Writing a geological paper.

tutor: Mike Horne FGS

for the Centre for Life Long Learning

University of Hull

Some guidelines

It obviously depends on why you are writing the report, the topic or if you plan to publish the work, but generally there is a standard format. For details of the particular format consult the journal that you are writing the paper is for; often they are published on the back cover. If the piece you are writing is less formal then you can stray away from the standard format and use less formal language and less jargon. To some extent publications prefer you to use concise scientific terms (jargon) because it takes up less space: less space means fewer pages; fewer pages means lower printing costs!

The format commonly used is:

Abstract - a précis of the conclusions, which will make sense without reading the whole paper.

Introduction - explaining why you have done this work, some background information and perhaps a history of previous research.

The main bit - describing the work you have done, methods used, sites visited, etc., followed by a discussion and critical analysis of your results, perhaps in comparison to other published work. If there is a lot then split it into chapters or sections and subsections. Arrange it in a logical order - for example in a map report list the rock types stratigraphically. Remember that diagrams, maps, tables of data, photos and drawings will convey a lot of information in less space than a description!

Conclusions - a summary of your findings and achievements; including, perhaps, ways in which the research could be taken further or improved. Remember that negative results are just as important and not a failure! This is a summing up of your work: you should not introduce new material or discussions in the conclusion.

Acknowledgments - thank people who have helped you; site owners who have allowed access; people who have suggested improvements to the work.

References - a list of publications that you have referred to in the work. This is different to a bibliography (a list of related works that you have consulted). Do not feel that you have to produce a long list to impress the reader!

Refer to these in the text by author and date, thus:

Notes:-

For multiple authors - list them all in the references; but refer to both (of two) in the text or first author et al. (if there are more than two).

For web-pages - you may not be able to find the date it was written (but look for any copyright date or "last updated on...".). Quote the URL (Universal Resource Locator) i.e. the full http://www.blah.blah/blah.html web address) and the date you viewed the page.

If you are handwriting or typing the text then underline the bits that would normally be in italics:- foreign words (in situ), fossil names (Genus species), book titles, titles of journals, etc.

If you are writing for publication in a journal then follow the journal's conventions on referencing.

If you are using a word processor to type your report - make use of the spell checker and grammar checker. Remember this may use American-English spellings. Do not rely on the grammar check because it may suggest text changes that do not fit your writing style, and will not spot some obvious errors or put new ones in.

The important thing to bear in mind is ‘who is going to read it?’. Do not use concise scientific jargon for a general audience, but remember not to dumb down. Longer works will probably benefit from having a more formal structure and approach. Scientific works are usually written in an impersonal way: - "this was done" rather than " I did this". Though this is not quite such a strict rule in geology compared with some other sciences. Always try to be concise and scientifically correct. e.g. Do not say "There are no fossils in Goole" when you mean " Fossils have not been found in Goole" or "I did not find any fossil in Goole". Whichever you use - try not to mix styles!

Watch out for common geological mistakes, for example: Rocks do not outcrop - they crop out (verb) at an outcrop (noun). Be careful with stratigraphic units - do not confuse rock units with time units - e.g. rocks of the Upper Jurassic System were deposited in the Late Jurassic Period.

The Latin names of fossils should be in italics unless they are being used as names of biozones or lithostratigraphic units. Names of rock and mineral types are not capitalised unless they are part of stratigraphic names (such as Speeton Clay Formation, Old Red Stone, Carboniferous Limestone). Chemical names are not capitalised. Numbers are usually written in full up to ten, except in tables or when used in percentages. [web-page - links to pages about naming fossils and straigraphic units]

Have a look in some geological and other scientific journals to see how articles are set out, this will give you some ideas before you start writing yourself. Always remember to stick to the guidelines you have been given by the publisher or tutor marking your work. Failure to do so will mean your work is rejected by the publisher or marked down by your tutor.

Don't feel that you have to include everything that you have done - it is hard to leave out bits of your work, but it is important to be concise, interesting, relevant and non-repetitive, and keep within any size restrictions that that have been set. You could always put the additional information into an appendix or make it available to readers in some other way, such as a web-page!

Be careful not to plagiarise other peoples' work unintentionally. Give due credit for facts, ideas, images and data from previously published works, unpublished works (e.g. reports and theses) and even informal and verbal sources such as lectures and conversations. If you cannot find the original source then say so, rather than give the reader the impression that it is your work. Be careful when using sources on the world wide web - some authors are not so accurate in citing their original sources. If you use a lot of quotations then consider making them obvious by the use of a different font or size, or using italics or bold letters, or an indent to the whole paragraph. Educational establishments take plagiarism very seriously and often ask students to sign a statement for each piece of work. Remember that pasting in bits of other people's work is often obvious because of the change in writing style (or lack of spelling errors!) and some educational institutions use software packages to check for plagiarism.

Academic writing.

Writing a report or essay in an academic style is different from writing a letter or an e-mail to a friend. Generally it requires you to write in a more concise and accurate manner, particularly if you are writing a science report. You have to think about who is going to read the report. If your writing the report for an assessment by an examiner then perhaps you should aim at a very academic style. But if it is an article or web page for a more general readership then you can adopt a more chatty and informal style; but you must still maintain accuracy and avoid any statements that could be ambiguous.

There are two other things that are important to keep in mind. These are the reliability of the data and other information that you include in your report and the correct citation of sources if you are quoting other people's results.

There are several sorts of information that you can include in your report: you have to bear in mind the reliability of the information. There are your own observations that you have made during your research and through life in general. These may not be quantifiable and are somewhat subjective. These can take the form of anecdotal stories and if they are from your real-life experience then there are fairly valid, but if they are things that happened to other people that you have about then perhaps they may not be so accurate. You must certainly be wary of things that are "accepted truths" - some of these may become exaggerated over the years or even maybe urban myths. If you have made some attempt to quantify your results then you should put these in tables or diagrams. If there is a lot of data it might be better to put it into an appendix or some separate document which could be accessed by the reader if they really need to see the full dataset. You should make some attempt to assess the validity of your data and consider sources of bias in your sampling and measurement. (For further reading see Chapter 7 of Moran 2000 and Chapter 6 of Cryer 2000)

When you quote other people's results you should either refer the reader to the published document or if the results cannot take up much space you can include them in your text. But what about the validity or reliability of other peoples results? Is there any bias in their paper or the methods? Have they may an attempt themselves to reflect on this? Do they consider in their conclusions ways in which their own research could have been improved? Where was the work published? Was it in a privately printed pamphlet or on and individuals website? If so it may be just an expression of our own opinions. Or does the data you quote come from a refereed journals? When quoting from other peoples published work and results you must give due credit to the author. In academia this is so important and failure to do so is considered to be plagiarism which could result in disciplinary action by a college or university.

Further reading:-

American Psychological Association 1994. Publication Manual. 368pp. New York. [note - This is a comprehensive manual of the scientific writing style for this journal but I think many chapters are useful for all scientists.]

Blaxter L, C Hughes & M Tight, 1996. How to Research. Open University press, Milton Keynes. 263pp. isbn 0335194524

Creme P & M R Lea 2003 (2nd edn.) Writing at University - a guide for students. Open University Press, Maidenhead. 185pp. isbn 0335213251

Cryer P, 2000. The research student's guide to success. Open University Press, Buckingham. 276pp.

Moran A P, 1997. Managing your own learning at University. University College Dublin Press, 165pp.

Northedge A, J Thomas, A Lane & A Peasgood 1997. The sciences good study guide. Open University Press, Milton Keynes. 410pp.

Oertli H J, 1995. Problems in writing papers (on Ostracoda): Fraud. pp 49-51 of Riha J (ed) Ostracoda and Biostratigraphy AA Balkema, Rotterdam. 454 pp.

  copyright Mike Horne - 2019

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