Essays should be typed. They should be 1000-1200 words (not including references).
Advisorial essays should be brought along on the day.
Integrative studies essays should be handed in by 5pm on the Monday before the tutorial.
The examples below concern an essay with the title "What is a gene?"
(nb. you may have a different title)
1/3 of your essay should be introduction (what you understand by the question, what you are about to say in response, why the subject is important)
1/3 should lay out the main material (find out what a variety of sources say)
1/3 should be discussion (compare the definitions from different sources and come to some judgement about them... this last bit should be mostly your own ideas and words).
Make copious use of headings and sub-headings
In your discussion you might try to
In the case of an essay on the subject of "What is a gene" you might want to deal with the following definitions and problems with them:
I gene 1 enzyme based definitions: do all loci produce enzymes, are all loci transcribedand translated?
Unit of recombination: at limit this could apply to a single base... or could it?
Unit of selection- cannot selection act within a gene
How do these definitions deal with telomeres, centromeres, short tandem repeats. Do you think any of these are genes? Do they fit the definitions?
Dawkins also talks about a gene as a replicator... what does this mean? Is it useful?
How about restricting the definition to a transcribed sections of DNA and its control regions.
How will the ever increasing knowledge of molecular genetics affect our views over the next decade or so?