Discussion

1. It should have its own introduction, which sets the tone for the section. If
your intro is weak, the entire section will follow that same tone. DO NOT
use the same introduction from the beginning of your project. There are
several approaches you can take when doing the intro, you just need to
incorporate what you think would be the most appropriate for YOU (NOT
ALL). In no particular order, here are a few ideas (you dont have to use
any if you feel confident in your own ideas, but please make note of point
g)
a. A general background of the weather of Trinidad (Rainy and dry
seasons)
b. An overview of river cross-sections and followed by the list of factors
which YOU FOUND to influence their shape, (all of which you will
discuss in the body)
c. A brief description of the drainage basin, with emphasis on the fact that
a pump station pumps water out of the upper course to feed to pipes of
nearby communities
d. A brief description of the shapes of your 2 cross sectional graphs, and
ending the intro by saying something to the effect that there are
several processes that could have contributed to the difference in the
shapes between these 2 cross sections. (this way you easily link it to
your aim, and set yourself up to answer the aim)
e. If you are using secondary information from the internet/books etc,
YOU MUST give credit to the source you are taking the information
from. Paraphrase what they said and put their name, along with the
year it was written at the end of the sentence you used the
information. Eg (Wilson 2007) OR you can cite them at the beginning
of a sentence, eg, According to Wilson (2007) rivers have three
f.

courses
No matter what approach you take, keep the introduction between 5
and 8 lines, and ALWAYS relate it/remind your reader of the AIM. The
objective of the discussion and the entire project is to answer your aim.

g. DO NOT write a paragraph of general information ie

erosion/ transportation / deposition, DO NOT define each
process and the sub-processes. It is the quickest way to
failing
2. The Body of the Discussion:

a. Each new point should begin in a new paragraph, depending on

your style of explaining. DO NOT say velocity was higher in one
area (which most of you did), and that means erosion is taking
place that would be wrong! Wrong! Wrong! The aim is not what
are the differences in velocity, gradient and sediment between
site A and B? Many of you beat around the bush, and never
really tackled the question at hand.
b. The AIM DOES NOT require you to compare the velocity, or the
gradient, or the sediment of both sites. THE AIM requires you to
observe the cross sectional shapes of Site A and B FIRST, before
you compare anything else, and then try to account for the
processes that would lead to those 2 different shapes, using the
velocity, gradient and sediment data you collected
c. Now that we know this, you need to ensure that both cross
sectional graphs are the first thing I see in the Presentation of
Data section, and you need to refer to them in the discussion as
Graph 1 and Graph 2 or whatever you titled them as in the
previous section
d. You need to make notes of the shape of EACH riverbed, follow the
shape and note where is deeper and where is shallower in each
section. Eg. You can say
At site A, graph 1 shows that the 50cm wide mark, was
the deepest point of 20cm, while the shallower points were
closer to the ends of the section. the gradual/ steep descent
of the graph suggests that forces of erosion were indeed at
play close to the middle of the channel (given these deeper
readings) **you can talk about traction and hydraulic action
being the main culprits of these deeper sections, and the fact
that the rocky nature of the section at Site A, along with the
gravelly texture of the sediment samples, lead you to believe
that sediments are indeed being dragged/rolled along the
river bed, especially during peak flow**
The velocity reading of Site A further corroborates this
notion. Given the fact that readings could only be taken at the
middle of the section, as the river itself did not have enough

energy to carry the float when it was placed nearer to the

ends of the channel, it indicates that closer the banks,
deposition would have taken place. Table 1 shows the average
velocity to be xyz, while the closer the ends were virtually
stagnant.
e. As you can see above, you are not to compare the velocity
of Site A and site B, or the gradient or the sediment. In
order to answer the aim, you must compare the velocity
along the shape of each graph, the sediment along the
shape of each graph etc. Look at pictures to help you
remember. As a matter of fact, the varying velocity ALONG each
cross section is what really determines the shape (there I
unintentionally answered your aim)
f. Some of you might think you didnt take speed close the bank or
at different points along the section, but your observation and
the graph tells you that the water was virtually stagnant, which
of course lead to the deposition of finer sediments where energy
was low in the section
g. I didnt even touch the vertical vs lateral erosion because there is
so much to talk about between the graph and the velocity
h. Of course youre also probably thinking about what to say for
gradient. Simply note the fact that while the readings at each site
were similar, that the gradient of each section didnt seem to
impact the cross sectional, and further research would be needed
to assess whether is poses any strong controls over the cross
sectional shape.
I. YOU CAN USE MY IDEAS

AS A GUIDE, EVEN CERTAIN WORDS BUT IF

SEE ANY

I WILL PENALISE YOU.

I did a little checking, and it is quite complicated to calculate the
OF MY SENTENCES IN ANY PROJECT

J.

wetted perimeter using the graph itself. You will have to rely on
your observations of where you believed friction was stronger. If
you cant, then I suggest you leave it out. Its better to make NO
statement than a WRONG statement
K. Same goes for discharge.

L.

Be sure to properly label and title graphs. Have at least one

sketch, and 1 or 2 pictures (labelled and titled) MAXIMUM. All
illustrations must be referred to. You can even put the
illustrations in your appendix, labelled as appendix, 1, 2 etc, but
ensure you refer to them, else you will forfeit those marks.

DO HOPE THIS HELPS YOU!

ANY

PROBLEMS/QUESTIONS, FEEL FREE TO EMAIL

ME