Adopted and revised by the Department of Biology on April 23, 2008
(adapted from one originally written and adopted by the UNF College of Business.
Fatal Error Policy
Biology students must practice professional standards in scientific writing. In order for all written assignments to be acceptable, they must meet minimal presentation standards. It is a waste of our time as instructors to attempt to grade work that does not meet collegiate standards. These standards address both content and technical English errors, such as spelling, punctuation, format and basic grammar. The term Fatal Errors refers to technical English errors of form and noncompliance to scientific writing standards.
A submitted assignment may be returned to the student ungraded because it does not meet the standards and expectations of the instructor. The instructor will determine how many fatal errors are allowed for the entire document. The paper will be returned to the student ungraded and subject to a grading penalty as prescribed by the instructor.
Since the nature of written assignments will vary from course to course, please discuss writing expectations and other details on the application of this policy with each of your instructors. It is up to the discretion of each instructor how they will choose to enforce this policy.
This policy applies to all biology courses.
The list below is a sample of technical errors that would be deemed “fatal”:
1. Misspelled words,
2. Misused words, (eg. “proven”, affect/effect, absorbance/absorbency)
3. Improper use of singular or plural forms of biological words (eg. species not specie)
4. Sentence fragments,
5. Run-on sentences or comma splices,
6. Improper formatting of scientific names of organisms
7. Capitalization mistakes,
8. Serious errors in punctuation that obscure meaning,
9. Errors in verb tense or subject/verb agreement,
10. Lack of conformity with assignment format,
11. Each improper citation, or lack of citation where one is needed,
12. Improper formatting of tables and figures
13. Lack of units reported on quantitative data.
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