GEOL 453/653 - Geophysical Applications
Pointers for writing good abstracts

Thirty percent of your grade in this class will depend on your ability to write clear, concise, and original abstracts ``summarizing the essential information,'' as Landes puts it, of elements of the geophysical literature. You can often actually improve on the authors' original abstracts. The quality of your writing will also affect your grade on the final project report. Here are my suggestions for avoiding common errors.

I will score your abstracts on a scale of 0-10 points:

0   No abstract, or contains plagiarism		 8 Good
1-5 Partially complete				 9 Very good
6   Poor					10 Excellent
7   Fair

If you have difficulty writing or don't understand the grammatical terms I use here, buy a manual of English style and keep it at your elbow. Several are in the library:

Call Number	Title	Location
Z 253 U55 1991	Suggestions to authors of the reports of the USGS	Mines Lib Ref
Pe 1408 B436 1985	Simple & direct : a rhetoric for writers	UNR Main
Pe 1408 C7145 1985	The Borzoi handbook for writers	UNR Main
Pe 1408 F514 1984	Writer's handbook	UNR Main Ref
Pe 1408 K2728 1988	The new Oxford guide to writing	UNR Main
Pe 1408 L39 1991	Prentice Hall handbook for writers	UNR Main Ref
Pe 1408 S3135 1988	Read, write, revise : a guide to academic writing	UNR Main
Pe 1408 S4878 1990	Rules of thumb : a guide for writers	UNR Main Ref
Pe 1408 S6577 1988	Webster's new world student writing handbook	UNR Main

An Instructions to Authors by the Editors of the professional journal Geophysics gives the proper forms of many specialized geophysical terms and SI units. (Also available in PDF, RTF, and GIF formats including a few necessary special characters.)

• 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.

• You do not have to type your abstracts, but they must be neat and easily readable.

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

• 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.

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

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

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

• Pay attention to capitalization of, and articles preceding, geographical and geological terms. The Suggestions to authors of the reports of the USGS is an excellent guide.

• Use only correct SI units of measurement. Review the proper capitalization and punctuation of unit names and their abbreviations. See the Geophysics Editors' suggestions referenced above.