plant you are using.5. What is in Coca Cola that you think will help plants.

Final Paragraph of Background Information

• This final paragraph sums up your background information and includes your hypothesis.

• The hypothesis is not set apart or listed separately.

Sample Last Paragraph

When one, two, or three batteries of a four-battery flashlight are replaced with foil, the flashlight still works, but the voltage traveling to the incandescent bulb decreases. The light keeps working because the foil acts like a wire, allowing the remaining batteries to power the flashlight. The decreased voltage causes the bulb to have a lower temperature, and the lower temperature should affect the spectrum of the light bulb in a way similar to that described in the above research. This leads to the hypothesis that when the power of an incandescent light bulb is decreased, its spectrum will shift from having similar intensities for all colors to having greatest intensity in the red portion of the spectrum.

Sample Last Paragraph

Tomatoes have a sharp taste and are used in a variety of recipes. Some cooks choose to use canned tomatoes instead of fresh. Cooks are also concerned about microbial growth in their foods. Thus a lower pH is preferable. If plum and roma tomatoes are compared before and after canning, a canned plum tomato will be more acidic than a fresh plum tomato and both tomato varieties will display comparable acidity after canning.

General Information• Do not use first or second person.• Do not put words in quotations

unless your are quoting someone.• Use metric at all times• Spell out numbers 1-10• Don’t start a sentence with a non-

spelled out number.

General Information• The first and last sentence of each

paragraph is your own words.• Integrate the hypothesis into the

last paragraph.• Hit the space bar twice after the

end of each sentence.

Questions?

Parenthetical Documentation

• This is where you give credit to someone else for his/her ideas.

• Anything that is NOT common knowledge must be cited.

• If you cite it in your paper, it must appear on your Works Cited page and vice versa.

Parenthetical Documentation

• MLA format follows the author-page method of citation.

• This means that the author's last name and the page number(s) from which the quotation is taken must appear in the text, and a complete reference should appear in your works cited list.

• The author's name may appear either in the sentence itself or in parentheses following the quotation or paraphrase, but the page number(s) should always appear in the parentheses, not in the text of your sentence.

Parenthetical Documentation

• If you are using a website, there are no page numbers unless it is a PDF file.

• You use par. # or pars. #-# after the author’s name. Count the number of paragraphs.

• If there is no author, then use an abbreviated form of the title in its place in the parenthesis.

Parenthetical Documentation

Wordsworth stated in his book The Prose Works of William Wordsworth that Romantic poetry was marked by a "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (263).

Romantic poetry is characterized by the "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (Wordsworth 263).

Parenthetical Documentation

The tartness that distinguishes Lycopersicon esculentum, the tomato, from other vegetables is produced in part by acids. Practically all foods contain acids, either naturally or added later during processing (Gould 268). There are several important factors that seem to have an influence on the acidity of tomatoes. These include variety, maturity, handling and holding procedures prior to processing, and the processing itself (Gould 273). Does the pH of roma and plum tomatoes change once they are canned?

Parenthetical Documentation

Growing tomatoes at home is not complicated. According to William McGlynn, a horticultural food specialist, tomatoes may be harvested at the mature green stage,, semi-ripe (with different amounts of red pigmentation), or fully ripe, depending on marketing requirement (4). They are very perishable and subject to surface and internal damage, and must be handled accordingly (2). Tomatoes are sensitive to chilling injury, which differs with maturity of the fruit and proper temperature management for ripening and storage are critical to maintain quality (3). Tomatoes are dependent upon growing conditions and as the variety changes, so can the conditions required.

Parenthetical DocumentationTomatoes have a tart taste. The most

abundant natural acid in tomatoes is citric acid which is also found in oranges and lemons (Wahem 1). The pH of tomatoes runs between 4.0 and 4.5 (Wahem 4). Tomatoes average a pH of 4.3 and an acidic product is considered to have a pH of 4.6 or less (Gould 273). Many vegetables go through the canning process. Food processing companies desire a lower pH to prevent microbial growth in their canned foods because the pH of a food is the controlling factor in the regulation of many chemical and microbial reactions (Gould 270). Tomato processors tend to use citric acid and fumaric acid as a chemical agent to lower pH (Gould 270). It would seem that canned tomatoes should have a lower pH.

Questions?