Description of critical writing assignment:
Having had some background on both Anolis lizards and the scientific method, this
assignment will have you read and interpret a short related scientific article. The
article is posted to the “Activity 3 Links & Resources’ page, and you will need to do
the citation for the article. See Appendix B in the lab manual for the citation format.
Using information from the study by Kolbe et al. (2012), you should use scientific
logic and writing to describe the founder effect reported by the authors in a couple of
sentences. You should then discuss the evidence that the authors had for thei
conclusions about the founder effect relative to natural selection in 2-3 sentences, and
finally, comment on what the authors could measure in the future that would support
the claims they have made in 2-3 sentences. This assignment will count for 5% of
your grade.
Details:
Your assignment is individual work and must be typed (11 or 12 point font) with
the word count included at the end.
You should not have more than 10 sentences and/or 300 words — including the
citations for your written answer.
You must cite the work you are discussing and provide the full reference at
the end (and any other information used, such as from your textbook). Please
see the “In Text Citations and References” (Appendix B of the lab manual).
The lab manual has many examples at the end of each activity for citing an
article.
You will be marked based on the “Written Assignment Ru
ic” posted on the
Biological Content
An accurate description of biological concepts and information based on co
ect interpretation of scientific
evidence was provided.
Maximum score 15
Communication Effectiveness
A scientific argument is effectively demonstrated showing understanding of prompts and concepts discussed
in the assignment and the description. Did not exceed the word count.
Maximum score 15
Literature Use
The work effectively integrated information from source(s) and shows understanding of the reading(s).
Formatting of in-text referencing is co
ect as discussed in the assignment description. Reference(s) is/are
used for all facts and concepts.
Maximum score 15
Writing Effectiveness and Presentation
Writing was appropriate to scientific writing: i.e. clear, effective and added to the delivery of the argument.
There were very few, or no, grammatical or spelling e
ors with co
ect punctuation, word usage, and ve
tense. Scientific names of organisms followed conventions.
Maximum score 5