Length
There is no maximum or minimum page limit on the term paper - it must, however, be long enough to cover the topic in a reasonably thorough manner. Generally, "A" papers have averaged around 5-8 pages in length.

Topic
The topic for a traditional term paper is limited only insofar as it must relate to insect biology in a cultural context. Sample topics were provided in a list handed out during the first day of class; this list is also posted on the class web page. Because the focus of the class is on insects AND people, a paper that simply recounts the life cycle of a particular species (in the absence of a human context) is not optimal, even for a rearing project. By the same token, a paper that deals only with human culture (and which doesn't integrate some aspect of insect biology) is also not optimal. A cautionary note - there are two topics that have been done to death over the years, and it's extremely difficult for anyone to cover these areas in a fresh and interesting way. These areas are forensic entomology (relating to estimating post-mortem interval) and insects as food. You can write on these topics if you want, but you may want to check with me about incorporating a new angle into your work if you do.

With respect to rearing projects, DO NOT SIMPLY TURN IN A DAILY DIARY OF YOUR REARING EXPERIENCES!! The rearing project paper should in some way integrate your observations with what's reported in the literature. In other words, your rearing project write-up should be about some aspect of your arthropod's life and your experience with it.

Citing references
Your term paper/rearing paper/project should include a minimum of three references from a primary source (preferably journal articles). Encyclopedias don't count as primary sources, nor (for this class) do websites that are not associated with some form of institutional oversight. Within the text of your paper, you should cite a source if you have used it for a specific bit of information that is not generally available. References should be cited in parentheses as (Last name of author, date) - i.e., There are over 800,000 named species of insects (Berenbaum, 1995). In your bibliography, use the format to write your reference that is used in "Bugs in the System". Examples follow:

BOOK
Cowan F. 1865. Curious Facts in the History of Insects.Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co., 396 pp.

CHAPTER IN BOOK
Meinwald, J. and T. Eisner, 1995. The chemistry of phyletic dominance. Pages 29-40 in Chemical Ecology (T. Eisner and J. Meinwald, eds.). Washington: National Academy Press.

JOURNAL ARTICLE
Britton, E., 1984. A pointer to a new hallucinogen of insect origin. J Ethnopharm 12: 331-333.

For web sites, please provide a complete URL and a date. You can use as many web sources as you'd like, but remember that at least 3 references must be from a peer-reviewed source.

Handing In Your Paper
The papers are due on Wednesday, April 30th (the last day of class). All you need to do is to staple the pages together in the upper left corner; please don't submit your paper in a ring binder or plastic folder. NUMBER YOUR PAGES!!

Plagiarism
Copying anyone's words verbatim, even if you cite your source, is considered plagiarism unless you use quotation marks to indicate that the words are taken from elsewhere. If you want to use exact wording written by someone else, use quotation marks and cite your source!

Also, when you insert a quoted phrase into your text, make sure it is integrated into a sentence. Do not simply quote an entire freestanding sentence in your text; by doing so, you're effectively getting someone else to write your paper. If because of content you'd like to include an entire quoted sentence, preface it with a phrase such as "According to Jones (1995)," and then insert the quoted phrase.

Pet Peeves
1. Number your pages!
2. Do not call insects "bugs" unless they belong to the order Hemiptera.
3. Do not use "man" as a synonym for "human" (and leave out 50% of the species).
4. Remember, order names and family names are capitalized but not italicized; common names are not capitalized unless they contain a proper name (e.g., "Mediterranean fruit fly"); genus names are capitalized, species names are not, and scientific names are italicized.
5. Common misspellings to avoid: cocoon, pheromone, affect/effect, there/their/they're its (THERE IS NO APOSTROPHE IN "ITS" UNLESS IT IS A CONTRACTION OF "IT IS").
6. The proper phrase is "to get bitten," NOT "to get bit."
7. The word "off" is a preposition and does not need to be followed by another preposition. Thus, one "falls off a log'" one does not "fall off of a log."
8. "Honey bee" and "house fly" are TWO WORDS. General rule of thumb - if the insect is accurately described by the common name, then its common name is two words. Hence, "house fly" (a true dipteran) vs "firefly" (one word, because it's not a dipteran, it's a coleopteran).
9. "Hopefully" means "full of hope." So, don't start a sentence with "Hopefully" if you mean "it is to be hoped that."
10. "Number" is for countable things and "amount" is for masses of things that aren't easily numbered (example: "A large number of flies consumed large amounts of dung")
11. "However," "but," and "although" can serve the same function in a sentence but they are different parts of speech. "But" is a coordinating conjunction that connects two independent clauses, "although" is a subordinating conjunction that makes a clause dependent and creates a complex (not compound) sentence, and "however" is a conjunctive adverb, which modifies an independent clause but doesn't affect the sentence pattern (i.e., doesn't turn an independent clause into a dependent clause). So what, you ask? These are not punctuated in the same way. For example, "however" when linking two independent clauses is preceded by a semi-colon, NOT a comma. "I really wanted to turn my term paper in on time; however, I was so confused about the grammar rules that I missed the deadline." VERSUS "I really wanted to turn my term paper in on time, but I was so confused about the grammar rules that I missed the deadline