ESSAY
GUIDELINES
Note that the essay must not contain copied
or lightly paraphrased passages from any published papers or
assignments written by someone else or by you for other
courses -- any such passages will be treated as plagiarism,
following a strict and largely unforgiving policy laid down by
the university and, thus, out of our hands (see below).
The essay must be handed in to Andy or
your tutorial instructor by the
end of lecture on 13 March
(10% (2 marks) off for each day late). Please
also submit a digital copy of your essay to the dropbox on
Brightspace.
ESSAY TOPICS
Here are some possible essay topics, with
an introductory reference or two. Please note that these
references are to help familiarize you with the topic and
should not be the only or main reference that you use in your
essay, although again, you're welcome to cite them. (TREE = Trends in Ecology and
Evolution)
Altruism in social
insects Boomsma, J.J. & Franks, N.R.
2006. Social insects: from selfish genes to self organization
and beyond. TREE 21: 303-308; Ratnieks, F.L.W. & Wenseleers, T. 2007. Altruism in insect
societies and beyond: voluntary or enforced. TREE 23: 45-52.
Animal personalities Bermüller, R.
& Taborsky, M. 2011. Animal personality due to social
niche specialisation. TREE 26: 504-511; Dingemanse, N.J.,
Kazem, A.J.N., Réale, D. & Wright, J. 2011. Behavioural
reaction norms: animal personality meets individual
plasticity. TREE 26: 81-89.
Animal sociality Beekman, M., Komdeur, J. &
Ratnieks, F.L.W. 2003. Reproductive conflicts in social
animals: who has power? TREE 18: 277-282; Faulkes, C.G. &
Bennett, N.C. 2001. Family values: group dynamics and social
control of reproduction in African mole-rats. TREE 16:
184-190.
Arms races Proctor,
H. & Owens, I. 2000. Mites and birds: diversity,
parasitism and coevolution. TREE 15: 358-364;
Ebert, D. & Hamilton, W.D. 1996. Sex against
virulence: the coevolution of parasitic diseases. TREE 11:
79-82.
Behaviour and
extended phenotypes Bailey, N.W. 2012.
Evolutionary models of extended phenotypes. TREE 27: 561-569; Schaedelin, F.C. & Taborsky, M.
2009. Extended phenotypes as signals. Biological Reviews 84:
293-313.
Brood parasitism Roslin,
T.
2001. Other mothers' ducklings; why look after them? TREE
16:73-74; Winfree, R. 1999. Cuckoos, cowbirds and the
persistence of brood parasitism. TREE 14: 338-343.
Deception in
animals Weldon,
P.J. & Burghardt, G.M. 2001. Deception (mimicry): an
integral component of sexual signals. TREE 16: 228; Hockam,
L.R. & Ritchie, M.G. 2000. Female secondary sexual
characteristics: appearances might be deceptive. TREE 15:
436-437.
Evolution of animal sex ratios Hardy, I.C.W. 2002. The birds and the wasps: a sex-ratio meta-analysis. TREE 17: 207; Dhondt, A.A. & Hochachka, W.M. 2001. Adaptive sex ratios and parent-offspring conflict. TREE 16:61-62.
Extra-pair mating Schwagmeyer,
P.L. & Ketterson, E.D. 1999. Breeding synchrony and EPF
rates: the key to a can of worms. TREE 14: 47-48.
Fluctuating
asymmetry Bjorksten, T., Fowler, K. &
Pomiankowski, A. 2000. What does sexual trait FA tell us about
stress? TREE 15: 163-166; Watson,
P.J. & Thornhill, R. 1994. Fluctuating asymmetry and
sexual selection. TREE 9: 1-37.
Gender roles Magrath,
M.J.L.
& Komdeur, J. 2003. Is male care compromised by additional
mating opportunity? TREE 18: 424-430; Schärer, L.,
Rowe, L. & Arnqvist, G. 2012. Anisogamy, chance and the
evolution of sex roles. TREE 27: 260-264.
Inbreeding
avoidance Keller, L.F. & Waller, D.M.
2002. Inbreeding effects in wild populations TREE 17: 230-241;
Pusey, A. & Wolf, M. 1996.
Inbreeding avoidance in animals. TREE 11: 201-206.
Kin recognition Hauber,
M.E. & Sherman, P.W. 2000. The armpit effect in hamster
kin recognition. TREE 15: 349-350; Komdeur,
J. & Hatchwell, B.J. 1999. Kin recognition: function and
mechanism in avian societies. TREE 14: 237-241.
Mate choice Edward,
D.E. & Chapman, T. 2011. The evolution and significance of
male mate choice. TREE 26: 647-654; Andersson, M. &
Simmons, L.W. 2006. Sexual selection and mate choice. TREE 21:
296-302; Mays, H.L. Jr. & Hill, G.E. 2004. Choosing mates:
good genes versus genes that are a good fit. TREE 19: 554-559.
Sexual conflict Chapman, T., Arnqvist, G.,
Bangham, J. & Rowe, L. 2003.
Sexual conflict. TREE 18: 41-47.
Sexual selection
and parasites/immunology Norris, K. & Evans,
M. 2000. Ecological immunology: life history trade-offs and
immune defense in birds. Behav. Ecol. 11: 19-26;
Sheldon, B.C. & Verhulst, S. 1996. Ecological
immunology: costly parasite defences and trade-offs in
evolutionary ecology. TREE 11: 317-321.
Sperm competition Wedell,
N.,
Gage, M.J.G. & Parker, G.A. 2002. Sperm competition, male
prudence and sperm-limited females. TREE 17: 313-320;
Stockley, P. 1997. Sexual conflict resulting from adaptations
to sperm competition. TREE 12: 154 -159.
References: References from
the web should be electronic versions of peer-reviewed
journals and not web pages from individuals or societies.
Avoid using general textbooks. We expect that most references
will be from the primary literature (i.e. peer-reviewed
journals) and specialized books. Remember, all citations in
the text must appear in the reference list and vice versa. The
format for the reference list is up to you, but be sure to
maintain the same format throughout the essay.
If you are paraphrasing information, cite
the author's name and the year of the publication (e.g. Horn
2008; Horn and Leonard 2008- if two authors; Horn et al. 2008
- if more than two authors). If you are repeating information
verbatim, put quotations around the section and cite the name
of the author and the year the material was published. Be
extremely careful about referencing your material (see below).
Tips for Essay Writing
Have a clear statement of purpose at the beginning of
the essay. Try using headings before each main section to keep
ideas focused. Use introductory (i.e. topic) sentences at the
beginning of paragraphs that describe the theme of that
paragraph. Place a summary sentence at the end of a paragraph
or section to pull the ideas together before moving to the
next section. Try to find a link between the different
paragraphs. This will help with the flow of the essay. Don't
start writing until you have a reasonable idea of what you
want to say. Writing ideas for a paragraph/section in point
form first will help keep ideas organized and focused. Use
simple, concise language. Ask someone else to read the essay
and identify sections that are not clear. Follow
this link for a few more writing tips.
1. It is an academic offense to submit
work (for instance an essay), which is the same or
substantially the same as work (for instance an essay), which
has been submitted, in another course for academic credit,
without permission of the instructors.
2. It is not sufficient to make minor
changes in the written work of others (e.g. changing the tense
of a sentence or changing a couple of words) and submit the
work as your own. If you are unclear about how to
paraphrase or the proper use of citations, please ask.
Students suspected of committing an
academic offense will be referred to the Senate Discipline
Committee. See the Dalhousie University calendar (http://plagiarism.dal.ca)
for more information on intellectual honesty and academic
regulations.
The Senate
has affirmed the right of instructors to require that student
papers be submitted in both written and computer readable
format, and to submit any paper to a check for plagiarized
passages. As a student in this class, you are to keep an
electronic copy of any paper you submit, and the course
instructor may require you to submit that electronic copy on
demand.