John Maingi
Long Writing Assignment for Students
2005 Workshop on Improving Student Writing
Center for Writing Excellence
Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching
INTRODUCTION FOR FACULTY TO THIS LONG WRITING ASSIGNMENT
Geo 271 Humans and Natural Resources
This course meets the Miami Plan for Liberal Education goals and also the following course goals:
- Investigate key issues related to sustainable managment and use of natural resources.
- Develop an understanding of human-environment relationships emphasizing on humans as agents of environmental change.
- Exercise skills of reading, synthesizing information, research writing and critical thinking.
During the summer 2005 CWE Workshop, I decided to revise a term paper project I assign for my course. In the past I simply asked my students to write on any aspect of human use of natural resources they were interested in. I required a 1-page summary of what the students expected to write on and a bibliography with at least 7 references from books, journals, and reputable websites. This is the only aspect of the term paper writing where I provided some feedback, and it was mostly on whether the topic and references where appropriate. Thereafter, there was little or no contact about the term paper until I collected the papers at the end of the semester for grading. Through the CWE Workshop, I have learned to break the assignment into parts and integrate peer and instructor review into the writing process. Below is my "new look" term paper project broken into five assignments which students must work on and receive peer and instructor feedback throughout the semester.
| LONG WRITING ASSIGNMENT FOR STUDENTS
GEO 271 HUMANS AND NATURAL RESOURCES LONG WRITING ASSIGNMENT John Maingi OVERVIEW Humans have drastically altered many ecosystems within the last 50 years as they sought to obtain food, fresh water, timber, fiber and fuel. These actions have resulted in serious environmental degradation. The environment is the source of all resources that fuel the economy and make our lives possible, and a sink for all our wastes. In this project, you will investigate environmental problems stemming from human exploitation of a natural resource in a region or country of interest. In addition, you will identify human actions that lead to the environmental problems and discuss ways these problems can be mitigated. LEARNING OBJECTIVES
PROCESS As you develop your research paper, you will need to address the following questions among others:
ASSIGNMENT 1: PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVES (15 points) What environmental problems are associated with the exploitation or modification of selected natural resource for country or region of choice? What are the reasons behind your choice of the natural resource and country or region? What are your research questions? Example: This is just an outline of some of the things I would include in this part of the assignment. Natural Resource: Tropical forests – Why tropical forests? Region of interest: Madagascar Why Madagascar? What is it about the country that makes this an interesting case study? Would learning more about Madagascar during this case study shed more light or have wider ranging implications beyond this island nation? Perhaps one of the reasons you chose Madagascar is because it is a poor country with a rapidly increasing population and which as a consequence has suffered serious environmental degradation. You want to understand this problem better because there are other regions in similar positions. Madagascar may also be an ideal choice because it still retains one of the highest biodiversity on the planet with more than three-quarters of the flora and fauna endemic. Human activity – clearing of tropical forests Why is it important to study deforestation in Madagascar? Where are the forests located in Madagascar? What are the general characteristics of these forests? How have the forests been used in the past? Why are present forest practices seen as a problem? What are the environmental consequences of clearing tropical forests? Potential research questions
SUBMIT a 1-page single-spaced write up based on the above description. You will be evaluated on Evaluation Criteria
Due: End of third week
ASSIGNMENT 2: METHODS (15 points) In this assignment, you will use library sources to find information, data, and evidence bearing on the problems you identified in Assignment 1. You will use material from these sources to gather the evidence you seek, and to position yourself in the conversation of secondary sources surrounding your chosen topic. The following are some of the questions/information you will be asking/seeking:
In this part of the assignment, I expect you to use at least 10 references mostly from journals, recent books (no older than five years), magazines, and newspapers. You may use up to three websites as references but these must not be from personal or travel websites. You can see me if you have questions on appropriate websites. When listing your references, I would like you to follow the format used by the journal Bioscience. There are several articles in your course reading packet that are from this journal and you should use these as a guide. For your convenience, I have also posted a PDF on the Blackboard titled “Instructions for authors” from Bioscience in which additional citation and formatting instructions used by Bioscience are detailed. SUBMIT a 2-page single-spaced annotated bibliography of your references. The annotated bibliography should not be a summary of an article, book, or other reference. Instead, you to explain the relevance of each reference to your research questions. Why was it is important to consider or include the reference in your research? Please note you cannot complete this part of the assignment before reading the book, journal article, magazine etc. You should not list any reference that you have not had time to read! Due: End of 6th week EVALUATION criteria Do you have the minimum required number of references? What is the quality of the references? Do they meet specified guidelines? How thorough is your annotated bibliography? Have you explain the relevance of each reference in your research? Are your references listed accurately and completely following the format used by Bioscience?
ASSIGNMENT 3: DRAFT 1 (25 points) You will write the first draft of your paper. The draft should be 6-8 pages long and have the following sections:
EVALUATION You will bring three copies of your draft paper on the due date. Two copies will go to two of your classmates and I will retain the other. Your paper will be evaluated on the five sections outlined above:
Due: End of 10th week ASSIGNMENT 4: OUT-OF-CLASS PEER REVIEW (15 points) In this part of the assignment, you will provide feedback on two different research paper drafts written by your classmates. I will organize you into groups of three individuals each. In the previous assignment, I asked you to turn in three copies of your draft paper out of which, I was to retain one of the copies. The remaining two copies will go to the two members of your group. You will have one week to read your group’s draft papers and provide written feedback, and keeping in mind the evaluation criteria I have listed in Assignment 3. I would like you to focus more on ideas presented, organization, development, and overall clarity, and less on grammatical and spelling errors. Your written review should include answers or comments on the following:
When writing the peer-review, I would like you to keep it positive and polite. Please provide praise where it is deserved! Here are examples of positive and constructive criticism:
Your written comments should be no more than 1-page, single-spaced. You will have time to meet as a group during class and go through the written comments. This will also be an opportunity to seek elaboration and clarification on comments where necessary. Please remember to take notes as you will use these when revising your draft paper. After the in-class group discussions, I will ask each group to present to class the general issues and ideas that arose during their deliberations. You will turn in your written-reviews at the end of class. Due: End of 11th week EVALUATION How thorough were your reviews of the two papers? Was there a good balance between praise and criticism? Did you offer suggestions on improving the papers? How clearly written are the reviews? Are they understandable by your peers? ASSIGNMENT 5: FINAL PAPER (30 points) You will use feedback provided by your peers, myself, and ideas from class-discussions on reviews to revise your draft paper. Your final paper will be single spaced, 6-8 pages and should follow the Bioscience format. When submitting your final paper, you should also turn in your draft paper and peer reviews. This will allow me to track the progress your paper has gone through. Due: End of 14th week EVALUATION The evaluation criteria will be that outlined on Assignment 3 but in addition, I will want to see how well you have incorporated suggested changes and improvements. I will also be checking if you have conformed to formatting and page limit guidelines.
|