Extra Credit Assignment for Biology 1A

20 Points

Your goal is to write a review essay of a research article you choose. This assignment is similar to the presentations you gave, but in written form and done individually. It will also focus more on the research and findings, rather than just one method. As far as choosing the article, use the same rules that you used for the presentations. You do not need me to approve it as long as it satisfies the requirements.

The essay will include the following:

• (6 pts) An introduction explaining why it was important to do the research in the paper. Give background information on the field and describe what the researchers are trying to learn. Why did you choose this particular article?
• (7 pts) Review the experimental design and results. Briefly give an overview of methods used and the results obtained. Critique a few of these methods/results (this part should be more in-depth). Explain what was good and bad about these particular experiments performed and the interpretation of results. How could they have been improved? What other experiments should have done?
• (7 pts) Discuss the importance of the results in the context of the field. Critique the researchers’ work: do you agree with the researchers’ models/hypotheses to explain the results? What further studies should be done?
• References. If you used sources other than the article, cite them. (-2 pts for no references)
• Hand in a copy of the paper you are reviewing.

Note: Be very careful about plagiarism! A common mistake is to take sentences or phrases straight out of an article and put them in their essays without quotes. This is plagiarism! Also, facts or ideas coming from someone else must be referenced. Any sort of plagiarism will result in no credit for this assignment. If you are unsure whether you might be plagiarizing, ask me!

The length of the essay can be 5-10 pages double-spaced, but the length is not important. I care more about how well you can distill the information from the article and critically analyze it.

This assignment is due on the last day of class (see schedule). I will not accept any late assignments!