genetic paper

B. Writing Assignment: A written assignment covering recent advances in the field for a human genetic 

disease/disorder is required. Choose a topic that is new and interesting to you. To find human genetic conditions, you 

can use The National Library of Medicine’s Genetic Home Reference [http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/BrowseConditions]. Note 

that the Genetic Home Reference is not a professional-level source and it is not referenced to original sources, so you 

may not use it as a source for your paper and you may not cite it. The National library of Medicine also maintains a 

professional database of human genetic conditions called Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man 

[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/omim]. Your text will frequently refer you to OMIM when it discusses a human 

condition and you main find OMIM to be a very useful source of information once you have picked a condition.

In this assignment you will use the literature search tool PubMed [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed] to find 

professional-level scientific articles related to the genetic disorder of your choice. In the first parts of the assignment 

you will be asked to find and identify 1) a review article, 2) a case study, 3) and a primary research article related to your 

condition. The final component will be a 3- or 4-page summary of a primary research article describing molecular 

biological experiments applied to your condition. This is a formal, academic writing assignment, and should be written 

in the style of a professional scientific publication (the review article you will have already found will make a good 

model for the writing style). Your paper must be IN YOUR OWN WORDS: no quotations allowed. The primary 

research article must be recently published (within the last 5 years: 2008-2013) and it must describe the causes, 

mechanisms, or experimental treatments of your condition at the molecular level. The main article that you use may not 

be a review or a case study, and cannot by primarily epidemiological. In addition to your main primary research article

you must use and cite at least two other professional-level scientific publications. All of your cited sources must be 

professional-level scientific articles – NO WEBSITES or BOOKS ALLOWED. 

The paper will include, IN YOUR OWN WORDS:

1. A one or two paragraph general introduction describing your topic. You should summarize what is known about

the mode of inheritance, mechanism of disease, and current treatments for your disease. This section must be 

appropriately referenced in-text. Use the Council of Science Editors Name-Year format for your citations and 

your reference list.

2. A description of the experiments published in a recent (2008-2013) primary research article. (No case studies, 

cohort studies, or epidemiology allowed as primary sources – your primary reports must include molecular 

biology experiments.) This section will be the bulk of your paper. You should include 1) the purpose, 2) the 

hypothesis, 3) the experimental design, 4) the results, and 5) the conclusions of the experimentsIN YOUR 

OWN WORDS. 

3. In-text citations, with the facts, concepts, and ideas of othersin-text cited as appropriate. Use the current Council

of Science Editors Name-Year format for your citations and reference list. Use the scientific articles that you

have read for this paper as your guide for when citations are appropriate. Professionalscientific publications are

highly referenced to 1) give credit to the scientists who made particular discoveries, and 2) to inform the readers

of where they can go for further information.

4. A typed reference list (in addition to the required 3-4 pages) at the end of the paper in a format consistent with 

your citations. This list must include at your primary source, no webpages, no books, and a total of at least 3

professional-level sources. 

Use the PubMed literature search engine for finding articles. If you are new to PubMed, you can 

learn to use it by trial and error, or use the tutorial (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/disted/pubmedtutorial/). Do not

cite any source that endsin .com, .org, .net etc. These are webpages, not professional-level references. For

additional information or help, please use the CSUN Library or Library resources at http://library.csun.edu and

the CSUN Learning Resource Center and Writing Lab at http://www.csun.edu/lrc/.

The entire assignment should be neatly typed, double-spaced in a 12-point font with one-inch margins,

and at least 3- to 4- pagesin length, not counting figures and the reference list. You will have the opportunity to check your turnitin.com “originality report” before turning in your final version for 

grading. If you miss the deadline for this originality report check, you will have lost your chance to repair any 

inadvertent plagiarism. All papers submitted to the final-version Writing Assignment link on the course Moodle site 

will be the version that is graded. Any and all plagiarism (as evaluated by the instructor) in the version submitted for 

grading will result in a zero on this assignment and, if I believe the plagiarism was deliberate or involved another 

student’s paper, the result will be an “F” in the course. Do not for any reason use a current or previous student’s work in 

any way to complete this assignment. When a current student’s paper matches a previous students paper, both students 

are required to be included in the report to the Vice President for Student Affairs and both are subject to disciplinary 

actions. Keep this in mind for when this semester is over.

COPYING ANY SENTENCE OR PHRASE WITHOUT QUOTATIONS IS PLAGIARISM. All information 

taken from your sources must be cited. (There are no quotations allowed in this assignment. All must be in your 

own words.) Changing or leaving out one word in a sentence is not OK. Rearranging phrases in a sentence is not OK. 

For information about what is plagiarism and what is not, see this extremely helpful website 

http://www.bio.davidson.edu/dept/plagiarism.html. Below is a direct quotation from this site.

“Direct quotations-Let’s start with the obvious. If you repeat someone else’s words verbatim, you must enclose 

those words in quotation marks and provide a citation. For the citation to be complete, there MUST be a properly 

formatted in-text citation at the end of the sentence and a corresponding entry in your list of reference. It is not 

sufficient simply to name the source within the sentence. Omitting quotation marks and/or a complete citation is 

considered plagiarism. Keep in mind that direct quotations are not commonly used in scientific writings such as lab 

reports or grant proposals but can be appropriate in biology essays and term papers. Make sure that any direct

quotations flow smoothly within your own thought progression in the assignment; your task is to synthesize the 

relevant literature, not just copy and paste direct quotes from each source or provide a summary sentence for each.

Paraphrasing-Paraphrasing isrestating someone else’s ideas while not copying verbatim. There are acceptable and 

unacceptable ways to paraphrase and it is crucial that you understand the difference. Unacceptable paraphrasing 

includes any of the following: 1) using phrases from the original source without enclosing them in quotation marks; 

2) emulating sentence structure even when using different wording; 3) emulating paragraph organization even when 

using different wording or sentence structure. Unacceptable paraphrasing–even with correct citation–is 

considered plagiarism. When you do paraphrase in an acceptable manner, a proper citation is always required. 

Omitting a citation is considered plagiarism.” http://www.bio.davidson.edu/dept/plagiarism.html