Comments on the reports

Here are some comments on the reports. Hopefully they help. If

you disagree with your mark, please read through the marking
guideline that was in the slides the week of the tragedy of the
commons lab. It seemed people lost many marks by not sticking
to it closely.

Overall

I was happy with the overall standard of the reports

Ensure you know what is meant to go in what section of a lab report
READ the QUESTION!!
READ THE GUIDE for how to answer questions!!! It was in the
powerpoint for this lab. It tells you what to do to get the marks. Why
not make use of it?
Know the point of the experiment
WRITE CLEARLY. Make it easy to understand.
Write in a logical manner. It needs to make sense. Use good reasoning
and explain things in a simple manner.
Be careful with overgeneralisations like Everyone is just greedy and
wants more for themselves. Is everyone really like this?
Watch out for throwing around fancy terms if you arguement doesnt
make sense. Make it clear first, fancy second. Fancy without clarity or
logic is not nice to read.

Introduction

You have to understand the concept of the tragedy of the commons

to answer the question
The description notes how the individual (person/group/company etc)
taking too much impacts on the whole, and the example should take
this format and illustrate it clearly.
o Basically you are trying to state a theory clearly, and give an
example of the theory in action
Needed to reference your example to show you had researched it
Dont write too much: i.e. stay on topic or risk losing marks due to
revealing you dont know the details well
Be careful not to overstate things. Things are not often completely
black and white. And also dont overstate the outcome of the study.
i.e. that the experiment will help prevent the tragedy of the commons.
Qualify your statements.
o Dont sayEveryone does this etc
o Or No-one even cares really? How can you be sure of that
statement?

1
 If stating aims of the study, make sure you are very clear on what they
are
Well done to those who attempted to make the introduction sound like
the start of an integrated article
Clarity is key - Do not try and make the marker work too hard to find
your meaning.
Be more clear as to the individual/groups gaining, and who loses out
Get clear on the theory before you write, then make it clear what the
commons are, the groups involved, who stands to gain and who stands
to lose etc. Sometimes there was not enough detail.

Methods

Describing participants
Needed to give description of the likert scale measures.
Use the words condition one and two
Needed to be sections as laid out in the guide, and in the lab we had on
writing a lab report
USE sub-headings
Could someone repeat the experiment based on your method section?
Say males and females, not boys and girls
Dont mention demographics like age and cultural spread if we did not
gather this data, other than We did not gather data on .......
So many people only did not mention both clip numbers - individual
AND group being recorded
Write in prose, not bullet points
Make clear the difference in condition one and two
Get details correct Number of participants, observers etc
Try to keep write ups impersonal (me, I etc)
Method section is objective data not aspects from the discussion

Results

Very good idea to lay it out clearly under each hypothesis

Restate hypothesis and if it was supported or not state it clearly
In regard to P values, P can not equal 0. Why is this? Because P is an
estimated probability. We never say that there is no probability of
something occuring. Therefore when our p-value says .000, the way we
write it is <.001.

Discussion

This is the make or break section!!!

Be careful with black and white statements and overly simplistic
arguements

2
 E.G. If the governments of the world can talk to each other about the
problems then this will help save the commons.
You had to read and reference the two extra articles.
You needed to relate theory to findings
USE PARAGRAPHS!!! Many students crammed the whole two
pages full of text. Paragraphs help your argument flow and
make sense, and makes it a lot easier for the marker.

Further research

A research question asks a broad question. Then we come up with a

method to answer that question. It is not a question like What would
happen if we split the men up from the women?. This is not a research
question. You need say why it is important to do this study. State the
issue, and then how to research the issue.

References

Hardly anyone did this well. Please get help with referencing. Get end
note from the IT people in Kate Edgar, and use it . Also see the
university libraries information on referencing on their web page.

Hope that helps

See you next week, and and good luck everything

Daniel