biology lab Literature Review

Literature Review Instructions
General Guidelines:
● 5 pages (this does NOT include the cover page or the annotated bibliography).
○ If you go a little over 5 pages, that’s okay.
● Use APA format for your paper. Below are websites to help you write an APA paper. Note: you
do not need to have an abstract for your paper.
○ https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/18/
○ http://www.easybib.com/guides/students/writing-guide/iv-write/a-formatting/apa-paper-f
ormatting/
● Double spaced
● Font size 12
○ Times New Roman
● 1 inch margins
● Number your pages
● Please have a cover page with your name, BSC2011L, your section, TA name, date, and title of
your paper.
○ Make sure to include the scientific names as well as the common names of your
organisms.
■ Make sure to capitalize and italicize the Genus names and italicize the species
names on your cover page and throughout your paper.
■ Ex. Correct: Homo sapiens or H. sapiens (after first mention).
Incorrect: Homo sapiens, homo sapiens, Homo Sapiens, Homo Sapiens,
homo sapiens, etc.
● You are basically converting your outline into paragraph form and adding more detail to make
your 5 page paper.
● Remember that paragraphs are generally 5-8 sentences. Do NOT make a paragraph a whole page
long! Break it up.
● If you’re going to include a picture in your literature review, that’s fine. But the pictures must go
on a separate page at the end of the paper and should be labeled as “Figure X. Title.” Any figures
added need to be referred to in the text. Do NOT place the figures within your 5 pages of writing.
○ Ex. You could have a figure called “Figure 1. Angiosperm Life Cycle” and in the text
when you need to refer to the figure you may write “According to the life cycle of the
flower, it goes from being…as in Figure 1.”
● Make sure you cite everything that you paraphrase.
○ Every source that is in your annotated bibliography should be cited at least twice in your
actual paper.
■ In-text citations should (generally) be as follows: (Author’s Last Name, Year).
● If there are 2 authors, cite as: (Last Name 1 and Last Name 2, Year).
● If there are more than 2 authors, cite as (Author’s Last Name et al., Year).
● There are NO QUOTES ALLOWED! Everything must be paraphrased!
● If you have taken this class before, you CANNOT resubmit the same paper! You will need to
pick another topic.
● Make sure that you use the right forms of theirs, there’s, its, it’s, etc.
● Make sure that everything is organized and that it flows. Don’t jump around in what you are
talking about.
● Remember, this is not an essay paper. It’s a RESEARCH paper you did on your organisms so
you will not be using the words “I” or “you” anywhere in the paper (aside from the annotations).
Annotated Bibliography:
● APA style
● Make sure sure have a minimum of 10 references, 5 of which MUST be journals. The other 5 can
be more journals and/or books, textbooks, articles.
● NO WEBPAGES ALLOWED!
○ The only exception to this is if you sent the link to your TA for approval beforehand.
● NO ENCYCLOPEDIAS/WIKIPEDIA ALLOWED!
● NO JOURNAL ARTICLES FROM THE FOLLOWING DATABASES ARE ALLOWED:
○ Encyclopedia of Life Sciences via Wiley Interscience
● References must be listed alphabetically by primary author’s last name.
● Don’t number or bullet your references
● If a citation runs on multiple lines make sure the second and third line, etc. are indented.
● Are the annotations done correctly? They should be a paragraph long. You are NOT supposed to
summarize the source (that would be an abstract). In an annotation, you should answer the
following questions:
○ Critique the source/author
○ How is the source relevant to your paper?
○ How are you incorporating the source into your paper?
● Your TA should easily be able to match your references in your in-text citations with your
annotated bibliography.