Paper Assignment

This assignment has three parts:

1. Essay Draft 1
2. Paper Peer Review
3. Paper Draft 2

By now you should have attended 4 field trips and posted discovery logs of each. From those field trip observations, you should choose one observation to expand upon in a brief report or essay.

Your essay should be done individually, not as a group It may be a good idea to choose your topics as a group to make sure no one is selecting the same observation.

The first step is to do some initial research on some topic ideas. Ultimately you will use at least 5 distinct resources found in the library, referenced by the textbook, or suggested by me, to write a brief report or essay on the topic (2000 words or less). A report is primarily factual; an essay relates facts to personal observations and insights. Choose whichever suits you best!

Either way, your paper should not just re-state your field observations--it certainly can build upon that work, but should include new information that hasn't been touched on yet.

Peer Review

After submitting your first draft of the paper, you will be automatically assigned 2 classmates' papers to review. After the submission due date, revisit this assignment to read and give feedback on those reports.

Your peer review of your classmates' work should provide useful, encouraging, and constructive feedback. You will earn points for your peer reviews, so be sure to take the time to read and respond appropriately.

Peer reviews are due 1 week after the Paper Draft 1 submission deadline. See Paper Peer Review for more details.

Feedback from your classmates and myself should be used to revise you research paper for final resubmission as Paper Draft 2.