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Summary
The term
paper topic title is due September 7, 2007
The term paper is due November 26, 2007.
This is your attempt to teach others about a problem
or to recommend a turfgrass practice.
There will also be an oral presentation on November
26, 2007.
Why?
The term
paper is for you to: (1) develop in-depth knowledge
of a special practice or problem in turfgrass culture;
(2) be able to present ideas to the world; and (3)
become more familiar with information resources available
to turf professionals. Students will share their
term papers electronically by means of setting them
up as one or more web pages, complete with photos.
Help is available.
Writing
helps you develop clear thinking, and strengthen your
interests. A turfgrass practice or problem becomes
clearer to you the writer after you have explained
it to others. You must be able to collect and organize
ideas and information to deal with supervisors, subordinates,
and customers. Information is recorded not just
in words, but in photos and other media. Adapting
your ideas to the World Wide Web gives you another
chance to practice saying what you think, and say
it well, for an impatient audience.
Term papers
are indicators of a student's ability and interests,
which can inform prospective employers and scholarship
committees of a student's appropriateness for a job
or an award.
Requirements
Term papers
must be submitted in electronic format as an email
attachment. Acceptable text formats are Word, WordPerfect,
RTF, ASCII, and HTML. The body of each term
paper (see below) must be at least 2000 but not more
than 2500 words. References must include at
least three web URL citations, at least three refereed
scientific journal papers, and at least three articles
from popular turf trade magazines. There must
be original photographs documenting your findings,
suitable for digital scanning and adaptation to the
web pages.
Term papers
must have the following elements in this order: (1)
title, (2) author, (3) name and year of course, (4)
summary, (5) body, (6) references, and (7) attached
photos or other media documentation. If acknowledgments
are warranted, they can be placed between the body
and the references. The summary can be as short
as a one-sentence subtitle, as would appear under
the title of a magazine article, or it can be as long
as 150 words. The summary should allow the reader
to get the gist of the article, and must contain a
conclusion.
The 2000-
to 2500-word body must contain these elements, more-or-less
in this sequence, without titles: lead (get the reader's
interest); importance (how much does the problem cost;
or what is the potential value of a turf process);
background (how was this done previously or what is
the biological basis for a process); experiences (give
some anecdotes with quotes from turfgrass professionals,
or cite the results from scientific experiments, or
your own experience or experiments); resolution (how
the problem was solved or what was learned); and conclusion
(say again what was done and why this is important,
and maybe mention what should be done in the future).
Students may select whatever subtitles they wish to
chop the body of the term paper into 4 to 10
sections of about 150 to 800 words each.
Persons
you interview can be cited in the text as, "So-and-so,
personal communication, September 2007," or can
have a footnote. Only the summary, references,
and acknowledgments should be titled. In the
case of "personal communications," make
sure to state the qualifications of the person referred
to, for example, their occupation, and indicate the
month and year of the oral communication, and indicate
at least their state and city. If you interview,
it is a professional practice to take notes during
the interview, and to ask permission to use the person's
name and ideas in your work. Only use quote marks
where you have copied an idea verbatim.
The references
must be listed at the end of the term paper in a generally
accepted format (for example, author-year).
In any case, the manner of reference citation must
be internally consistent, and must provide enough
information to make it easy for others to find the
reference in the library or on the Internet.
Web
pages
At the
least, the student will place the150-word summary,
wrapped around two photos, as a separate page on the
web, and chunk the 2000 to 2500-word body into separate
pages, according to sections. Students may choose
to have their web term paper placed in a password
protected directory, available only to faculty and
other students, or in a public area of their choice.
References to individuals other than the student and
the instructor will be removed from the term paper,
except in cases of public information or subjects
who agree to have their names published.
Copyright
and ethics
Whether
your sources are publications, Internet web sites,
or interviews, it is unacceptable and against the
law to copy. Copying means the removal and reuse
of phrases, sentences, and longer passages, as well
as the reuse of photographs and data tables in their
original form. In most cases it is acceptable
to copy an idea as long as you attribute it to its
source, and the idea is either publicly available
or is given to you with permission. But since
you may not copy the expression of the idea, you may
not use someone else's phrases, sentences, and longer
passages. Use your own words. As implied
earlier, short passages can be reused within the quotes,
but do so only when they were said so extremely well
said or said by someone so important that it will
enhance your message. Trade secrets may not
be disclosed.
How
to get an A
The key
to writing well is: tell a good story. The characteristics
of a good story for a term paper are that it be plausible,
novel, and interesting. (It would nice too if
your term paper helps someone make their turf
job easier, care for the environment better, or motivate
the reader to better personal or team performance.)
Plausible
means that your story is believable because you have
documented your sources of information, and the sources
are verifiable, in most cases.
Novel means
that your story has new information or ideas, or takes
a new approach to telling an old story.
Interesting
means that someone would enjoy reading your term paper,
that you have sound and smoothly flowing organization
of ideas, short distinctive sentences, no unnecessary
repetition, and some mystery or conflict to motivate
further reading.
Possible
topics
Students
may make up their own topic, or may consider the list
that follows. Topics that may not be done are:
(1) topics covered in another term paper by the same
student in a different class, or by another student
in this class; (2) topics that are essentially duplications
of material covered in class, or covered in a published
article; and (3) purely autobiographical experiences.
For example, "My summer internship at Royal Melaleuca
Golf Course" would be unacceptable, but "Pests
gone wild" with citations of the Royal Melaleuca
methods (not trade secrets) would be acceptable.
The most appropriate term paper topics for Turfgrass
Culture deal with the integration of turfgrass in
the life of Florida. Please pick a topic that
has a moderate amount of hard documentation, not something
that is too well known, e.g., the effects of nitrogen
on turfgrass quality ratings would not be a good topic.
Some of the following possible topics may or may not
have enough hard documentation to be suitable, but
they are potentially novel and interesting.
The problem will be to write a story around one of
these topics or another topic, and make it believable
based on hard evidence. Good luck!
- Are
there any native turfgrasses for South Florida?
- In
limbo: Who cares for the turfgrass after planting
and before payment?
- Psychology
and the lawn
- Limited
turf areas: does turf have a place in urban
medians?
- Management
of mixed turfgrass plantings
- Pets
in the turf landscape
- Soil
amendments for South Florida lawns
- Recycling
clippings and trimmings in the landscape
- Shapely
economics: Cost of edging and trimming around patchy
plantings
- Sod,
seed, or sprig?
- New
Age irrigation for the lawn? subsurface
- Effects
of turf herbicides on trees
- Water
miracle or myth: Wetting agents and moisture absorbents
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