Week 2, Chapter 1 -- Freelance Writer Course home | Weekly schedule | Announcements | Instructor Info | Desire2Learn | MasteringBiology® | Honor Code | FAQs | HELP!

Instructions:

Browse internet news sites to find an example of a story describing a health-related scientific study. The story should be dated, and it should be less than four months old. See the links below for possible sources -- once you get to the main website, click on a link to Health (or HealthWatch) to view some possible stories (not all are appropriate).

• ABC News
• BBC
• CBS News
• CNN
• MSNBC

Part 1:

Weave the news story you selected into a fictional installment of the theme of your choosing EXCEPT you cannot use a talk show for your theme (for more on this, see the information on the Freelance Writer assignment in the Types of Assignments page). For example, you could choose a news story about the hazards of microwave popcorn and then weave it into an installment of The Simpsons, the Law and Order, or a Sherlock Holmes mystery. Post your completed assignment to the appropriate forum at D2L. Some specific criteria to consider:

• You must specify the title, date and source of the news story and include a functioning hyperlink to the actual story.
• The study described in your news story must be a major component of your installment (i.e. you can’t just mention the study in passing and then move onto something else)
• You must build at least three of the chapter’s key (bold-faced) terms into your installment, in bold or colorful type. This is easy to do using the "advanced" tab in D2L to create your post.
• In using the key terms, it is not enough to simply mention the key term in passing. Nor should you simply copy the definition of the term from the text. Instead, you must also make clear from the context that you are applying the term correctly. In deciding if there is enough context, use this criterion: Would the passage still make sense if you substituted another, totally unrelated word? If it would, you probably need to add some more context to demonstrate your understanding.
• Your installment should be between 450-550 words long.
• You must include correctly cited links to all other references you used in creating your installment.
• Please make sure that you have proofread the assignment and run a spell check before you post your assignment.
• You are encouraged to get into character, but keep in mind that we have a diverse class – usually more diverse than in a face-to-face course – and some students might be more easily offended or have different sensibilities than you.  You will hear from me in a private email if you post something that I feel could be offensive to other students.  In addition our conversations are “complicated” by the fact that we can’t see each other's facial expressions or hear the tone of each others voices – this means that sarcasm, for example, could be misinterpreted if we aren’t careful. 

Note that the instructor will grade these, using the rubric at the bottom of this page.

View sample Freelance Writer assignment.

Part 2:

Respond to the Freelance Writer posts of at least two other students. (If you are the first or second person to post, you will have to check back later to complete this part of the assignment).

• Just as you spell checked and proofread your original post, you should do the same for your responses.
• Please respond to posts with 0 responses first; once every post has at least one response, you are free to choose any post to respond to.
• When you respond, please use the name of the student you are responding to. That is, say "Hi Trudy" or "Hi Paul" so that you can get used to the names of the people in class. (You can find a list of "real" names and preferred names at D2L). Calling other students by name, acknowledging other students points of view in addition to your own, and pointing out what your colleagues did right (not just what they did wrong) whenever you are critiquing an assignment will help foster a friendly discussion board atmosphere. 
• Make sure your response is substantive, meaning that you have read and thought about the original post and that you are extending one or more of the thoughts in the original post or offering an additional perspective as you might in a good conversation. To assist you in doing this, please make sure the answer the following questions in your response:
  • Did their use of the chapter keywords convey their full meaning?
  • Does this health-related story connect with you in some way? How?
  • How reputable/believable is the health-related story the student chose?
• At a minimum this should be at least 50 words, and 50-100 is preferable. Check out this page for more on the topic of good and bad responses.

Stumped for ideas about what to say in your response? Try this to help you get started. Follow the link to the study referenced in the episode. What do you think of the study? Do you believe the results? Why or why not? What questions does the study raise in your mind? As you think about one or more of these questions, be sure and write a response that is actually connected to the student's post. That is, are your impressions of the study consistent with what the student wrote in his or her episode?

After you have responded to two other students, go to Desire2Learn and complete the Gradebook Declaration for this week's Freelance Writer assignment. (Your Gradebook Declaration is subject to the Honor Code.)

Here is the text of the Desire2Learn Gradebook Declaration: (2 points) I have responded constructively to the posts of at least two other students (1 point per response; 50-100 words for each).

Grading Rubric for Week 2, Chapter 1 Freelance Writer assignment:

I will use the following rubric to grade your Freelance Writer assignments. Notice that the rubric does not heavily reward creativity; I am much more interested in looking for evidence that you understand the concepts that you have chosen to explore in your episode. In fact, you won't receive full credit for this assignment - no matter how realistic your installment - if you don't provide evidence that you really understand this week's biological concepts.  In addition, although you can choose your installment and theme for this assignment, keep in mind that some themes might be offensive to other students. Be careful that your installment couldn't be construed as hostile toward people of a particular race, nationality, sexual orientation or religion.

Please note that points will be deducted as follows if you fail to meet the "mechanical" requirements of the assignment:

• 0.5 point will be subtracted if you fail to explicitly indicate what your "theme" is (that is, you fail to say something along the lines of "I am writing an episode for The Simpsons" or "I am writing an episode of The Young and the Restless");
• 0.5 point will be subtracted for every 2 spelling/grammatical errors (see http://english.acadiau.ca/grammar-quizzes.html and http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/577/1/ for tips on correct punctuation in dialogue);
• 1 point will be subtracted if you fail to present your key terms in bold or colored type;
• 1 point will be subtracted if your post is too short
• 1 point will be subtracted if you fail to list references (if specified in the assignment); alternatively, 0.5 point will be deducted if you listed your references but they are not formatted correctly.

Contemporary Issues in Biology -- BIOL 1003 Mariëlle H. Hoefnagels, Ph.D. © 2004-2015. biology1003 at OU dot edu (at = @, dot =.) Last Updated August 5, 2014 11:02 PM