HELP WITH RESEARCHING AND WRITING YOUR ESSAY

If you can, come to the writing workshop on the Wednesday or Friday (whichever day you don't have tutorial) after the break. It's optional, but Janice MacDonald Eddington from Dalhousie's Writing Centre will be there (in the lecture room) to give you tips and answer any questions you might have. She has a long history with this course, so her advice is always terrific.

Do take advantage of the Writing Centre if you can (details here). The notes from this year's visit to our course are here.

The librarian specializing in biology is also available to help.
Her contact details, plus much info on researching for a review paper, are here. Check out her tips for searching publications on a topic (here) and how to keep them organized using RefWorks, here.

Of course, there's plenty of writing tips online, too, such as those at the Purdue Online Writing Lab and the Harvard College Writing Center.

ESSAY GUIDELINES

The rubric we'll use to grade the essays is here. It's rearranged in more of a scoresheet form here.

The essay should be about 8 to 10 double-spaced pages (excluding references) in length. The exact length may depend on the topic you choose. You may choose any of the subjects listed below, or another topic, but if you choose another topic you must check it with Andy first. You should approach the topic from a functional perspective, that is, in terms of the ecology and/or evolution of the behaviour, not in terms of cognition, physiology, motivation etc. The paper should be a review of recent theories, results, and disputes in the subject area
, and should close with your brief (1-2 page) evaluation of what needs to be done next in the area (e.g., you might identify a weakness in methods or gap in understanding, and briefly sketch a study that might fix the situation).

The essay must cite a minimum of five papers published in 2010 or more recently, not including the references given below (although of course they and other older papers can be cited, too). Highest marks will be given for essays that are well written and organized and that take a critical approach to the review (i.e. you question aspects of the studies you review). You may also wish to introduce a novel hypothesis of your own.

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.


WARNING!!!!!!!!!!!!

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.