Guide to your Term Paper for Science 010 in 95-3
This semester SCI 010 includes among the assignments a 'final paper' or essay,
worth 40% of your final grade. This document will outline what is expected,
and give you some guidelines to help you write it.
We also describe a
guide
that describes exactly how we intend to mark it.
Why an essay?
The Introductory Biology courses 101 and 102 both have over 300 students
enrolled this semester. The large classes in these and other introductory
classes make it difficult to give students assignments like essays that require
a lot of interaction and feedback. Yet the skills that essays demand (writing,
research, and the synthesis of material into a coherent whole) are extremely
valuable - not only to the rest of your university career, but after that as
well. Because we have a very low student/faculty ratio, this course will give
you an opportunity to hone these skills that other science students may not get
until their third or forth year. The best students can write well, and this
requires practice.
Your attitude
The first question students invariably ask about essays is 'How long does it
have to be?'. I think that this happens because of the emphasis that your
previous experience with essay writing often placed on form over content,
creating the feeling that the essay is being written to satisfy the teacher's
needs. These combine to make the requirement for every additional page
onerous. You would do well to start your university career by erasing that
feeling: Here the essay is for
you.
It is intended to give you the
opportunity to learn about the things that you came here to learn. If you find
yourself facing difficult decisions about what to exclude from your essay,
rather than desperately seeking material to be able to include, that's a good
sign that you are writing a successful essay - you're learning! The length and
its exact format are not important - it's what in it that counts.
General description
Your essay should address a topic pertinent to the course's theme of 'The
Atmosphere.' There is a lot of latitude here, but whatever you chose should be
interdisciplinary, combing aspects of at least
two
of the sciences involved
(biology, chemistry, physics, math). As a general guide to length, it should
be about 2500 - 5000 words; allow about 250 words per double-spaced page.
However, we emphasize that this very general - we won't be counting the words.
It must be typed (word-processed), and don't hesitate to use illustrations,
graphs or photos. It will be due
Friday November 24.
This will get it out of the way before your final exams.
Picking a topic
Students often find it very difficult to chose a topic when given a general
assignment like this, and they often come to the prof pleading "I can't find
anything to write about. Just assign me something specific and I'll do it." I
always refuse this request. The reason is that you're not here to have someone
else think for you. The only comfort I can give is to acknowledge that it is
difficult to pick a topic, but doing so is an essential and often a very
productive part of the learning process. A few hours spent browsing in the
library will help give an overview of relevant ideas that you would not get
from going immediately to a specific topic. Several specialist magazines
(called 'journals' by scientists) will be especially useful:
Scientific American,
American Scientist,
New Scientist and
Discovery
all carry popularly oriented articles of a general nature.
It may be useful to check some of the internet sites such as
those listed to here.
Browsing is a great way to find a topic.
A Pitfall:
You can spend so long in picking an essay
idea that you don't have enough time to research and write it. It's better to
spend a few hours, think about it, pick something and start on it than to keep
postponing until you find the perfect topic. You'll often find that the topic
you passed over is more fascinating than it first seemed, or you'll stumble
across something that is really compelling as you do your research.
Procedure:
Begin by reading other material relevant to your essay topic - the article you
began with will list a number of references, or will suggest other reading.
Working through these leads will guide you to many other articles. You might
also look at other works by the same author(s), or use any of the computer-based
abstracting services available to find other relevant material, including some
in the 'primary literature' where scientists publish their original research
findings. You'll usually find that the amount of material grows very quickly,
and you'll have to keep narrowing the focus.
The next step will be to write an outline that organizes the entire piece.
Your outline will function as a map for you to follow as you do the writing
itself. You need to keep in mind the purpose of each of the sections as you
write them, in relation to the overall theme of the essay. I recently heard
a successful screenwriter speak about her work. In reply to the question
"What's makes for a good screenplay?" she replied "A beginning, a middle, and
an end." Evidently the basics are just that: basic - even in Hollywood. Like
any other presentation of ideas, an essay has to have a beginning, a middle,
and an end. Each of these has a purpose, and each of the sections within them
has a supporting role. One of the main functions of your outline is to make
these clear to yourself. Why are you including that paragraph? Is it better
to introduce idea A near the start, or after idea B?
Your outline can be as detailed as you like - many professional writers
develop an outline stating the purpose of each paragraph in the essay. They
often spend as much time writing the outline as the piece itself. In my
experience this effort is worthwhile, because it saves a lot of the time spent
in re-organizing and rewriting sections of an essay that has not been carefully
planned. I've read hundreds of essays by students in a variety of courses, and
the level of work and planning is always readily apparent.
Because we have such a small class you'll be able to prevail on one or more of
the teaching faculty for advice and guidance along the way. You're welcome to
see any of us with your outline and successive drafts for feedback and advice.
Back to Sci 010 home page.
.../010paper.html
Modified: 3/09/1995
by goddyn@sfu.ca (Luis Goddyn)
from material prepared by
ydenberg@sfu.ca (Ron Ydenberg).