Discussion Reading Reports:
The goal of the discussions is to introduce diverse ideas in Evolutionary Biology. Reading reports will be assigned for the same papers that will be the topic of discussions. The discussion reading reports are a good tool for practicing your skills in writing, and in analysis of research and ideas in evolutionary biology. In addition, by working on these reports, you will be preparing for the discussion sessions. These papers will be due at the end of the discussion session, so you will have them as an aid during the discussion.
Your report should be a paragraph or two in length and should include the following:
1. Heading: Give the author(s), year of publication, title, and publication details of the article and the senior author's affiliation.
Citation style for journal articles:
Bell, M.A. 1997. Origin of metazoan phyla: Cambrian explosion or proterozoic slow burn? Trends in Ecology and Evolution 12:1-2
2. In the first paragraph, summarize the main point(s) of the reading, including the hypotheses and conclusions. In your own words, distill the paper into a few sentences. The summary should be accurate, complete and self-sufficient — it should make sense even to a reader who has not read the original article. Summarizing a paper is the first step to developing your own synthesis and integration the information.
3. In the second paragraph, make an assessment of the reading. Analyze the major strength of the reading, the major weakness, and give your overall opinion or evaluation of the reading (1-2 sentences each). The readings might lead you to ask particular questions; discuss those questions.
4. In 1-2 sentences, state why you think this reading is important to the topic, and to evolutionary biology in general.
Reading reports will be graded as follows:
0: no report
5: fair
7: good
9: very good
10: exceptional
The best reports will demonstrate (1) an understanding of the information and arguments in the papers, (2) a thoughtful, probing evaluation of the papers strengths and weaknesses, and (3) comments that place this paper in context of broader questions in evolutionary biology.
Download this file for an example of a good report on a paper by Roemmich and McGowan .