Instructions for Creating Student
Reports and Webpages

Earth Science Department
Emporia State University

Most upper-level courses in the earth science department require students to conduct research and write reports of various types. Scientific writing is concise, emphasizes clarity, and follows a standard template. All reports must be fully referenced, regardless of the particular medium or format. In general, students should seek authoritative sources of information beginning with the W.A.W. Library. Another excellent source for peer-reviewed scientific publications is Google Scholar, which is highly recommended.

Electronic resources and interlibrary loan service.
Reference desk assistance (877-613-READ).

The following sections deal with scientific writing in general, and creation of suitable webpages in particular. Students should consult your instructors for specific directions regarding individual courses and report expectations.

**Table of Contents**
Principles for writing	Additional guidelines
Reference style	Copyright considerations
Technical aspects	Basic design rules

Principles for good scientific writing

Follow a grammatical subject as soon as possible with its verb. Avoid long intermediate or secondary phrases between subject and verb.
Place in the stress position the "new information" you want the reader to emphasize (= object of sentence).
Place the person or thing whose "story" a sentence is telling at the beginning of the sentence, in the topic position.
Place appropriate "old information" (material already stated in the discourse) in the topic position.
Articulate the action of every clause or sentence in its verb. Use active or descriptive verbs whenever possible.
In general, provide context (background) for your reader before asking the reader to consider anything new.
In general, try to ensure that the relative emphasis of the substance (science) coincides with the relative expectations for emphasis raised by the structure (of the sentence).

It may seem obvious that a scientific document is incomplete without the interpretation of the writer; it may not be so obvious that the document cannot function without proper interpretation by each reader.

Based on Gopen and Swan (American Scientist 78, p. 550-558, 1990).

Additional guidelines for technical scientific writing

All text should be written substantially in your own words, and all quotations should be clearly indicated and referenced--see reference style. All figures and illustrations need captions with source references or links to the source webpages. Please note the ESU policy on academic dishonesty.
Use quotations sparingly in order to emphasize key or controversial points. Excessive quotation, however, distracts from your writing. Always identify quotations with "marks" or italics plus a source reference.
All numerical values should be in metric units. Abbreviate numbers and metric units of measurement, for example: 0.8 cm, 5.7 mm, 110 km², 1050 m³, etc. English units of measurement are generally spelled out (3.5 inches, 1560 feet, 630 miles, etc.). Large or small numbers can be given in scientific notation: 3.7 x 10⁹, 0.7 x 10^-6. Such numbers may also be spelled out, for example: 126 million, 4.6 billion, etc.

Scientific measurements normally are given in metric units.
U.S-metric unit conversions from the U.S. Geological Survey.
Never use contractions (don't, isn't, etc.).
Capitalize only proper names of people, places, and institutions. For example, the Earth as a planet is a proper name, the earth as soil or ground is a common name. Biological names are usually given in italics: Homo sapiens.
Phrases to avoid--there is (are), like this (that), too much (little), etc.
Never use "you" sentence constructions in scientific writing.
Verbs are the key to good writing. Verbs to avoid--get, go, be. These verbs are so general in meaning that they have almost no meaning. Use more specific or descriptive verbs to express the intended meaning.
Grammar counts. Every sentence must have a subject and verb, and most usually have an object. Pay attention to subject-verb agreement and to verb tense usage. Long, complicated sentences are suitable, as long as they read smoothly. If in doubt, break the long sentence into a couple of shorter ones. Proofread carefully for spelling and punctuation.
Avoid excessive use of parenthetical (...) statements. Material that is worth including should be written into regular sentences.
Footnotes and endnotes are rarely, if ever, used in scientific writing.
Acronyms are increasingly common. They are acceptable, as long as the whole title is spelled out the first time the acronym is used, for example: GLORIA (Geological LOng Range Inclined Asdic). Acronyms are usually written in all capitals.
Accent marks and special letters from other languages should be preserved in English text for people's names (Åmark, Hsü) and geographic place names (Ærø, Denmark; Ostrzeszów, Poland). This is also true for some Greek letters and mathematical symbols: Δ, Σ, µ, ± °, ¼, ½, ¾, ‰. Most special symbols are available in extended ASCII character sets of word processors and in html script.

HTML script.

Examples of reference style

Aber, J.S. 1992. Chert gravel, drainage development, and sinkholes in the Walnut basin, south-central Kansas. Kansas Academy Science, Transactions 95, p. 109-121.

Lidmar-Bergström, K., Elvhage, C. and Ringberg, B. 1991. Landforms in Skåne, South Sweden. Geografiska Annaler 73, p. 61-91.

NASA Johnson Space Center. Imagery Services, World Wide Web homepage <http://images.jsc.nasa.gov/> [retrieved on 29 Nov. 2007].
Richards, K. 1982. Rivers form and process in alluvial channels. Methuen, London, 361 p.
Watson, J.P. 1991. A visual interpretation of a Landsat mosaic of the Okavango Delta and surrounding area. Remote Sensing Environment 35, p. 1-9.

Copyright considerations ©

A copyright is similar to a patent or trademark. It grants the owner exclusive rights to distribution, use, sale, and reproduction. Most published materials are copyrighted by the owners or authors. This includes books, magazines, journals, newspapers, maps, posters, photographs, audio-video works (tapes, records, and CDs), digital datasets, and webpages. This is particularly true for any type of online materials from *.com, *.org, *.net and *.mus webpages, and may also pertain to certain *.edu, *.gov, *.mil, and other types of webpages.

Students should assume that all webpages are copyrighted, as denoted by the © symbol. Students may not borrow, download or reproduce materials from copyrighted sources without written permission from the copyright owner. Most copyright owners will grant permission to use materials for educational purposes, but students must ask first.

Many geoscience reference materials fall into so-called gray literature, consisting of such items as well logs, seismic sections, maps, field notes, rock and mineral specimens, fossil specimens, photographs, satellite imagery, geophysical datasets, and so on. In order to deal with referencing such items, the Geoscience Information Society set up a Task Force on Citation of Geoscience Data. This task force has designed citation styles and provided examples.

Copyright resources

Protected works from the U.S. Copyright Office.
Copyright of U.S. government works from the U.S. Copyright Office.
World Intellectual Property Organization--copyright information.
Citing geospatial data from University of Waterloo.
Citation of geoscience data.

Warning: Wikipedia has become quite popular in recent years. Students should beware of using this source. Wikipedia lacks quality control, and many of its articles do not cite references or sources. One of its editors was exposed as a fraud (2007). Some articles on geology and tectonics are misleading or questionable. Wikipedia should not be utilized as a primary source for earth science student reports or projects.

Webpage Technical Aspects

Many tutorials and self-help sources of information exist for creating webpages--see HTML. The following instructions and recommendations relate specifically to preparation of student webpages for course assignments in the Earth Science department at Emporia State University. These suggestions are given to help students create webpages that will be compatible with the ESU webserver and to write project reports that follow standard scientific style.

As much as possible, utilize simple html code to create your documents. Do not clutter your html files with unnecessary or redundant code entries. When adapting code from other sources, make sure you delete inappropriate metadata information.
Do not write your report using a word processor (such as WordPerfect or Word) and then translate the document into html code. Such translation often leads to unexpected and undesirable results, which are difficult to fix.
The ESU webserver is case sensitive. File names must be all lowercase characters. Each name should be limited to eight and three characters, for example: webpage1.htm, figure03.jpg, icon_099.gif, etc. File names should have no blank spaces. Make sure your hypertext links have correct file names with matching lowercase.
Avoid large images. In general, images should not exceed ~800 columns width (~150 KB) in size. Larger images may not display properly and can take a long time to download. Several oversized images in a webpage may cause serious user problems.
Students may submit webpage files on a disk or via e-mail. Please provide only the necessary webpage files. It is recommended to combine all webpage files into a single zipped file for submission. Test your files before giving them to your instructor!

Required information for all earth
science student webpages
Title	Title of the report or project
Author	Name of student author (or authors)
Date	Date when the webpage was created
Course	Link to the earth science course homepage
References	List of references cited in webpage

Some basic rules for webpage design

Dark text on a light background is easy to read; whereas light text on a dark background is more difficult to see. Plain backgrounds are preferable to "busy" backgrounds.
File size of images affects speed with which a webpage can load and display. In general smaller image files are better, so long as detailed features are visible. For larger image files, consider making separate pages with links from the main page.
In general, several short paragraphs with intervening images are better than long paragraphs with all images grouped together. Use <p> code to make a break (blank line) between paragraphs. This is important for reading ease. Please do not use repeated   code entries.
Highlight individual words, short phrases, or small images for hypertext links--not whole sentences.
Long webpages should have a table of contents with internal links to each section of the webpage. Also place "back to top" links along the way.
Make sure your webpage will operate properly for all common web browsers--Mozilla and Internet Explorer, etc.

For academic purposes, the content of the webpage is of greatest importance. Gimmicks, such as blinking, frequent font changes, and garish colors, should be minimized. Put your effort into designing a "clean" webpage that is easy to read and has good academic substance. Use of frames is discouraged.

Earth science course webpages.

© Notice: This webpage is offered by the Earth Science department for the express use and benefit of students enrolled at Emporia State University, Kansas, USA. For further information, contact J.S. Aber (jaber@emporia.edu).

Last update: June 2008.

Instructions for Creating Student Reports and Webpages

Earth Science Department Emporia State University