Biology 463 Term Paper

Critical Review of Literature Assignment

Assignment:  The literature of gene regulation in development is extensive and diverse.  During the lecture portion of this course, it will not be possible to cover all the topics in this field.  Therefore, you are required to write a critical review on any subject of your choice relating to this topic in any eukaryotic system.  To avoid conflicts with other groups or course material, please let me know which paper you have decided on.  

    It is expected that you will find and review the most recent literature.  Note that a critical review requires you to evaluate and discuss the papers, not just summarize them.  As part of this critical review, you will point out the weaknesses in the work under discussion and propose what needs to be done next to further our understanding.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison Writing Center provides a useful web page on how to write critical reviews.  The URL is:  http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/CriNonfiction.html

    This term paper is designed to help you learn to work with the literature.  The idea for this paper is to critically examine a topic of current interest in developmental biology.  You have considerable freedom in terms of the approach that you use.  However, you must use relatively recent primary research literature and you must be critical in your approach.  Choose a topic that interests you, and that has some broad evolutionary implications. You might examine the development of a particular concept during the past several years by choosing a paper from 10 or so years ago and then picking a very recent paper for comparison.  Alternatively, you might pick a controversial topic and examine different points of view.  Be alert to differing scientific methodologies and to the possibility of alternative explanations for similar observations. 

    Do not approach this assignment with the idea that there is going to be something wrong with the papers you read.  A critic is one who expresses a reasoned opinion on a matter, involving a judgement on its correctness, value, or significance.  Give your reader enough information so that your arguments can be followed and your opinions understood, but do not summarize the papers being discussed.  Rather, focus on issues that attract your attention and present them in a comparative, critical and synthetic way.

    The term paper will give you an opportunity to read and evaluate the primary literature in a field that has attracted your attention.  I highly recommend you choose an article from a high impact journal, for example, Cell, Science, Nature, EMBO, PNAS, MCB, Development, Genes and Development, Molecular Cell, Developmental Biology, EMBO Reports etc.  

Here are a few tips for writing the term paper

Write in a scientific style for a professional audience.  

Be organized.  Start from an outline.

Make your goals clear in your introduction.  

Support all of your statements, preferably with scientific evidence from the primary literature.  If you are guessing or making an arbitrary judgement, say so.  Admit to uncertainty in your or others' conclusions.

Make sure that your paper concludes by fulfilling your goals.  Suggest future directions or unsolved questions.

When finished, make sure to trace the logic of your arguments from introduction to conclusion -use formal logic if applicable.  Many papers lack logically cohesive arguments or are contradictory; don't let this happen to you.

Make sure to edit carefully. Use a spelling and grammar checker.  Omit unnecessary or redundant sections.  Add sections to clarify key points.  Do not hand in a first draft.

Have someone proofread your paper.

The length of the paper should be a minimum of 8 and maximum 12 pages (not including reference section), 1.5 lines spacing, typed with 12 point font with 1" margins. The grade will be based on my assessment of your critical abilities, on the originality of your treatment, and on the total development of the paper.

Marking scheme:   The critical review literature assignment is worth 40% of your final grade.  It consists of a written and oral presentation with the majority of the marks assigned to the written portion; 30% written, 10% oral.  The breakdown of marks for the written and oral components will be as follows: 

                1.  Style 20%

                2.  Setting the paper into context  40%

                3.  Analysis and suggesting what to do next  40% 

Style:  You will receive a  mark your grammar, spelling and use of English.  Good writing is clear, concise and easy to understand.  It comes through effort, rewriting and editing.  Good writing has a clarity that reflects the clarity of thought that lies behind it.  Style is personal.  There are many good styles of writing and you should write in a way that is natural to you.  The single best way to identify bad writing is to read your work aloud.  Reading aloud clearly identifies sentences that are too long, that have too many clauses or just don't make sense.  Beware of wordiness. 

    Tenses regularly cause problems in scientific writing.  Use the present tense wherever possible.  If you are stating a fact or a result, use the present tense, even if the experiment was performed in the past.  The idea is that if it was true then, it is true now.  However, if you are emphasizing the temporal past, use the past tense. 

    Do not quote in scientific writing.  Just summarize and cite the reference.  For example, Smith et al. (2003) conclude that 2>1.  Do not say, Smith et al. (2003) said "2>1". 

    You must use the name and date citation system.  In this system all references in the text use the name and date.  The style depends on the position in the sentence and the number of authors.  If there is one or two authors, both names and date are given (Smith and Jones, 2003).  If there are three or more authors, the first author's name followed by et al. and the date (Smith et al., 2003).  When the citation is the subject of the sentence only the date is in parentheses.  For example, Smith and Jones (2003) show that 2>1.  If you need to cite several authors, each reference is separated by a semi-colon.  In the reference list itself, cite all sources in the format of Cell.

    Finally, let me remind you of some basic elements of writing.  A paragraph is a group of sentences on the same topic, or that discuss a related idea.  Every paragraph should have a topic sentence which makes it clear what the topic or idea is.  Paragraphs are normally 100 to 200 words long.  If you have less than three paragraphs on a page, there could be something wrong.  If you have too many short paragraphs, you have not thought carefully enough about what you are trying to say and why.  Every paragraph should lead on to the next in a natural way.  Use headings if they add clarity.

Setting the work into context:  A large portion of your mark is assigned for how well you integrate the subject you are discussing with previous work in the same field.  You will need to read many papers to have enough background to intellectually discuss why the paper you have selected is important.  Much of the material for this part of the essay will come from reading the introduction to the paper you have selected.  However, do not limit yourself to this material.  You should search and read the recent literature extensively.  Try to find the recently published papers on the same topic in different journals, these will not be cited in the paper you have chosen.  This material will naturally be concentrated at the beginning, but you can expect to have this material in all parts of the essay.

Analysis and suggesting what to do next: A good critical review is not a simple retelling of known information.  Do not write a textbook description of the subject.  Discuss, manipulate and examine ideas.  Come to some assessment about the value of our knowledge of the subject discussed.  Assume you are writing for a scientifically well-informed reader.  You need not define terms, describe methods or elaborate on common knowledge.  However, a critical review must describe data.  One of the most common mistakes is to merely summarize conclusions, rather than explaining the data on which the conclusions are based. 

    A large portion of your mark comes from realizing what should be done next.  Be sure you explain succinctly what needs to be done next, why, and suggest how this information might be obtained.  You will receive marks for recognizing the importance of what was done, stating what the unanswered questions are and stating what kind of information would be needed to answer the questions.  Bonus marks will be awarded for explaining what experiments could be done to obtain the missing information.

Structure:  There are no absolutes, but you should aim to have about 2-3 pages of introduction, 5-6 pages of critical analysis of results and about 2-3 pages of discussion about future studies.

DUE DATES:  The written assignment will be due on the first day of oral presentations.  This date will be announced as soon as the oral presentation dates have been set.

Oral presentation:  The marking scheme of the oral presentation is similar to that of the written.  However, it also includes clarity and flow of presentation, maximum use of time available, efficient use of overheads and how questions from the audience are handled.  The duration of the oral presentation will depend on the number of groups and will be announced in class.

Group effort, individual mark:  During the preparation of your written and oral assignments you may find yourself thinking that you deserve a better, equal or worse mark than your fellow group members.  In order to take into account the different contributions of each group member, you will be asked to submit a ranking of group members relative to your contribution.  For example, if you thought that Kim worked 20% more than you, Kim will rank 1.2.  On the other hand, if you thought Kim worked half as much as you, she will receive a rank of 0.5.  If you find that you absolutely cannot work with any or all group members please see me so that we remedy the problem quietly and quickly.