Reference no: EM133207907

Assignment: 2ndCritical Review of a Primary Research Article and News Release

Purpose: The purpose of this assignment is to encourage students to become more familiar with primary literature in biological science.

Peer Review draft of Critical Review and Newsletter

I. Step I: Carefully read your article. Page 35 of KniselyKnisely 5th ed. (2017) has good suggestions for how to get the most out of reading a research article. You may need to look up unfamiliar terms. Keep track of any materials you use for background reading. You might need to cite them in your assignment.

II. Step II: Write a summary of your article that your classmates can understand with limited need to look up unfamiliar terms.

1. Develop a popular title for your paper, this does not have to be dry and technical. Center the title at the top of the first page in bold text.

2. Skip one line, then center your name below the title.

3. Introduce the article you reviewed and explain why the research was worth conducting and publishing. You may need to provide some background or context for the worth of the research to be clear. You might explain how this research contributes to science in general or how it helps to solve a specific problem.

4. Next clearly state the research question or purpose of the research project. Then explain the method or experimental design used to answer the question. If your article was complex and addressed several questions, you can choose a subset to explain in your paper.

5. Explain the results obtained by the authors of your article and explain how they interpreted those results. You don't have to cite all their statistical values, but you should indicate which results showed a significant difference and which did not. You should be clear about how these results do or do not answer the original research question.

6. Now clearly state your opinion of the research conducted in your article and provide logical support for your opinion. Consider the following:

i. Was the research question clear?

ii. Did the methods chosen to answer that question seem appropriate?

iii. Were the methods clearly explained?

iv. Did the sample size seem appropriate?

v. Were the results clearly explained?

vi. Were figures and tables helpful or confusing?

vii. Were conclusions logical?

viii. What unanswered questions do you have after carefully reading the article?

7. What, where,and how to cite?

i. Cite the article you reviewed at least once in each section of the critical review.

ii. Use the CSE Name-year style of in-text citation.

iii. Cite any other references you used for background or to better explain some of the methods or to support your opinion about the research.

iv. You don't have to cite the dictionary just because you looked up a word - but if you use part of their definition to better explain a term in your paper so that your classmates can understand it without looking up terms, then you should cite the source of the definition you incorporated.

v. Do not insert a hard page break before the References Cited section unless necessary to keep the heading on the same page as the first citation.

III. Step III: Write a brief (2-3 paragraph) News Release summarizing your article.

1. Your target audience is all science (Biology, Chemistry, Physics, etc) students in their senior year of college.

2. See the PDF file that contains examples.

3. Use the format/citation style in the Science examples (first 2 pages of the PDF).

4. Include your News Release on the next page after the References Cited section of the Critical Review. You want both writing assignments to be in one Word file so that they are paired for the people assigned to review your work.