Essays

A written essay on some aspect of solar system exploration is required. The essay can be on any topic of current interest, or a topic of special interest to the student. The essay should be between 3 and 5 pages long, roughly between 1000 and 1500 words, and will be graded both on content and presentation, including grammar, writing style, and clarity of presentation. Students are required to turn in both a first draft and a final draft. Late essays will not be accepted. Because the essay is a significant fraction of the final grade failure to turn it in on time will result in a very low final grade.

Both the first draft and the final draft must be submitted to the dropbox on D2L as well as a paper copy in class. The essay should be in PDF format, but microsoft word will also be accepted if the student cannot produce a pdf file. The file must contain the student's name and the title of the essay.

All essays, first and final drafts, will be submitted to turnitin.com to check for plagiarism.

This writing assignment counts as 30% of your final grade.

Essay topic due: September 6th Note: Turn in a title and short (one or two sentence) description of your proposed essay. Your essay may be a review or critique of a particular scientific topic or a review of a popular scientific article (for example, from Scientific American, Discovery, etc.)

First draft due: October 11 Note: This is not a “rough” draft, but a serious attempt at a report. The first draft is worth 30% of the essay grade.

Final draft due: November 20 . The final draft is worth 70% of the essay grade

Tips on writing your essay:

You should have about three sources. Using only one source will result in a failing grade. However, remember it’s only a three to five page paper, don’t use too many sources. You cannot have only "web" sources. What this means is that at least one of your sources needs to be formal article from a reputable source, not just something someone decided to post on the web. Many reputable magazines and journal now have web access, so getting an article through the web from one of these sources is okay. Getting all your information from class websites, amatuerish organizations, or random blogs is not okay. Please check with the istructor of TAs if you have questions about a source.

Essays cannot include long quotes from any sources, even if these are included with quotation marks. You have to digest the information, organize it for your own purposes, and write your own sentences. One or two very short quotes are allowed.

Reference your sources correctly (this means a reference section at the end). The format of the references (MLA, Chicago, etc.) is unimportant as long as all of the relevant information is there in a clear format.

Be careful with web sources. For example, Wikipedia can be a great starting point for research, but its information can be edited by anyone. Any information needs to be double checked with a reputable source.

Read all or most of your sources before you start writing to give yourself a chance to form ideas!

Do not use colloquial expressions in your essay or informal forms of speech.

Do not use contractions in your essay.

Organize your essay in paragraph. Each paragraph should have one main idea and a topic sentence.

If you are not sure of the meaning of a word, look it up in the dictionary.

Academic Integrity:
It is strongly recommended that all students read the University of Arizona 's Code of Academic Integrity at http://dos.web.arizona.edu/uapolicies/. Direct copying from any uncited source is plagiarism and will result in a failing grade on the essay and possibly failure in the course.


PTYS170B1-3: The Universe and Humanity: Origin and Destiny