Assignment:  Scientific Writing / Review

Your homework will involve critiquing this recently published article on whether/how desert carnivores partition water resources.  Use the information in the PowerPoint presentation for Lab 4  to critically evaluate the article.

Turn in next week:

I.    Answers to the following questions:

1.  Did the article present a clear  a) problem/question, b) approach for addressing the problem, and c) results illuminating the problem ? Whether these were clearly stated or not, list each either in the author's or your own words (7 points)
2. Was the article laid out in a logical manner?  Could you read just the topic sentences of each section/paragraph and understand what the article was about?  Was there anything presented out of order?  (2 points)
3. Did you find any portions of the article that were not concise, or that contained excessive passive voice? (2 points)
4. According to the guidelines discussed in class (see PowerPoint presentation), how well did the article present Methods and Results?  Were figures and tables well designed, did they meet criteria suggested in class?  (4 points)
5. Did the Introduction and Discussion sections follow the 'triangle' organization discussed in lab? (2 points)
6. Did the abstract convey the 5 important pieces of information that a 'good' abstract should? (3 points)

Revised: 13 September 2011