genetic assignment
Writing Assignment: A written assignment covering recent advances in the field for a human genetic
disease/disorder is required. Choose a topic that is new and interesting to you. To find human genetic conditions, you
can use The National Library of Medicine’s Genetic Home Reference [http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/BrowseConditions]. Note
that the Genetic Home Reference is not a professional-level source and it is not referenced to original sources, so you
may not use it as a source for your paper and you may not cite it. The National library of Medicine also maintains a
professional database of human genetic conditions called Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man
[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/omim]. Your text will frequently refer you to OMIM when it discusses a human
condition and you main find OMIM to be a very useful source of information once you have picked a condition.
In this assignment you will use the literature search tool PubMed [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed] to find
professional-level scientific articles related to the genetic disorder of your choice. In the first parts of the assignment
you will be asked to find and identify 1) a review article, 2) a case study, 3) and a primary research article related to your
condition. The final component will be a 3- or 4-page summary of a primary research article describing molecular
biological experiments applied to your condition. This is a formal, academic writing assignment, and should be written
in the style of a professional scientific publication (the review article you will have already found will make a good
model for the writing style). Your paper must be IN YOUR OWN WORDS: no quotations allowed. The primary
research article must be recently published (within the last 5 years: 2008-2013) and it must describe the causes,
mechanisms, or experimental treatments of your condition at the molecular level. The main article that you use may not
be a review or a case study, and cannot by primarily epidemiological. In addition to your main primary research article
you must use and cite at least two other professional-level scientific publications. All of your cited sources must be
professional-level scientific articles – NO WEBSITES or BOOKS ALLOWED.
The paper will include, IN YOUR OWN WORDS:
1. A one or two paragraph general introduction describing your topic. You should summarize what is known about
the mode of inheritance, mechanism of disease, and current treatments for your disease. This section must be
appropriately referenced in-text. Use the Council of Science Editors Name-Year format for your citations and
your reference list.
2. A description of the experiments published in a recent (2008-2013) primary research article. (No case studies,
cohort studies, or epidemiology allowed as primary sources – your primary reports must include molecular
biology experiments.) This section will be the bulk of your paper. You should include 1) the purpose, 2) the
hypothesis, 3) the experimental design, 4) the results, and 5) the conclusions of the experimentsIN YOUR
OWN WORDS.
3. In-text citations, with the facts, concepts, and ideas of othersin-text cited as appropriate. Use the current Council
of Science Editors Name-Year format for your citations and reference list. Use the scientific articles that you
have read for this paper as your guide for when citations are appropriate. Professionalscientific publications are
highly referenced to 1) give credit to the scientists who made particular discoveries, and 2) to inform the readers
of where they can go for further information.
4. A typed reference list (in addition to the required 3-4 pages) at the end of the paper in a format consistent with
your citations. This list must include at your primary source, no webpages, no books, and a total of at least 3
professional-level sources.
Use the PubMed literature search engine for finding articles. If you are new to PubMed, you can
learn to use it by trial and error, or use the tutorial (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/disted/pubmedtutorial/). Do not
cite any source that endsin .com, .org, .net etc. These are webpages, not professional-level references. For
additional information or help, please use the CSUN Library or Library resources at http://library.csun.edu and
the CSUN Learning Resource Center and Writing Lab at http://www.csun.edu/lrc/.
The entire assignment should be neatly typed, double-spaced in a 12-point font with one-inch margins,
and at least 3- to 4- pagesin length, not counting figures and the reference list. You will have the opportunity to check your turnitin.com “originality report” before turning in your final version for
grading. If you miss the deadline for this originality report check, you will have lost your chance to repair any
inadvertent plagiarism. All papers submitted to the final-version Writing Assignment link on the course Moodle site
will be the version that is graded. Any and all plagiarism (as evaluated by the instructor) in the version submitted for
grading will result in a zero on this assignment and, if I believe the plagiarism was deliberate or involved another
student’s paper, the result will be an “F” in the course. Do not for any reason use a current or previous student’s work in
any way to complete this assignment. When a current student’s paper matches a previous students paper, both students
are required to be included in the report to the Vice President for Student Affairs and both are subject to disciplinary
actions. Keep this in mind for when this semester is over.
COPYING ANY SENTENCE OR PHRASE WITHOUT QUOTATIONS IS PLAGIARISM. All information
taken from your sources must be cited. (There are no quotations allowed in this assignment. All must be in your
own words.) Changing or leaving out one word in a sentence is not OK. Rearranging phrases in a sentence is not OK.
For information about what is plagiarism and what is not, see this extremely helpful website
http://www.bio.davidson.edu/dept/plagiarism.html. Below is a direct quotation from this site.
“Direct quotations-Let’s start with the obvious. If you repeat someone else’s words verbatim, you must enclose
those words in quotation marks and provide a citation. For the citation to be complete, there MUST be a properly
formatted in-text citation at the end of the sentence and a corresponding entry in your list of reference. It is not
sufficient simply to name the source within the sentence. Omitting quotation marks and/or a complete citation is
considered plagiarism. Keep in mind that direct quotations are not commonly used in scientific writings such as lab
reports or grant proposals but can be appropriate in biology essays and term papers. Make sure that any direct
quotations flow smoothly within your own thought progression in the assignment; your task is to synthesize the
relevant literature, not just copy and paste direct quotes from each source or provide a summary sentence for each.
Paraphrasing-Paraphrasing isrestating someone else’s ideas while not copying verbatim. There are acceptable and
unacceptable ways to paraphrase and it is crucial that you understand the difference. Unacceptable paraphrasing
includes any of the following: 1) using phrases from the original source without enclosing them in quotation marks;
2) emulating sentence structure even when using different wording; 3) emulating paragraph organization even when
using different wording or sentence structure. Unacceptable paraphrasing–even with correct citation–is
considered plagiarism. When you do paraphrase in an acceptable manner, a proper citation is always required.
Omitting a citation is considered plagiarism.” http://www.bio.davidson.edu/dept/plagiarism.html
