Reading Case Histories to Write Abstracts

Purpose

Over the semester each student will read five or six peer reviewed journal publications that describe the application of geophysical techniques that you are learning about. You will then write an abstract for the paper in your own words. The purpose of this exercise is multifold. Firstly, you will learn about real-world geophysics case histories. Secondly, you will develop writing skills that are necessary for contributing to both technical reports and peer-reviewed journal publications.

Grading and Instructions

Individual abstract assignments are worth a maximum of 10 pts. Your total abstract score is worth 35% of your overall grade. The instructors will accept late abstracts with a 1 pt penalty for a few weeks after the due date, possibly later at the instructors' sole discretion.

More than one student may write an abstract on the same reference, but students must write their abstracts on their own. The abstract should be between 100 words and 1 page long. It will be evaluated for neatness, English usage, and how well it ``concentrates the essential information'' of the chosen reference(s). Pointers for writing good abstracts are found lower down on this page.

• You must not plagiarize. The guides above define plagiarism and explain how to avoid it. I will return any material with plagiarism to you without grading it. UNR has rules now that I must report even very minor, inadvertent plagiarism to the Office of Student Conduct.

• Please use double spacing, so we can mark corrections clearly.

• Please include near the top of your abstract a complete citation of the article or resource you are abstracting. Your abstracts should follow this example format

Links to lists of papers suggested for abstracting:

a. Engineering Seismic Case History

b. Seismic Reflection Case History

c. Potential Field Case History

d. Geodetic/inSAR Case History

e. Hydrogeophysics, Foreensics, or Electromagnetic Case History

f. Borehole Case History (if assigned)

These lists contain links to some of the gray literature listed. For journal articles, UNR students can go to http://knowledgecenter.unr.edu/, click on the ``Journals A-Z'' search tab, and search for the title of the journal the article is in. Then you can zero in on the year and issue with the article you want, and you should be able to download a full-text PDF of the article. If you get to a listing asking you to pay to view a copy of the article, you are on the wrong part of the Knowledge Center's website. UNR students should not have to pay to read any of the articles I have suggested. Consult with the Librarians in DeLaMare if you have questions.

Email your questions about whether a particular paper not on the lists may be appropriate for an abstract assignment to the instructor.

UNR students having trouble accessing these papers can try these tips:

https://library.unr.edu/help/online-access

Pointers for writing

• Many years ago geologist Kenneth K. Landes published a 1-page article that is the definitive guide to writing an article abstract.

• A concise guide to writing scientific abstracts comes from Steve Easterbrook of the Univ. of Toronto.

• Check your spelling carefully, especially if you use spell-checking program on your device.

• Write short sentences. Avoid sentences with multiple clauses. A well-placed semicolon or ``and'' often averts a run-on sentence.

• Try to avoid the passive voice. If this seems difficult, then one trick is to never use the verb to be (am, are, is) in your writing. Substitute an active verb with a more precise meaning. Examples of how to avoid the passive voice.

• Hyphenate related compound adjectives. Do not hyphenate compound nouns.

• How to properly write numbers by Physicist Celia Elliott of the Univ. of Illinois posted very clear advice on the use of numbers in technical writing.