PLBRG2010: Paper Guidelines

Due Dates
Outline: November 22, 2016. Submit via E-mail to Anthony Wenndt (ajw258@cornell.edu)
by 11:59 PM.
Final Paper: December 7, 2016. Submit via Blackboard submission portal by 12:00 PM
(noon).

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Some Important Things

The paper should be 5-10 pages, not including references. Please format the papers with 1
inch margins, double spacing, and 11 point font.
The paper is intended to be research-driven, meaning that you must identify a sound
research question about a topic of interest, generate reasonable hypotheses, and support
your findings using credible, peer-reviewed scholarly literature.
You may incorporate literature and materials from the media, popular culture, and the Web
as long as you give explicit, proper justification for doing so in the text and support any
actual claims with verifiable data.
Any figures, photographs, and/or direct quotations must be properly cited.
Use parenthetical (First Author, Year) citations in text.
For your References section, use the style of this example:
Surname, F.M., and Surname, F.M. (YEAR). This is an example title of a journal article.
Journal Title. 16: 735-743.

Selecting a Topic
1. Select a topic that is meaningful to you given your own perspectives, experiences, and
interests.
2. Dont reinvent the wheel. Be sure to identify a research question that has not already
been answered definitively by other researchers. At the same time, be careful that your topic
is familiar enough in the scientific community, such that youll be able to find sufficient
literature and resources to support your hypotheses.
3. Incorporate ideas and perspectives relevant to plant breeding. We recognize that many
students in the class are not experts in biology or genetics, but we expect that you select a
topic that is relevant to the scope and content of the course. What are the implications for
plant breeding? What plant traits might be prioritized in breeding programs given the
research question youve identified? What are the implications for food systems, genetic
resources, intellectual property, etc.?
Expectations for the Outline
1. Identify 1-3 possible research questions, associated hypotheses, and rationale.
2. List some possible subheadings, in order, that might constitute your final paper, and a
sentence or two describing your thought process in selecting those subheadings.
3. Identify at least 3 peer-reviewed, scholarly publications relevant to the topic(s) of interest,
and format them in the citation style described above.