Science-Research Paper

DSL 301 Written Paper Assignment

OVERVIEW

You will be describing how an area of active natural science research impacts or could impact

your daily life. You will be finding at least five related news or primary research articles that

describe studies in that area of research.

PREPARATION ASSIGNMENTS

Assignments have been allotted throughout the term to prepare for this paper. The intention

here is to provide you an avenue for feedback before the final draft is due. Deadlines are listed

in your syllabus. Remember, each of these counts towards your overall grade. Take them

seriously; they will help you to write your final paper!

Your first assignment will be to submit your topic choice (please see below) to me via Canvas.

This way you are afforded the freedom to choose any topic you’d like, without feeling limited

to the list I’ve provided. Before submitting your topic, do background research—this allows

you to have an idea of the direction your paper might take. When submitting your topic,

please provide 2-3 sentences describing what your paper will be about. Do not just submit

one of the example topics below—be more thoughtful than that.

Your second assignment will be to submit the sources (please see below) via Canvas. Use APA

style (http://lynn-library.libguides.com/apa) to format this submission as you would your

reference page. Again, this is an opportunity for you to see if you are on track. Are you

choosing the right sort of sources, are they reputable, and are they formatted correctly? Keep

in mind that this assignment is due rather early in the timeline of this course. If you decide to

change a source later on, you are allowed to.

Your final preparation assignment is to submit your paper outline via Canvas. There is a

template posted to Canvas that should help you format your outline and give you an idea

what I am looking for. Review the paper content criteria, checklist, and rubric for the paper

while writing your outline. Remember, the quality of feedback you receive will be dependent

on how much work you put into your outline. If you provide a list of vague phrases, I may

not able to provide you much direction. However, if you provide complete thoughts, I will be

able to provide more complete comments.

TOPIC CHOICE

You will be describing how an area of active natural science research impacts or could impact

your daily life. Keep in mind, you can even write about your career or dream career, as long

as natural science is applied to your topic. Under the umbrella term of natural science, you

may choose a topic in any field (including biology, chemistry, physics, astronomy, geology,

medicine, environmental science, etc.). Social scientific research is not acceptable for this

assignment.

The following is a list of topics that could be the subject of a research paper.

o Do probiotics work?

o Algal blooms in waterways

o Climate change

o Maternal diet and offspring health

o Health effects of antibiotic-resistant bacteria

o Microplastic pollution

o Obesity and antibiotic use

o Antioxidants and aging

o Gut microbiome and neurological health

o Autism and pesticide exposure

o Epigenetics and cancer

o Ecological effects of non-native species

o Bed bugs and pesticide resistance

o Green chemistry

o Use of social media and lack of sleep

o Noise pollution

o Traumatic brain injuries

o Causes of disease (i.e., breast cancer, skin cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, etc)

o Treatments for disease

o Sports injuries

o Freshwater flesh-eating bacteria

o Effectiveness of yoga

o Ethics of using DNA to determine ancestry

o Drug testing today

o Improvements in forensic evidence analysis

o Neuroscience of advertising

o Screen time and child development

o Is detoxing beneficial?

o Benefits of breastfeeding

o Health benefits of having pets

CHOOSING YOUR SOURCES

Remember you will be choosing at least five sources for your paper. You must find five

articles within the reputable news that detail a scientific experiment(s) related to your topic.

These must be five unique studies; do not pick five news articles that describe the same

research study. The articles must be at least 200 words long and must have been published in

the last three years. Alternatively, sources for this assignment may include primary peer-

reviewed scholarly journals, reputable online newspapers, or reputable online magazines.

Below is a list of potential sources (however, you are not restricted to using these websites):

o ScienceDaily: http://www.sciencedaily.com/

o NPR Science News: http://www.npr.org/sections/science/

o The New York Times Science Section: http://www.nytimes.com/pages/science/index.html

o National Geographic Daily News:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/?source=hp_news_header

o Scientific American News: http://www.scientificamerican.com/section.cfm?id=news

o The Scientist: http://www.the-scientist.com/

o Discovery News: http://news.discovery.com/

o Live Science: http://www.livescience.com/

o Science News: http://news.sciencemag.org/

o Nature News: http://www.nature.com/news/

Unacceptable sources for this assignment include personal websites, blogs, and wikis.

Avoid articles that do not describe a scientific study. For example, articles that describe a

scientific career, describe the mission of a scientific organization, articles about new

technology, breaking news about an event (such as a natural disaster or awarding of scientific

prizes) related to science or technology, or articles that detail a list of scientific discoveries do

not meet the requirements for the paper.

CONTENT

You should begin your paper by introducing the topic at hand. Here, you may want to discuss

how this topic relates to your personal life. You should also include any introductory

information, such important definitions. You may also decide to describe previous studies,

observations, or controversies that surround your topic. Be sure to cite any of these

supplemental, reputable sources in your paper. In each of your body paragraphs, you will

then explain how your five scientific studies relate to this topic. You may even decide to

discuss how the scientific method (problem/observation, hypothesis, experiment, results,

conclusion) was applied. You will conclude by discussing what the research has shown in

relation to your topic, what questions were raised by their research, and the future work that

could be done. Be detailed in this final section of your paper.

The paper should be double-spaced, have one-inch margins, use standard professional font

type, and use standard professional font size. Please include your name and include a title to

your paper. It should also be written with stylistically correct grammar and punctuation.

In addition, your paper will be 2400-2900 words (10-12 pages, not including reference or title

pages) in length. You need to ensure that you are providing enough detail for your audience

so they understand, for example, the background for your paper topic. Papers that are too

short do not provide enough detail for your readers to understand your studies, so you will

likely need to do additional research (remember to cite these sources!) to properly describe it.

However, do not pad your paper length by rambling about tangential topics, keep it relevant

to the requirements for this assignment.

All sources for this assignment should be reputable and should be properly documented. Be

sure to reference all sources of information using APA style (http://lynn-

library.libguides.com/apa) both in-text with parenthetical citations and with a reference page.

Remember, though you are largely presenting about a few sources for this assignment, you

may not copy and paste text from these sources (or any other) into your paper. Do not

plagiarize! Instead, digest your source material and use your own words! Make it relatable for

your audience. This is part of your job as a writer.

Submit your final paper as a word document, and title it as per the following example:

paper_your last name.docx (example: paper_korte.docx).

The essay will be graded with a modified version of the Dialogues of Learning Written

Communication Rubric. Be aware that all submissions to Canvas will be run through Turnitin

to check for originality. Therefore, it is expected that you may need to submit and revise

multiple drafts before your final submission by the assignment deadline. The paper

assignment will be submitted to the instructor using Canvas by the deadline listed in your

syllabus.

ASSIGNMENT CHECKLIST

 Consult syllabus for assignment deadline

 Student name included in paper

 Paper title included

 Word count is 2400-2900 words

 Paper is double-spaced

 Margins are one-inch

 Font type is standard professional

 Font size is standard professional

 Paper is written in own words

 Paper is about natural science research and

impacts on your life

 Full background clearly describes the

scientific topic at hand

 Description of each study includes

relationship to your topic

 Minimum of five sources describing unique

scientific studies have been included

 Sources are cited in-text using APA style

 Reference page included in APA style

 Paper saved as Word document with

proper title format

 Turnitin report consulted for plagiarism,

paper revised if necessary

 Final assignment submitted to Canvas

under correct link