Description:
The assignment is to write a 5+ page paper on any topic we have covered or will
cover in the course. It can be on a topic of your choice as long as it is relevant to the
class. Papers will have a scientific format with an abstract, introduction, results,
discussion and conclusions. It should also have one figure that is referenced in the text
(e.g. Fig. 1). An abstract presents a brief one or two paragraph summary of your paper,
and clearly states your conclusions. Write the abstract after you have written the rest of
the paper so you know what to put in it. The introduction should provide an overview of
your chosen topic and tell the reader why it is important. The results section is a little
more tricky because in most cases you are not collecting any data, but there should be
some type of observations / case studies in which you can distinguish observations and
data from your interpretation. This is a key aspect of scientific writing in that
observations and interpretations must be kept separate. The discussion evaluates the
observations using the larger-scale issues brought up in the introduction. Lastly, the
conclusions should clearly and succintly state your final interpretations.
Other aspects of the assignment:
* You should use a minimum of three references that are cited in the text (using author
name and year published, (e.g. Farris, 2009). The full reference should be listed at the
end of the paper in at references section.
