BIOL 111---Biological Outlook, Fall 99
1st Writing Assignment: Narrative of a Scientific Encounter
Write a paper that narrates or describes how scientific thinking directly enabled either you or someone you know well to address a problem --- preferably within the last three years. If the problem has a biological basis to it, so much the better. Refer to Asimov's essay, The Fateful Lightning
"Narration aims not to tell us about an event but to give us the event. Description aims not to tell us about an object but to give us the object. Because your aim in both narration and description is to show rather than to tell, you will want to use specific details, especially sensory details that appeal to your reader's sense of sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste. Try to make your reader(s) experience and feel what you experienced and felt when you really grasped scientific thinking."
---after Carolyn Haynes, Miami University, Ohio
Parameters:
- Please limit yourself to two pages or less. No bibliographic references are required.
- Your audience for this paper is your professors and fellow students in this class. What
vocabulary, syntax, and format would you use to communicate effectively with the mixed
collegiate audience that sits in our classroom?
- Expectations and limits related to the mechanics of writing, proof reading, and editing, as
outlined in the syllabus, are in effect..
- For this paper, please do not use a separate title page. Write your name legibly on the back side of the second page and nowhere else on the essay. Fold your paper lengthwise with your name visible on the outside.
Evaluation Criteria:
Clear recognition of a scientific problem and scientific thought, coherent narration/description of the problem, outline of its actual or potential solutions (that is, what was done or what could have been done to solve the problem), significant message or point, vivid portrayal with sensory imagery, lively and uncluttered prose appropriate to the audience, jargon- and cliche-free language.
Main Learning Objective:
Can the student recognize a scientific problem and scientific thinking, recognize solutions, and communicate understanding?