REVIEW OF WHERE WE ARE

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REVIEW OF WHERE WE ARE

• Literature review project
• 2nd draft is due on Wednesday.
• Bring ONE printed copy to class.
• We will exchange, read, edit, and comment on each
  others work.
• Random or assigned?

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REVIEW OF WHERE WE ARE

• Final draft due on the last day of class.
• One copy direct to me TOGETHER WITH YOUR FIRST
  DRAFT WITH MY EDITS.
• One copy to your advisors mailbox.
• Grade?
• Grades will be assigned independently by your
  advisor and by me.
• You will get an overall grade based on these plus
  a combination of technical writing style and
  scientific wellness.
• Questions?

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REVIEW OF WHERE WE ARE

• Oral presentation
• Note that conferences often give you a choice
  (oral vs. poster).
• http//www.agu.org/meetings/fm04/?pageRequestpost
  er_guide
• http//www.agu.org/meetings/fm04/?pageRequestoral
  _guide
• Read the guidelines above for oral presentations
  they are useful!

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REVIEW OF WHERE WE ARE

• Oral presentation
• Schedule?
• Next Wednesday?
• Will you ALL be ready then?
• Otherwise, the last Monday of classes (Mon May
  16, 2 weeks from today)
• Questions?

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ITEMS DUE

• Due today
• Cover letter resume
• Hand in
• Evidence of having started powerpoint slides
• Show me!

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ITEMS DUE

• Also due today
• Attend special seminar during MET 170 class (2pm)
• Write a report on the seminar
• What topic was discussed
• Methods
• Results
• Double-spaced, 12 point, 1 margins
• About 1 page (more is OKmuch less is not OK)
• Hand in on Wednesday.

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ITEMS DUE

• Due Wednesday
• 2nd draft of lit rev

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ITEMS DUE

• Due next Monday
• Read abstracts chapter in text, and outline the
  major information. I will check in class to
  verify you have done this.
• Abstract of your literature review (you will get
  a chance to revise this!)
• 150 word max
• Double-spaced, 12 point, 1 margins
• If I make this due next Wednesday

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ITEMS DUE

• Due next Wednesday
• Powerpoint slides (if we decide on that date).
• E-mail me a copy of your talk/slides/.ppt file.

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ITEMS DUE

• Due Monday May 16
• Final copy of everything (paper abstract
  slides).

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THIS NEVER ENDS

• For me
• Review your work ?
• Review a paper submitted to JAS
• Review a (large?) number of proposals submitted
  to a NASA AO, and attend the selection panel.

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ABSTRACTS

• According to the book and my experience there
  are two types of abstract
• An indicative abstract.
• An informative abstract.
• I have never heard these terms before, so that
• More closely

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• An indicative abstract
• Tells what you ARE GOING TO DO and HOW YOU WILL
  DO IT (my paraphrase).
• It does NOT give results!

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• An informative abstract
• Tells the same information and DOES give results.
• When would one use either?

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• An indicative abstract is often used in the
  scientific community when submitting an abstract
  for a conference or a workshop.
• In this case, many of us know we want to attend
  and present at a meeting, but the research may
  not be complete (so we dont have any results
  yet!)

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• Example
• Intrinsic Variability in Dust Deflation Potential
  in Multi-Annual MGCM Simulations. A.F.C. Bridger
  (Meteorology Dept., San Jose State Univ.) R.M.
  Haberle (NASA Ames Research Center)
• Multi-annual simulations with the NASA Ames Mars
  General Circulation Model (MGCM) show significant
  year-to-year variability in various atmospheric
  measures. Bla bla bla.
• We will discuss deflation results from
  multi-annual simulations. We will focus on the
  following questions (a) How large is the
  year-to-year variability in deflation both at
  specific locations (e.g., Hellas), and globally?
  (b) Is the year-to-year variability confined to
  certain locations and seasons? (c) What are the
  possible impacts of this instrinsic variability
  in dust deflation when trying to account for
  year-to-year variations in Global Dust Storm
  (GDS) activity?

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• An informative abstract is the type used at the
  start of a thesis, proposal, technical report
  etc.
• It is a high-level summary of the report.
• It covers very briefly
• What you did.
• How you did it.
• What results you got.
• The significance of your work.
• This is what YOU NEED TO DO for this class, as
  well as you senior and/or MS thesis.

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• Dos and donts about the informative abstract.
• Do write it carefully!
• You write your title carefully to catch the
  attention of the reader.
• The abstract allows you to include a little more
  information and detail beyond the title.
• Your goal is to get the reader to read your paper
  (and bring fame, fortune, more grants, prestige
  etc. to you and/or your company!)

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• Do think about keywords and phrases to include.
• These will be picked up by Google etc!
• Exampledont write an abstract about El Nino
  without the words El Nino in the abstract!

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• Do include
• An introduction why you did this study.
• A methods section how you did this study.
• A results section your main result(s).
• A conclusion why this is so important
• See examples in a minute.

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• Do make it available to a wide audience (while
  being technically sound).
• Abstracts are now widely available because of the
  internet. Make sure yours can be read (i.e.,
  understood, i.e., jargon-free) by many!
• Do pay attention to length guidelines.
• SJSU guidelines for an MS thesis are 150 words
  maximum!!!

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• Dos and donts about the informative abstract.
• Do not
• Use jargon
• Acronyms?

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• Examples in-class exercise
• http//www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2005/2004GL022014
  .shtml
• http//www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2005/2005GL022511
  .shtml
• TASK Identify the main components in each
• Introduction-overview-justification
• Methods
• Results
• Summary-conclusion-why this matters

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• Second in-class exercise
• Figure out whats missing from each of the sample
  abstracts!