Term Paper

Requirements for BIOL 4233 Term Paper

Deadline: 12/11/2006

Format: The text (not including the title page, reference pages, and figures/tables) of the term paper should be no fewer than fifteen (15) pages-typed, double-spaced, with typeface (font) no larger than 12 pt. Margins (top, bottom, left and right) should be 1 inch. All pages except the title page should be numbered at the bottom center of the page. References should be cited and listed at the end of the text, using the following format:

Text: "The nhaC gene of B. serious has recently been cloned and sequenced (1). Surprisingly, there is apparently no sequence similarity shared between that gene and the homolog from B. cereus (2)... <end of text>

REFERENCES

1. Ivey, D.M.; Dimwit,A.B. (1993) Isolation and sequencing of the nhaC gene of Bacillus serious. J. Bacteriol. 175: 2100-2110.

2. Winkin, C.D.; Blinkin, E.F.; Nod, G.H. (1992) Nucleotide sequence of the nhaC gene of Bacillus cereus. Nature 42: 1200-1205.

3. <etc>

Note the required information in the reference list: Authors (last name and initials), year, title of article, title of journal (use standard abbreviations only, or write out the complete journal title), volume, pages (first-last).

To adequately cover your topic, you will need approximately 30 references. This does not include textbooks, which should not be used as reference material. Rather, you should go to the original sources (ie, mostly journal articles, a few [10 or fewer] review articles).

Topics:Your paper can address any current issue in microbial genetics, including bacterial, viral, and yeast genetics. Keep in mind, however, that this is to be a critical review of the topic. This means that, in addition to describing what is known, you must evaluate the current data and the thinking based on that data, and point out what pieces of the picture you feel are missing This dictates that you use a rather narrow focus . For example, instead of choosing as a topic "Mycobacterium tuberculosis", you might choose "Genetic basis for multiple antibiotic resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis"

Other suggestions:

"Essential genes in bacteria revealed through whole genome analysis"
"Lysogenic conversion: recent findings and clinical significance"
"Genes associated with invasion of human host cells by Yersinia (or Listeria)"
"Sex hormones and conjugation in gram-positive bacteria"
"New methods for overexpressing genes in E. coli"
"Regulation of virulence genes on the Ti plasmid of A. tumefaciens"
"Introns, retrons and reverse transcriptase in bacteria"
"Genetics of antigenic variation (pil locus) in Neisseria gonorrhoeae"
"Regulation of sporulation in Bacillus subtilis"
"Recent advances in molecular diagnostics"
"Pathogenicity islands and the genetic basis of virulence"

Advice: 1. Make an outline. Do this early, and put much effort into it. Then, use the outline entries as topic headings to organize your paper. 2. Use figures and tables, and don't neglect the figure legends. Adequately described figures can be just as useful as text, particularly when you are dealing with complicated material. (See articles in Nature or Science for examples of this). 3. Aim for clarity, precision, and accuracy. Spare me the purple prose and editorializing. Read the trade scientific journals (Nature and Science, e.g.) and Scientific American, and try to mimic the style of the review writers. Don't pad you paper. It is better for your paper to be too short than loaded with a bunch of garbage at the end. 4. Make and outline. 5. Make an outline.