Essay question :Identify key influences on speciation rates and evaluate the weight of existing evidence for their relative importance.
Task: Do a quantitative review. That is, you address the question (see the title above) by searching for, collating and evaluating the weight of evidence in the literature.
Essay Structure:
Introduction: Introduce the ‘big picture’ then focus in.
Identify the problem/knowledge gap.
Clear statement of research question/hypotheses.
Remember to define speciation rate.
Methods: give numbers of papers at each stage
State criteria for eligibility
Describe grouping/categorizationDescribe the statistical analyses you did
Results:Present your results, inc. stats analysis results
Describe but do not interpret
Figures and tables should be used to summarize and communicate your results
Tables and figures must have informative captions and be formatted effectively
Discussion:Interpret your results – what do they tell us?
How do they fit with what we already know.
Do they contradict or confirm previous work?
Start with the ‘big’ new insight.
Caveats / limitations. Do not put these in a table to try to circumvent word count
