Chapter 4 Single-Gene Inheritance

The Bios 2250 Short Research Papers

Each student is to develop a, short research paper, based on library and Internet research. For

the first paper, you are to pick a topic of interest to you from any chapter of your Ricki Lewis textbook as a subject for your research. I chose chapter 4 Single- Gene Inheritance

Once you selected your topic, you need to find an article about it through library or internet

search. Your research paper is then a critique and summary of your chosen article.

Be sure to use legitimate online resources to access academic papers. These may include

academic search engines, subject-specific databases, and open-access repositories. Many of these

resources are available through the university library, while others are free to use or are

recommended on the back of each chapter in the Lewis textbook (e.g., Google Scholar, Scopus,

etc.).

The Outline for each of your two short research papers must contain the following:

1. Title: The actual title of the chapter you have chosen to focus on

2. Subtitle: The actual title of the research article or prose piece that you are going to critique

and summarize.

3. The Body of the Paper (no subtitles within paper)

You are to type (double space; size 12 New Times Roman font) a four (or more) page critique

and summary of the interesting article that you discovered during your many hours of searching

the Internet or library sources. The body should start with a brief introduction including why the

article was interesting to you. Rest of the body would be your analysis/ summary and critique

of the major points of the article or prose piece that you found so interesting. You are encouraged

to use first person present tense in your critique.

4. Your concluding remarks including overall summary and take-home message as well as

predictions and recommendations.

5. Make sure you use your own words and writing style and avoid direct quotes from your

chosen article.

6. When you submit your paper, it will automatically be checked by Turnitin plagiarism-

detection software. You will see a similarity score and a report. A score of 10% or less is

acceptable (usually due to matches in the title or references). A score higher than 10% means

there is too much copied material, which will result in losing points on your grade.

7. Supporting Materials: You must provide the Original Article (either as an attachment or an

active link). While you may use additional articles to support your paper, you must select and

clearly indicate one article as your main original article.

8. Both the research paper and supporting material must be submitted through the “research

papers” module in canvas by the due date for each paper. Be sure to check that any links you

provide are active and working properly before your submission.

In short, I want your research paper and the article, itself, to read and grade. Needless to say, you

wont get your 50 points for your 2 short research papers if you dont follow all the guidelines

listed above.

I will grade your papers based on the criteria described above, with points divided between

adherence to the guidelines and the quality of the content. After the first paper grades are in, I

will provide the class with a brief overall evaluation (highlighting common areas where points

were lost). This feedback will be available before the due date of the second paper, so you can

improve. No evaluation will be provided for the second paper.

An example: (This is only one of many possible examples.)

Lets say that you have always been interested in human origins and evolution. So one of your

short research papers would be entitled: Chapter 15 Human Origins and Evolution.

The subtitle of this research papers would be the title of the research article or prose piece that

you found so interesting.

Then you are to mentally digest the content of the article that you wanted to write about. After

you understood the content of the article, you are to write your own four (or more) pages

summary and critique of what the article was all about.

If you pick another chapter, your research topics would be specific to that chapter.

Another example:

Lets say that you have always been interested in matters of sex. The title for one of your two

short research papers would be: Chapter 6 Matters of Sex. Then after studying this chapter in the

Lewis text, youd search the WEB (and the suggested sources found on the External Links Page

of the Bios. 2250 Course website) to find interesting article related to the content of Chapter Six.

Your short research paper could focus, for example, on sexual development, the traits inherited

on the sex chromosomes, how the inactivation of one of the two X chromosomes in human

females equalizes the sexes, and/or how gender affects human phenotypes etc. Your short

research paper could be any logical development that is derived from the selected text chapter

topic.