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GEOL20001 The geology of southeast Australia Trip 1

Assignment Exercise (worth 60% of unit)

The exercises you have handed in from the Excursion Guide are worth 40% of the unit. The
remaining 60% is an essay assignment. Please write an essay on ONE of the following subjects using
examples from localities visited on the Field Trip:

1. The formation of cool-water carbonates in southern Australia.

2. Why did Nothofagus forests start to disappear in Australia after the Miocene?

3. Evidence for young tectonics in southeast Australia.

4. The relationship between Victorian fossils and oceanographic change over the last 50 million
years

5. The significance of Palaeozoic fossils in Victorian geology.

6. Evidence for the extent of the Gondwanan glaciation in Australia.

7. Fossil shorelines in Victoria over the last 10 million years.

8. The significance of the Cretaceous terrestrial vertebrates of Victoria.

9. Dating basaltic volcanism in southeast Australia.

10. Why have stromatolites largely disappeared from the Earth and yet they are growing in lakes
in Western Victoria.

11. The significance of the australites and Pleistocene meteorite impact events.


REQUIREMENTS

You are required to submit an essay (not more than 2,000 words including the reference list) to an
assessment link on the GEOL20001 Canvas website by Wednesday 12th March 2025 midnight. Anyone
submitting their essay after this time will be penalised.

Please read and follow the guidelines about geological essay writing, Turnitin plagiarism
avoidance and the use of AI and you won’t go too far wrong!

Stephen Gallagher & Malcolm Wallace, February 2025
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GEOL20001 Geology of southeast Australia Essay Guide

ESSAY WRITING HINTS
1. Please consult:
http://scholar.google.com.au
AND
http://www.library.unimelb.edu.au/discovery
on the subjects above before you write your essay.
2. Do not cite Wikipedia, if possible find the original references for the information from which the
Wikipedia site was created, if these are not present, then the information could be rubbish.
3. Be aware there is alot of rhetorical unedited or unrefereed material on the web, some of this might be
propaganda put forth by vested interests, especially in media releases.
4. Likewise, citing newspaper articles is to be avoided as these are also unrefereed opinion pieces and
often rhetorical.
5. Do not cite web material alone, please include reference to books, book chapters and refereed journal
papers in your essay showing you have used the library journal system and even gone into the library!
6 or 8 of these “proper” references might suffice.
6. Avoid footnotes as they are annoying to the readers (ie. marker) of your essay.
7. Please use figures, graphs or tables with captions and a clear source as they can substantiate your
interpretations.
8. Please use any useful sketches or other information you gained on the field trip relevant to the subject.
9. If you think you really have to cite a web page please include the full web site and date of access in
your reference list.
10. If you would like feedback on essay draft please visit the Academic Skills and Writing team website:
https://students.unimelb.edu.au/academic-skills#student-appointments . This service can provide
feedback on your work, and advice on how to further develop your writing skills


WRITING YOUR GEOLOGICAL ESSAY

The purpose of this essay is to summarize, synthesize and evaluate the relevant literature in a
concise and engaging way. Learning to write good scientific prose takes a number of years to master. The
following is a guide to preparing a geology essay, and you are also encouraged to browse books, theses
and articles in journals to see how other scientists write up the results of their research. In addition, take
notice of comments made about your writing - constructive criticism is one of the best (although
somewhat painful) aids to improving writing skills.

Before you begin - remember that you are to present a formal essay, it should be written in proper
English without needless repetition. A properly written essay has:
- full sentences
- logical paragraphing
- no informal abbreviations or contractions
- correct grammar
Always proof-read your essay carefully at least once.

TITLE The title page is the reader's first contact with the essay and therefore should effectively display
the title of the essay, the name of the author, and the date.

The Word Limit: 2000 word limit includes the reference list and does not include figure captions.

ABSTRACT The abstract is a very brief 50 word summary (without citations) that states the main results
and conclusions contained in the essay. The abstract also indicates to the reader whether the essay is
worth reading, so a concise, clear and informative abstract is very important.

INTRODUCTION The introductory part of an essay introduces the topic of study and why the subject is
important (you should include citations in this section).

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BODY OF ESSAY The body of the essay should fulfil the aims set out in the introduction. It contains
details of the literature review, with diagrams, and tables to supplement the text as required. Be concise
and coherent using scientific language throughout, without sacrificing detail. Decide what your main
headings are (depending on the scale of the essay), and within each of these main sections, divide the data
into sub-sections with clear and meaningful headings. Use diagrams to illustrate your points: Hand-
drawn diagrams are ok especially if they are from the field trip. If you do use a diagram taken from
elsewhere, it needs to be appropriate, fully referenced and integrated with the text.

REFERENCE LIST There are a variety of ways of citing published work in the text of an essay.
Commonly, the author's name and the year of publication are given in brackets at the end of the sentence
in which the citation occurs (Smith 1987). References can also be placed in the middle of a sentence
(Jones 1988) or several strung together in chronological order (Green 1962; Brown 1978)

At the end of the essay, a list of citations in alphabetical order is presented, for example:
REFERENCES
Brown, A.B. 1978: Writing is fun! Journal of Geology 60 : 12-25.
Green, C.D. 1962: Geology of an area east of Melbourne. Australian Journal of Earth Science 44: 456-
665.
Jones, X.Y. 1988: Rocks for Beginners. McGraw-Hill 356 pp.
Smith, Z.P. 1987: Dinosaurs and other pre-historic nasties. Journal of Paleontology and Paleoclimatology
72: 98-105.
This is only one style of presentation - you can look at the different styles in journals in the library.
What is important is that you are consistent in the manner in which you cite papers and that you present
them in the reference list. Referencing via footnotes should be avoided.
To achieve your goal of a well-written essay, you will need to go through several stages of planning
and draft writing before you produce the final essay. There is no one superior method - eventually you
will develop your own way. However, it is usually helpful to put a rough draft aside for at least a couple
of days if possible, so that you can criticise it more objectively. As you write each part, ensure it fits
coherently with other parts of the essay. Have fun!


PRESENTING YOUR ESSAY

The key thing to remember is that you have written an essay that you want other people to read.
A well-presented GEOL20001 essay should typically:

(1) include figures within the main text of the essay where you refer to them (not all crammed
together at the back - you cannot expect some-one to hunt through the essay on the off-chance of
finding something).

(2) use only the best illustrations, preferably sketches, you can use images from publications along as
they are cited properly.

(3) have well-written figure captions explaining the sketch, and numbered sequentially, as they are
referred to in the text.

(4) have appropriate references in the text to the figure (use its number, e.g. Fig. 1).

(5) refer directly to the relevant location and/or information from the Field Trip.

If you pay some attention to these guidelines, you will keep the marker of the essays happy (which is to
your benefit) and save them from a pre-destined insanity.

Note also your work will be thoroughly checked for plagiarism and AI (see notes below).





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The quality of your essay assignment will be judged on this general rubric




With these marking criteria

1. There is clear evidence of the student’s own critical thinking and writing.
2. The submission demonstrates comprehensive effective engagement with the chosen topic,
reflecting a nuanced understanding of their readings, and effective integration of these sources to
support the student's argument.
3. All facts and statements about scientific knowledge and concepts are supported by valid, credible
sources, including peer-reviewed journals, academic books, and other reputable publications. AI
tools are not considered valid sources.
4. The students has included relevant example(s) (sketch(es)/information) obtained on the Field Trip
to support their essay topic.

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Academic honesty, Plagiarism and use of AI software

Important information about academic honesty and plagiarism, including advice to students and
university policies, is at:
http://academichonesty.unimelb.edu.au
You can also find information and help at the Academic Skills Unit:
http://www.services.unimelb.edu.au/asu
Turnitin http://academichonesty.unimelb.edu.au/turnitin/ Turnitin is online web-based text-
matching software that works by comparing electronically submitted papers to billions of pages of
content located on the Internet and proprietary databases as well as the work of other students whose
papers have also been submitted into the system. When student papers are submitted into Turnitin,
sections of the papers that match other sources are highlighted and identified. The student paper with the
highlighted matched text forms an Originality Report and is made available to the lecturer concerned.
Turnitin cannot make a judgement regarding whether plagiarism has occurred. It is the
responsibility of the lecturer in charge of a subject to determine the quality of the Originality Report and
to assess whether parts identified by Turnitin as non-original may be reasonably considered as plagiarism.

The use of AI software is not permitted for GEOL20001 Essay Assignments
Be aware Turnitin detects plagiarism and uses software that can also detect AI generated content
and text that paraphrases AI generated text and generates an AI score. If a student uses artificial
intelligence software such as ChatGPT or QuillBot, Grammarly and Google Translate to generate
material for this assessment that they represent as their own ideas, research and/or analysis, they are NOT
submitting their own work. Knowingly having a third party, including artificial intelligence technologies,
write or produce any work (paid or unpaid) that a student submits as their own work for assessment is
deliberate cheating and is academic misconduct. Any student who commits academic misconduct is
subject to the penalties outlined here:
https://academicintegrity.unimelb.edu.au/academic-misconduct-process
It is not permitted to include text generated by AI in your assignment. All facts or scientific
knowledge presented in your assignment must be written by yourself and supported by citation of valid
sources. AI is not a valid source of facts or scientific knowledge.

As part of the preparation of this assignment, you are required to keep at least two early drafts of
your work. You do not need to submit these drafts with your assignment, but may be asked to present
these drafts at a later stage of the assessment marking. In case your work is flagged by Turnitin as
potentially written by AI, presenting these drafts will help you demonstrate that the work you submitted is
your own work.
It is essential to ensure that all work you submit is entirely your own. Copying answers directly or
paraphrasing from AI or submitting work that is not your original thought or effort breaches academic
integrity policies and does not support your personal learning and development.
You can find more information and guidelines on the appropriate use of AI at the following site.
https://academicintegrity.unimelb.edu.au/plagiarism-and-collusion/artificial-intelligence-tools-and-
technologies
Here you can find the university policy on the importance of Academic Integrity and the
consequences of plagiarism, collusion and other examples of misconduct including Artificial Intelligence
tools and technologies.
If you submitted work and received a high AI detection score, you may need to attend an
Academic Misconduct meeting. At the meeting you will have the opportunity to discuss if/how you used
AI in your writing. A committee will then decide if the allegation should be upheld or dismissed.
If the allegation is dismissed, then no further action is needed from you and your essay will be
graded on academic merit.

学霸联盟