Week 10, Chapter 7 -- Freelance Writer Sample Answer
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Week 10, Chapter 7 -- Freelance Writer Sample AnswerCourse home | Weekly schedule | Announcements | Instructor Info | Desire2Learn | MasteringBiology® | Honor Code | FAQs | HELP! |
I have chosen to do a late-night infomercial for a fictional fly-by-night sperm bank operation.
| Announcer: | Ladies – if you are watching this program -- you know why. You want
a baby. But your man is infertile. Or you don’t have a man at all.
You could adopt, but you want a baby that shares many of your traits. Millions of women want
the same thing. What can you do?
We at the Lil’ Wiggler Sperm Bank have the answer you have been
dreaming of, at prices that are lower than you think. We have stored frozen sperm samples from literally
thousands of men of every description. Let’s hear a testimonial. |
| Woman #1, holding a homely child: | After my husband left, I thought I would never have a child. I was so depressed. But then I saw an ad for Lil’ Wiggler and I thought, "That’s for me." I went to their website and browsed through the catalog of sperm donors. I picked the best-looking guy, and the artificial insemination home kit arrived a week later. It was so quick and easy to use. I couldn’t be happier with my baby. Some people say he’s odd-looking, but that’s impossible – his dad is just dreamy. |
| Announcer: | Our fertilization success rate is among the best in the home artificial insemination industry! Here’s another satisfied customer. |
| Woman #2: | Like a lot of women, I wanted a baby but never met a man I would want to raise children with. I learned a little bit about genetics in college, so I knew that a lot of traits that are important to most people – like intelligence – are what they call quantitative. That means they’re controlled by lots of genes and by the environment. So why bother looking through a catalog of sperm donors when you have no guarantee the baby will be anything like the guy? I got around that by focusing on traits that are qualitative: they’re controlled by one gene. I can tell from the catalog which guys have the traits that are important to me. For my Lil’ Wiggler baby, I picked an unusual trait: the inability to smell skunk*. I never could smell skunks -- that’s a recessive trait, so the only way my kids will have it is if I find a guy with the same condition. Luckily, one guy in the catalog thought to mention in his personal description that he couldn’t smell skunk either. When I saw that, I just knew he was the right daddy for my baby. I’m just thrilled, and I hope my child grows up to use his unusual feature for the good of society. |
| Announcer: | Well, good luck with that!! Of course, in most cases, we can’t
guarantee that your baby will have exactly the traits you desire. But she
is proof that it is possible for some specific features.
Men – Are you still listening? We want to talk to you if you are good-looking, smart, hard-working, funny, talented, responsible, or athletic, or if you have an unusual inherited trait like extra toes -- or even the inability to smell skunk. Dial the number on your screen to talk to our operators about being a sperm donor. We pay the highest rates of any sperm bank on late-night TV, so call us first!!! |
[531 words]
*Source: Lewis, Gaffin, Parker, Hoefnagels. 2004. Life, 5th ed. McGraw-Hill Higher Education, Dubuque, IA. Page 184.
Belk, C. and V. Borden. 2007. Biology: Science for Life, Second Edition. Pearson Prentice Hall. Upper Saddle River, NJ.
[Return to Freelance Writer assignment]
[Sample assignment by Mariëlle Hoefnagels]
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Contemporary Issues in Biology -- BIOL 1003 |
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