Scientific Literature Writing Assignment Instructions
Assignment Topic: The PARK7 gene and/or protein
Assignment Objectives:
Week 1: Data Gathering
The objectives of this week are to find good quality journal articles as sources for this assignment, to improve your ability to use literature databases (Such as PRIMO via the U of G library, PubMed, Google Scholar etc.) to search for journal articles, and to improve your ability to discriminate between different types of sources.
Step 1: Access the Information Management workshop on CourseLink to learn about the different types of sources and strategies for searching the available literature.
Step 2: Complete the quiz at the end of the workshop (worth 1% of grade)
Step 3: Search for journal articles on the PARK7 gene and/or protein. Select and download at least two articles for submission. The full PDF of the articles must be available for you to download.
You must use a minimum of TWO articles to write your assignment, your articles must include:
- At least one primary scholarly journal article on the PARK7 gene and/or protein.
- At least one secondary scholarly journal article on the PARK7 gene and/or protein.
Week 2: Writing rough draft-
Excellent written communication skills are essential to scientists. Several requirements must be met for writing to be effective. For example, the writing must be free of errors in grammar, spelling and sentence structure. The content must be accurate and delivered in a clear, concise manner. It is also essential the author knows who the target audience will be. An article written for the general public will differ greatly in style and in the level of detail compared to an article targeted to a group of experts on the topic.
The objective of this week is to improve your ability to clearly communicate an aspect of biological science by completing the rough draft of your writing assignment. Your target audience is first year biology students. You may choose to write about any area of the PARK7 gene and/or protein that is relevant to the material covered in BIOL*1090 using the sources you found last week. Keep in mind a challenge of this assignment is choosing a focused topic for your paper yourself!
Step 1: Access the Written Communication workshop on CourseLink to learn about how to refine your writing skills in the sciences and how to properly reference and cite your sources from last week.
Step 2: Complete the quiz at the end of the workshop (worth 1% of grade)
Step 3: Complete a rough draft of your paper using the guidelines below:
Assignment Guidelines: Your assignment must include the following components in the order listed:
The supplied cover page containing all the requested information.
The content portion of your assignment must be formatted as follows:
- 1½-2 pages in length, double-spaced. (Do not include figures or diagrams.)
- Font: 12 point Times New Roman, black ink
- Indentation: 10 spaces
- Margins: 1 inch margins on all sides (top, bottom, left side, right side)
- Alignment: Left justify
A separate page containing your list of references. At least 2 references must be used. Please use the written communication workshop to learn how to cite references using the accepted format.
A copy of the marking rubric from this handout with bolded information already filled out.
Week 3: Peer Evaluation-
Peer assessment or peer evaluation can mean many different things-peer grading of homework, presentations, as an aid to improving team performance or determining individual effort.
For the purposes of this assignment, peer evaluation is a process in which students will use the provided rubric to assess/evaluate the written assignment of another student during seminar 4 providing constructive feedback. The evaluator will sign or initial the rubric of the person that they evaluated and the signed rubric must be attached to the assignment upon submission. Students will have the opportunity to use this feedback to refine their paper before the submission deadline.
Please note that peer assessment or peer evaluation is not the same as peer grading, and this will not affect your assignment grade.
Step 1: Bring a physical copy of your rough written assignment as well as a copy of the rubric to your regularly scheduled seminar 4. Note this exercise is worth 1% of your grade and students who do not bring an assignment and who do not participate in the peer evaluation exercise will not receive this grade.
Step 2: Your TA will announce when it is time to for the exercise to begin, find another student and swap assignments and rubrics with them. Remember to have your evaluator sign or initial your rubric once they are finished. Assignments without an initialed rubric will lose 0.5 of their assignment mark.
Step 3: Use the constructive feedback that you received in seminar as well as the information in the rubic to refine your assignment prior to submission.
Attachment:- Assignment File.rar