The Thesis
Every essay should have a "thesis" or statement of a problem which will be addressed in the body of the essay.  For example, here are 3 statements of problems drawn from essays on different subject areas outside of paleontology:
 

1.  When subjected to natural stresses such as climate change, the technological response of a society or culture is critical to its survival.
 
2.  The destruction of the Central American rainforests is economically driven by factors outside of Central America.

3.  The Aboriginal people of Australia have retained in their folklore the memories of substantial climate changes in the past 20 to 30 thousand years.
 

The Structure of the Paper

The goal of the writer is to present to the reader a logical, easily understood, smoothly flowing argument or presentation that supports the thesis.  A tried-and-true method is that in the framework given below:

 Introduction:  An introduction should state the thesis and prepare the reader for the kinds of data and information that will be presented in the body of the paper.  After the introduction, there should be no surprises in the structure of the paper.  That is, there should be no jumps in logic, or changes in format or style of the paper that disrupt your ability to communicate with your reader.  The statement of the thesis does not have to be made in a dry way or even in a single sentence.  You can use your imagination and the power of language to evoke a strong image that will carry the theme of your paper in the mind of the reader.  Thus, we quote introductory sentences from two essays from a class on climate change.

 "On the morning of June 6th, 1816, residents of Maine, New Hampshire, and states as far south as western Massachusetts awoke to 3 to 6 inches of snow on the ground." (Lown, 1994, p.1)

 "The debate over global warming centers around how mankind's activities interact with climate and how these activities may affect the natural rhythm and changes in the Earth's atmosphere." (Adante, 1994, p. 1)

 The Body of the Paper:  This should be organized so as to present the information that you need to support your conclusion.  This information should be related to your thesis, and should be presented in a way that prepares the reader at each step of the way for what will come next.  This can be done relatively smoothly and easily by using a "topic" sentence to begin each paragraph.  A topic sentence is a sentence that makes a statement or poses a question that will be addressed in the rest of the paragraph.  In fact, the rest of the paragraph is built on that topic sentence.  For example:

 "It is known that global ocean levels fluctuated with periods of glaciation during the ice ages and intervening warm periods." (Jaffer, 1994, p. 3)  The rest of this paragraph develops in detail the information on fluctuating ocean levels in southeast Asia and Australia.  We also note that the next paragraph discusses the problems of Aboriginals in navigating through the very different waterways of the late Pleistocene.  This is a good example of one paragraph leading into the next in pursuit of the basic argument or thesis of the paper.

 The paragraphs should deal with individual subjects in an order that leads to the conclusion.  In some cases, you may find that your paper flows best if you lead the reader from the "general" case to specific examples and then return in the conclusion to the general case, having supported your argument with the specifics.  In other cases, you may find that your topic supplies a natural organization such as a chronology or "time line" which will lead the reader through the data in sequence.

 To some extent, the body of the paper is a lesson prepared for a particular audience.  You must judge your audience when you prepare the paper.  You must use vocabulary and arguments that are understandable to the reader.
 
 The Conclusion:  This is a critical part of the essay, for it should draw together the information that has been presented, and demonstrate the thesis.  However, the conclusion is not simply a summary or recapitulation of the body of the essay.  It should be the point at which the writer steps back, and expresses a judgment or opinion regarding the data and information presented throughout the essay.  It can be a powerful section of a paper.  It may call for new kinds of investigation, changes in the way we look at problems presented in the paper, or may emphasize the impact in history or the importance today of the problems discussed. Also, remember that your opinion counts.  In a small way, you have become an expert in this subject, and you should say what you think.
 

Citation:    When you quote directly, use this format:

 "A primary sedimentary structure, such as bedding or ripple marks, is one that forms during the deposition of sediment" (Levin, 1988, p.61).

When you paraphrase, cite your source in this way:

 Most of the earth's crust is composed of igneous rock (Levin, 1988).

When citing facts, such as relationships, statistics, or numbers, you should cite the source, such as (Levin, 1988).  You may also use a more conversational style, such as: Stilton (1988) reported that the moon was made of green cheese.

It is extremely important to  cite your sources.  Your credibility as a writer is weakened when the reader has reason to think that your statements are mere unsupported assertions.  Citations give authority to your argument and ultimately to your conclusions.

Also, it must be pointed out that you must be on guard to protect yourself from the charge of plagiarism, and the best rule of thumb is this:

Never, never, never copy word-for word without quotations and a full reference.  That is plagiarism.
Keep in mind that when working from web-based sources, it is too easy to cut and paste without citing.  That is plagiarism, even when you didn’t mean to do that, so be on your guard.  Cite!

Bibliography:  At the end of your essay, list the references that you have cited.

The key points in a citation are that the author is identifiable, the year of the publication is known, the title, edition, and publisher are stated, and the specific pages are listed.

Here are some examples of references cited from books, journals, and symposia volumes.

 From a book:

Levin, H. L., 1988.  The Earth Through Time, 3rd edition, Saunders College Publishing, New York,pp. 1-20, 135-155.

 From a journal:

Rosen, Stephen, 1979.  Whither weather?:  the future of biometeorology: Futurist, Feb. 1979: p. 69-72.

Neumann, J. and Parpola, S., 1987.  Climatic change and the eleventh-tenth century eclipse of Assyria and Babylonia, Journal of Near Eastern Studies, v. 46, no. 3, p. 161-182.

 A Chapter in a Book or Symposia Volume

Catchpole, A.J.W., 1992.  Hudson's Bay Company ship's log books as sources of sea ice data, 1751-1870.  IN (Bradley, R.S. and Jones, P.D., eds.) Climate Since A.D. 1500, Routledge Publishing Company, London, Chapter 2, p. 17-39.

 From a newspaper or magazine

Johnson, Tim, 1994.  Tropical forest is falling to plunder, Miami Herald, June 28th, p.8A.

 Without a stated author

Anonymous, 1992.  Worldwatch report calls 1990's decisive decade for environment, New York Times, January 13th, Section A, p. 10, col. 5.

 From a web page

Web address, date accessed, title (authors if available) and source

http://agcwww.bio.ns.ca/pubprod/dinoflaj/dinoflaj/index.html, August 28, 2001, DINOFLAJ, Dinoflagellate Classification Database, by Fensome, R., MacRae, A. and Williams, G., Geological Society of Canada Open File 3653.
 

(be sure to read the warning in the next section Evaluating Internet Resources: A checklist  for assessing the quality of a web page for reliable information)
 

And of course, references should all be presented in alphabetical order!
 

A word on grammar and sentence structure...

Check your paper for spelling errors, run-on sentences, sentence fragments and errors in grammar.  (We find that the best way to do this is to read the essay out loud.)