ASSIGNMENT GENERAL
Your paper must be 1 and a half to 2 pages long (single spaced). The margins must be not more than 1 inch on all sides, and the font must be no larger than 12pt. You must include a bibliography of your sources at the end of the paper organized alphabetically by author's last name, and that bibliography does not count towards the 1 and a half to 2 page requirement. The topic must be related to the course. You must hand in an initial draft of the paper that has been edited by a classmate (hand both the initial draft and the final paper at the same time). The 'editor' must write comments on the paper and sign their name to the bottom of the initial draft.
ASSIGNMENT DETAILS
- Three Primary Sources
You must cite at least 3 primary sources. These primary sources can be books or articles from scholarly journals. You need to provide a copy of the first page of each of the primary sources for your project.
- What is a primary source? The primary source for a piece of information or data is the original published work. In science, this is often a book or research paper from a scholarly journal. Typically, books and research papers undergo a process of peer review prior to publication. This means that before a research paper is published, the paper and the data it contains is reviewed by several independent scientists who are experts in that particular field. This helps to ensure that published research papers do not contain data that is impossible to verify or reproduce, and that the authors have not grossly misinterpreted the data or made far-reaching conclusions that the data do not support. For this assignment, you can also use scholarly review articles as primary sources, articles which discuss and review the results from a number of other primary sources.
- Wikipedia is not a primary source
Additionally, websites like Wikipedia, etc. are not considered primary sources. Often times, Wikipedia entries DO contain citations identifying where the original data was published. If you happen to come across a piece of data on a site like this, it is YOUR responsibility to track down the original source and cite THAT SOURCE, not simply say you read it on Wikipedia.
