DISCUSSION OF ESSAY 1 PEER REVIEWED PRIMARY RESEARCH ARTICLE This assignment must be completed and handed in at the commencement

of your lab in Practical 3 (Week 4). This assignment is designed as a first university writing assignment. It will be followed by other assignments in this course, and in other courses, that will progressively introduce you to the demands of scientific report writing. This report, however, is not an exercise in scientific report writing. It is a more personal piece of writing, which in part reflects upon your own experience locating and reading a scientific article. A major objective of this task is to see if you can write clearly and concisely. It is NOT an objective to focus on the scientific content of the research article. If, as a result of this assessment, wethink you have problems writing, we will refer you to the Learning Centre for assistance. The essay should be about 500 words long. You must perform a word count and print the count on the coversheet that you attach to your essay. You will not be penalised for going slightly over 500 words, but penalties will apply to essays that exceed the limit by more than 20%. Your essay will describe a peer-reviewed journal article that you identify from the primary literature. You should know what this means by now because you have had a whole lecture devoted to Understanding the scientific literature . Do not ask your demonstrator if you havent first checked out the lecture material! The article may come from any biological science discipline. This category includes the biomedical science disciplines. You must attach a copy of the journal article to your essay, when you submit the hard-copy. Your essay must contain the following: o A simple introduction that describes the purpose of your report. o A description of the discipline that you think best describes the research that is reported in the article. For example is it zoology, or microbiology, genetics or something else that you think best describes the work. Remember that there may be more than one discipline name that you can think of, and you could discuss the different possibilities if that is the case. You should say a little bit about what you think the discipline is about. Of course you do not have space to do this in any detail. In some cases it may be easy. In others, the boundaries of the discipline may be unclear to you. Feel free to discuss your uncertainties as this is a reflective essay. o A description of the journal. Tell your reader as much as you can, in the available space, about the journal. Write about the relationship between the journal you have chosen and the discipline. In some cases, this will mean you will find out a little about a professional society that is associated with the journal. The journal may be a general one, that serves many disciplines, or may be a journal that is strongly associated with a particular scientific sub-discipline. The journal may target regional, national or international audiences. This is something to write about. o A description of the purpose of the study, and the results of the investigations that are reported. Dont get bogged down wit h the detail. You have very little space to do this, so you must focus on the main points. You may not understand very much. You may not understand anything at all. If this is the case, do not panic! You will not be penalised as long as you can sensibly write about your lack of understanding. (Remember this is a reflective essay, where you are free to discuss both your triumphs and difficulties!)
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This part of your essay could look something like this: Although this article was chosen because its title seemed understandable, and suggested that the paper was about the diet of bandicoots, it proved impossible for me to understand it at all. The first sentence alone included 15 words that I had never seen before. Although I used a dictionary to clarify the meaning of most of the words, I was still unable to make any sense of the article. etc etc The assignment must be professionally presented. You cannot write in pencil or pen, but must use a word processor. Organise the document neatly, and try to make it easy for your demonstrator to read. Avoid spelling errors. UseSpell Checker!

Successful students manage their time carefully. If you can, submit your assignment early. You will gain nothing by delaying the submission, as you have already been provided with all the information you need. Marks will be deducted for late submission, unless the delay is due to medical or other serious reasons that can be professionally documented. If you wish to ask for such special consideration, you must provide your demonstrator with a Medical Certificate or other professional documentary evidence to support your claim. Your essay will be marked by your demonstrator, and for reasons of equity, the results will be reviewed by the course convenors to ensure that the marks are appropriate between groups. You will not be given your marks back until all assignments have been submitted and marked. You will be rewarded for carefully following all the above instructions, and you will lose marks for each omission or error. Remember that you can score full marks without understanding the article, if you just follow the instructions. Note that this is not a scholarly essay, and that therefore we do not expect you to provide citations. You simply report on the one paper, as described above. As this is a reflective essay, we expect that you will use the first person in your essay. That is, you may write I did this, and I did that.