Objectives 26

Department of Earth Science |Northeastern Illinois University

PRINCIPLES OF HYDROGEOLOGY
ESCI 337
Fall, 2007

Daily Objectives #26 (December 4, 2007) Dr. Sanders

By the end of today's class, you should be able to do the following:

v Preparing Hydrogeologic Reports

Give an outline of the components of a scientific consulting report.
List the characteristics of a consulting report that are particular to this type of writing.

Today's Agenda:

v Ground Water Contamination and Remediation (Review)

Using Plume Busters, investigate the project hydrogeologic setting, delineate the plume of contamination, and identify the best remediation technology.

v Preparing Hydrogeologic Reports

Use the outline provided on the Plume Busters web page to begin organizing your capstone report.

Examine several examples of scientific consulting reports. Discuss what characteristics they have that make them unique and distinct from other types of reports and other kinds of writing.

Here are some helpful resources:

Your textbook, p. 510-511

William J. Stone, 1999, "Hydrogeology in Practice: A Guide to Characterizing Ground-Water Systems". Prentice Hall.

Guidelines for Writing Hydrologic Reports (US Geological Survey): The organization this page suggests is different from your Plume Busters report, but some of the suggestions for writing style are especially good. The information on this this page is especially for government researchers, not private consultants. (Why do you suppose that matters?)

"Writing Lab Reports and Scientific Papers", by Warren Dolphin, Iowa State University. This is one of many, many resources on the web that give solid advice on writing scientific papers. These resources are particularly useful in their description of tone and voice of the writing. However, few of them speak to the specific requirements of consulting reports, so be forewarned!

Department of Earth Science | Northeastern Illinois University