CELL BIOLOGY TERM PAPER:
Topic: Choose a topic you thing is really interesting to you professionally and a topic that is specific to a cell, something in a cell or something on a cell. Your term paper should be a significant project, you will spend quite a bit of time working on it, so why not pick something that you are interested in. You may wish to investigate something that could lead to graduate school or information relevant to becoming a great Doctor of Physical Therapy. You may also wish to use this to investigate the cellular mechanisms responsible for something like how the drug glucophage taken by your diabetic uncle changes the insulin sensitivity in your overweight-diabetic uncle, how flavonoids in the diet serve as antioxidant compounds tat prevent lipid peroxidation, or how pyrethrins in flea shampoo form irreversible inhibitors of the enzyme acetycholinesterase in a flea….BUT not the canine host.
Try and limit your topic as much as possible. Try and get instructor feedback on your topic to help you find a great topic for a great paper. The key to a good term paper is to LIMIT your topic. Making your topic as specific as possible means you are responsible for less and can describe it in greater detail. Try and get a PubMed search down to about 20-100 papers, of these you will be able to sort the good from the bad, narrowing your topic even further.
Paper requirements: (rough and final drafts) must have the following:Title Page: This page does not count as a page of text and must have all of the information indicated on the sample title page.
Paper Requirements: The term paper should consist of a concise literature review that expands upon the generalizations discussed in the sentences of your abstract. A good paper has clearly labeled sections headings and sub-headings. Length of Paper: The TEXT of this paper must be typed (12 cpi) and single-spaced. The paper (with references section) must include a minimum 1200 words of single spaced “text” - excluding the reference section-save/print a screen shot from the “review” option in microsoft word to validate the word count-put this on last page after references). If you are writing a group paper with more than one author, please add a few more words to the total (1500 words). You are WELCOME to write a collaborative paper (two authors) for the same topic, please see instructor if you choose to do this, collaborative effort is what grad school/med school PT school is all about.
Please print Front-Back to save a few trees. The type font size must be 12, new times roman (use one inch margins). The font style must be one of the standard fonts and consistently used for all text in the paper. If in doubt, show a sample to the instructor. The paper needs to include at least 10 references from peer-reviewed sources, at least five of which need to have been published more recently than 2006, you are welcome to have many more than 10. If your topic does not have any “new” sources you will need to modify the topic or choose a new one. Books and websites do not count towards the 10 references of course.
The paper (single spaced only) should include each of the following parts that were described in the outline. Abstract 200-300 words. Introduction: About ½ page that tells reader what the paper is about and why topic is important/clinically significant. The last sentence of introduction is required to be a purpose statement (The purpose of this paper is….) The body of paper-see above- should be broken into discrete headings and sub-headings. The Discussion or Summary section (about a 1/2 page) should repeat the key points of the paper and perhaps discuss where the topic of interest appears to be going in the future. Literature Cited section should list references in alphabetical order by the last name of the first author of each paper. It is assumed that your rough draft will not have the exact same section headings as were indicated in your outline. Abbreviations in intro/body/discussion may need to be repeated in figures and abstract because the abstract, paper, and each figure should be “stand alone” meaning the reader could figure them out if the rest of the paper was not there. Paraphrase from your sources, do not use quotes! (maximum is one quote per paper)
Remember that simply changing the word order of what was copied from the original source is still plagiarism, whether you cite the fact or not. For example, if the original source said: “The multimeric ribonucleoprotein enzyme
telomerase catalyzes the addition of tandem sequence repeats to the telomeres so as to maintain their length after multiple rounds of DNA replication (Kozlitina and Garcia, 2012).” Switching the word order and adding a word or two to does not work. “Additions to the tandem sequence repeats of the telomeres maintains their length after multiple rounds of DNA replication, this is catalyzed by multimeric ribonucleoprotein enzyme telomerase (Kozlitina and Garcia, 2012).” This is what it is, what is called plagarism or copying for the purpose of the term paper.
Ask if in doubt, plagarized materials earns the grade it deserves (zero). You have to be able to put it into your own words and may need to be able to show the professor that you did this in good faith while writing your paper. This means if you write it you should be able to understand the contents of your paper if asked to do so and show where each fact in your paper originated in the papers you cited. Professor reserves right to ask that you bring paper copies of all papers cited in your paper (reading them is slow and they will probably be marked up with your notes).
Abstract (200-300 words max):Try to write a single paragraph that conveys the meaning of your whole paper. Only extremely rarely does the abstract contain a direct reference i.e. (Schmidt et al 2006) or a quote, quotes or citations are not allowed in the abstract for your paper. It is implied that an abstract will cite the paper it is written to describe. You can usually cut each section of material down to one or two key sentences and string these into a pretty decent abstract. Add an introductory sentence and front and a concluding sentence at the end and it is done. Length: 200-300 words. Abbreviations in abstract need to be repeated in body of paper because the abstract should be “stand alone”.
What tense should you use? In the science it is difficult to write in third person-impersonal, but if you do so at the Grad School or Med School level it will look very nice. Most published papers are written this way and many would be better if written this way. For this paper please write it third person impersonal for this reason. That means these words are off limits….I, we, you,…… Try to use terms like “Schmidt (2006) observed a contradictory observation…..” or “One might wish to believe the signal transduction pathway for epinephrine is completely understood, however new second messengers are still being discovered.”
Figures and Tables: The use of figures and Tables to illustrate or summarize the ideas of your text is strongly encouraged. Figures do not count as part of the pages of text. Figures should be embedded directly in the text. You may draw your own figures or cartoons to explain aspects of your paper (strongly encouraged) or you may photocopy figures or cartoons from published sources. If you use figures that were copied or modified from another source, cite the source (author, year) in the figure legend and give the full citation in the Reference section. If you choose to incorporate figures directly into the body of your text make sure that it is completely clear that you have the appropriate amount of TEXT exclusive of the figures and figure legends. Abbreviations in abstract need to be repeated in body of paper because the abstract should be “stand alone”. Figures make a paper look really sharp! Creating your own figures in the paper will make it easier for you to prepare the class presentation based on this same paper.
Remember that every Figure needs to be cited in the body of the text somewhere and a “Figure Legend” needs to appear immediately “below” the figure. Table headings need to appear at the “top” of the table. Figure/Table legends need to include some basic info about the content of the figure/table. Each figure/Table should be able to “stand alone”, this means if you saw “just the figure or table” without the paper, you could understand what the author wanted to demonstrate.
A sample figure legend:
Figure 3. The ATPsynthase is made of three parts (stalk, Fo and F1) and ATP is synthesized when protons pass through the pore returning down their concentration gradient to the matrix (Modified from Schmidt et al 2007).
-A good figure legend should allow the reader to understand why you have included the Figure even if the rest of the paper was not with it. -Remember to cite all Figures in the text of your paper.
Bla bla bla. The passage of protons though the ATP-synthase is critical for ATP synthesis (Figure 3). Yattta yata yat.
Student Editing: Students should review the guidelines described on the Student Editor Worksheet before writing their paper. Students are encouraged to find arrange their own student editors and have them edit your work PRIOR to having three Cell Biology students do this for credit. After you receive your three student suggested edits you will hand a rough draft to the professor. You will take these edits and create a final draft that will be graded for a significant percent of class credit. Student editors will be required to select five sentences from your paper, load these into a Google or other online search and check to be sure that your wording in your paper is not a direct copy of what is already in print. Paraphrase from your sources, do not use quotes!….Paraphrase—Paraphrase—Paraphrase—Paraphrase!
POINTS AVAILABLE:
Term paper topic due by email to Dr Wilson (5 pts), duplications are not allowed, topics will be listed online at Dr Wilsons website. Five Peer Reviewed References for Term Paper Due Oct 3rd with ¼-1/2 page summaries of each (10 pts). Complete paper outline with major, minor and sub-minor headings should include a couple references at least (10 points), this should be a skeleton of what your paper will become.
The rough draft will not be graded per se, (10 points if it is handed in on time) but it must have all of the required elements/reference citations and must be approximately the proper length, its intent is to let you know how to improve the paper before it is graded. Your paper will undergo peer-review by your peers and your name will be on it, this way you can discuss it with your peers. Outline due Oct 16th. Four rough draft copies are due at 8am Nov 13 (-10% if late) at Dr Wilson Office (232 pasteur). Students will choose in Cell Bio Lecture three rough drafts for editing with the online grading rubric, student edits will be returned to help each other learn to write better. Student rough drafts (each student edits three different papers for 3X5pt=15 points) will be returned to student authors in class. Rough Drafts that include the student edited copies and changes are due in a folder in Cell Biology lecture on Nov 27 (20 pts for your edited paper). Final Drafts of Term Paper (30 pts) due Wednesday Dec 5th: Term papers due at Noon at Wilson’s office(-10 pts if late), your folder of materials must include all rough drafts and student peer-reviews for comparison.
TERM PAPER REFERENCE FORMAT
Place the reference after the fact has been discussed in the text as indicated below: USE THIS REQUIRED FORMAT NOT MLA or any other format for citation in paper and reference list at end of paper.
Citing Facts in Sample Text:
Cranberry juice appears to promote vasodilation in a manner similar to that associated with red wine and Concord grape juice (Schmidt and Swank, 2001). Using rat vessels, it has been demonstrated in vitro and in vivo that cranberry juice vasodilates blood vessels (Wilson et al, 2000a, Wilson et al, 2000b) at levels comparable to that associated with grape products and red wine (Folts 1998). Vessel diameter and blood flow is largely determined by the production of nitric oxide (NO) made by an enzyme nitric oxide synthase in arterial endothelial cells (Steinberg, 2002). More recently, Folts (2000) observed that the nitric oxide synthase activity is apparently stimulated by flavonoids in these beverages. However, the physiological significance of flavonoids in chocolate has yet to be validated (www.mayoclinic.org). Try whenever possible to have at least two different references citing material in each and every paragraph. Avoid whenever possible having the same reference sited several times in a row in the same paragraph.
How to reference your facts? List all author last names when there are two or fewer authors; write et al “et al.” in the text when there are more than two. Use an “a”, “b”, “c”, etc to list several publications by the same author that were published in the same year. Remember, if a reference is listed in your references section, it HAS TO BE USED/site something in the paper itself. Remember that you need at least 10 references from Peer Reviewed Publications. This means the journal’s publications have been reviewed by other scientists for validity prior to approval for appearing in print. Non-peer reviewed publications (such as Wall Street Journal or websites) are strongly discouraged but “can” be used. They are not what professionals should use to support their facts. They are simply used to improve understanding of the “lay-public” in a topic. Books/websites are not peer-reviewed.