Upon reading the journal article by Tansley,there’s a few things that I noticed that were missing from the article. Firstly, the journal article seems to have no format in terms of how sections are organized. In the present day, our professors give us a standardized outline, to guide us on how to construct a report or article. This outline includes sections such as abstract, introduction, methods, results, conclusion. The sections are written in this order in a journal article. Students are also provided with a rubric, this highlights the important topics that should be discussed in each section. If this rubric is not followed, then the student risks losing marks. Furthermore, the Tansley journal article included no references in the paper. In university, we are taught about the importance of citing our work and giving credit to the authors whose information we have used. I feel that it is essential to cite the references in journal articles, as it also ensures credibility and allows for replication of the experiment.
Moreover, the Tansley journal article also included no statistics. This was because t-tests like fisher t-test was not invented back in 1917. During the present day, students and researchers need to include statistical analysis in their papers. I feel that this is quite necessary, as it ensures that results are valid and allows one to accurately analyze data. Lastly, the article presented their results section in a point-form manner. This isn’t a good way tp present information, as it reads more like an abstract or a summary would read. This is very different from papers today, where the results section is organized in paragraphs. It is also supplemented by graphs and tables to convey information in a more organized manner.
Tansley, A. G. 1917. On competition between Galium saxatile and Galium sylvestre on different types of soil. Journal of Ecology. 5:173-179 (jstor)
f
Applied Plant Ecology Winter 2020 