Summarize an original research
article
Due: Wednesday, November 12
Goal:
Gain experience in reading original research articles.
Understand the difference between scientific jargon and
straightforward English.
Assignment:
Below is a list of original research
articles that refer to topics we covered recently in class. Read
one of these articles, and write a one-page (about 400
words) summary of
the article in straightforward English.
To find the article, you can use Medline
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi
and search for the author's name. For some, you can click
straight through to the article. If it's not available there, go to Columbia's
Libraries and find the journal in the list of E-journals. You might want to read a few
of the abstracts first, rather than just relying on the title, to help
you decide which article seems most interesting.
Writing style:
Write in a style as if you are writing for your classmates. Don't try to
emulate the bombastic style of scientific articles, but aim rather for the level
of a Science Times or Scientific American article. It's okay
to use terms that should be familiar to a student from the lectures in this
class, but if you use terms that you learned while reading this article,
then define them. Use clear, direct English. The article you read may
say, "We assisted them to regain their ambulatory capacity" but you
should translate this into English, and write, "They helped them learn to
walk again." Look up words you don't know in the index of your
textbook or in Kimball's
Biology textbook or in the On-line
Medical Dictionary or the Life
Science Dictionary or one of the specialty dictionaries in the
Biology Library.
Don't just make an outline of what you read; rather read it,
understand it, then put the ideas together in your own words. Don't copy
the text of the article. This is called plagiarism, and is
unacceptable.
Possible articles:
Jasnow AM, Drazen DL, Huhman KL, Nelson
RJ, Demas GE. 2001. Acute and chronic social defeat suppresses
humoral immunity of male Syrian hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus). Hormones
and Behavior 40: 428-433.
Sellmeyer DE, Stone KL, Sebastian A,
Cummings SR. 2001. A high ratio of dietary animal to vegetable protein
increases the rate of bone loss and the risk of fracture in
postmenopausal women. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.73:
118-122
Lucero J, Harlow BL, Barbieri RL, Sluss
P, Cramer DW. 2001. Early follicular phase hormone levels in
relation to patterns of alcohol, tobacco, and coffee use. Fertility
and Sterility 76: 723-729.
Prendergast BJ, Freeman DA, Zucker I,
Nelson RJ. 2002. Periodic arousal from hibernation is necessary
for initiation of immune responses in ground squirrels. American
Journal of Physiology: Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative
Physiology 282:R1054-62