ALAN RAUCH © -

The Creature Speaks, ENGL 2090

Procedures Workshop

Procedures are often called "Materials and Methods" and they exist to demonstrate to your reader that you know precisely how you will conduct your experiment/research. Theoretically, in a published paper, your reader should be able to duplicate your research by following your procedures. (Realistically, Procedures are never actually detailed enough --unless you’re writing a "methods" paper-- for the precise replication of results.) On occasion, part of your experimental procedure will be borrowed from another source. When you borrow someone else methodology, be sure to CITE them in the appropriate spot in your procedures. (The full citation will be placed in the "Literature Cited" section of the Grant Proposal along with all of the other sources you have used.) Once you do that you don't have to go into great detail, but you should give your reader a sense of what's involved in that methodology.

 

  • REMEMBER that scientific convention generally employs the passive voice in Procedures.

    e.g. Experimental vehicles were equipped with radio transmitters to send the data back to the central computer.

  • In a PROPOSAL (i.e. in this class) use the future tense. In a paper (such as those you've read), use the past tense!

  • Be as accurate as you possibly can with respect to the equipment you'll be using and the way that you will be using it.

    e.g. Sound recordings will be analyzed for frequency range and frequency patterns using the Kay Sonograph XLS-15.

  • Provide all of the information that you think will be useful to your reader in order to assess whether you will conduct your work in a way that will provide acceptable (and respectable) results.

    e.g. Who will your subjects be? (Do they cover an acceptable sampling of the population you're interested in?)

    How long will your study/work take? (Those of you doing projects may want to provide a time line.)
    Where will your work take place.

  • Try to write a readable set of procedures. That will be complicated by the awkwardness of the passive voice and the need to cover all of the details that you think will be necessary for your reader.

  • Use Arabic numerals for measurements with the appropriate abbreviations:

    ;e.g. The sounds emitted from the transducer will be no higher than 250 KHz.

    Each of the subjects will view an image reduced to 75% of the original size.

  • Do NOT begin a sentence with a numeral. Write it out, or restructure the sentence.

    The Procedures section is generally fairly "dry"; that is, your focus will be on the methods and materials such as they will be used and not on elaborate explanations about why certain methodology or piece of equipment was chosen. That kind of explanation should be saved for the Discussion where the reader, having read all of your proposal, is in a better position to understand why you rejected the method used by, for example, "Harrison and May (1989) in their early work on the subject" or why you chose a complement of study subjects "similar to the cohort described by Smith and Fielding (1994).


    I have included below--as an example only--a set of procedures taken from work that I conducted on the study of dolphins in captivity. You can see that they are relatively specific but certainly not detailed anough for anyone to follow the methodology precisely. In order to do that, a colleague would have to communicate with me after reading the paper and ask for something that would resemble instructions. The procedures that you will write for your own proposals will address the needs and the structures that are necessary to implement YOUR project, so don't blindly follow anyone else's procedures. If you have questions, email me.

    Adapted From: Alan Rauch. The Behavior of Captive Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) ©

    Procedures

    Policy

    A policy of non-interference, with respect to the staff, the schedule, and the animals, will be maintained at each aquarium. All of the aquariums that were contacted, however, indicated a willingness to cooperate and to permit nearly unlimited access to the animals (See Appendix I: Aquarium Correspondence). Curatorial and administrative staff members will be asked to provide historical information about the aquariums and about recent and current animals. I will encourage all staff members to discuss aquarium related issues with me.

    Schedule & Methodology

    Each site will be visited for at least two weeks, although variations in the schedule may be necessary to accommodate the different pool configurations already described under "Study Sites." On the first day I will review the facilities, schedule, operations, equipment, and history of the aquarium. Records of the life history of each animal will be examined and recorded on data sheets adapted from Jarvis (1969). The second period (2 days) will, in effect, serve as a pilot study to identify the physical characteristics of each dolphin and to isolate any potentially significant characteristics of the aquarium or of the dolphins' behavior. At this time, the best observation points will be selected and novel behaviors will be recorded and briefly described. During the next 10 days, observations will be made using a scan-sampling technique following Altmann (1974), in which data will be recorded at l-minute intervals.

    Observation periods will vary from 45-l20 min., depending on the timing of shows, training sessions, or closure of the facility. Approximately 4 hours of observations, over a staggered daily schedule, will be recorded each day onto a portable cassette recorder; the data will then be transcribed (usually on the same day) onto a portable computer, using a coded notation system for behaviors, location, and time. A central core of behaviors described during a 1977 study at the Montreal Aquarium was coded for use in this study and has been adapted for use in this study. New behaviors will be added as observed, adding to the original list depicted in Table 8. Approximately 1.5 additional hours will be spent observing the animals each day to consider new techniques of recording data, to take photographs, and to exchange observations with staff members. The final day of the study will be set aside for additional (summary) discussions with the staff, further photography, video and audio recording, and a final review of the facilities.

    Equipment

    All of the time measurements, including the observation intervals, will be made using a Micronta digital stopwatch. Sound recordings, of the animals themselves and of the ambient noise in the tanks, will be made with a Nagra IV tape recorder and a low-frequency range (max. 6 kHz) hydrophone. Video records of behavior patterns will be taken with a Sony Videocorder (DVK-2400). An Olympus OM-l camera, using a 50mm f-1.8 lens and a Soligar polarizing filter, will be used for still photography.

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