Guidance on Bi-Weekly Writing Assignments

Find an interesting news article that is relevant to the module last discussed in class (e.g. Air Pollution). Read and photocopy the article. Sources can include any lay magazine (e.g. Time, Newsweek, Hartford Courant, New York Times etc.). If you don't read any of these sources, I recommend that you start. You can also use online search engines like Lexis- nexis (http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe). A search using this engine yielded 125 hits for “Air pollution.” Be creative (and patient) in your selection of search terms.

Find a scientific article published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal that addresses the same topic. Many times, a newspaper article is based upon a press release announcing the publication of a new study. In this case, it is best if you can actually get hold of the publication itself. You can find these articles using the Pubmed website operated by the National Library of Medicine (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi). These searches should be performed on-campus since the University pays for online access to many scientific articles. These can be found using the UCONN Babbidge Library's ejournal site (http://www.lib.uconn.edu/online/ejournals/). Download and print the entire article.

Do your best to make your way through the scientific article. I understand that the authors may use many technical terms and methods that you don't necessarily understand, but their overall experimental approach and conclusions should be clear. Focus on the abstract, introduction and discussion, but also spend enough time looking at the tables and graphs to see if their conclusions seem justified. Use a highlighter on particularly relevant areas of the paper (that address issues discussed in the newspaper article).

Compare and contrast the content of the news article and the scientific paper. Divide your paper into the following sections and make sure to submit both articles, with highlighting:

Overview: A short description of the topic as presented in the two sources.

Accuracy: Is the newspaper article accurate?

Thoroughness: Did the newspaper article go into sufficient depth to give the reader enough information to understand the complexities of the issue.

Bias: Did the newspaper article introduce bias into the article? If so, be specific. For example, if the article is titled “Sooty Six Power Plants still spewing pollutants across southern Connecticut ” you might be able to make a case for bias.

Grading: You will be graded on your selection of articles, understanding of the articles, overall professionalism in the preparation of your papers, and to the extent you address the four sections described above. If you just summarize each paper, or if the two papers are mismatched, you will not receive more than half-credit (15 points).