neuroscience
Guidelines for preparing your New Scientist-style article
Overview: Prepare a journalistic style scientific magazine article (i.e., New
Scientist-style article). The article should review and critique the Journal of
Neuroscience article provided to you in a style accessible to a non-expert
readership.
• 750 words (excluding any text associated with diagrams or
figure).
Brief info about the topic:
• New Scientist is general readership scientific publication written in a
journalistic style that it is accessible to non-expert readers. These
articles usually promote a specific scientific discovery in a positive light.
Your article should adhere to these principles; you should assume that
the reader has a degree level education, although not necessarily in
science.
• The use of non-scientific language, simplification of concepts, diagrams
and analogies is actively encouraged. Use of acronyms and scientific
jargon should be minimized as much as possible, again unless clearly
defined and explained.
• Your article should adhere to the formatting and styling of New
Scientist.
• The Journal of Neuroscience article you have been provided with, as
well as possibly 1 or 2 other related papers should be the only in-text
citations.
Cite the articles/source material as part of the narrative, not in
Harvard style (e.g. a study led by Professor X at the University of
Sydney…).
• No bibliography is required.
Marking criteria
1. PRESENTATION STYLE, WRITING AND EXPRESSION:
Did the student present the essay in a written style suitable for publication in
New Scientist, with adherence to formatting and styling? Did the
student use language appropriate for non-experts, simplify concepts,
and write in a journalistic, not scholarly, style. Does the essay have a
high standard of punctuation and grammar? Are the sentences
structured correctly? Is the essay free from typographical errors? Is the
use of abbreviations minimal? Are capitalisations used correctly?
2. ORGANISATION: Did the student organise the article in a logical order.
Is there a clear flow of ideas? For example, is there an introductory
paragraph that gives background information, clearly articulates the
aims, and leads into the main body of the article? Is there a
concluding/summary paragraph?
3. RESEARCH ANALYSIS:
Is there evidence that the student hascritically evaluated the research? Is there evidence that they understand the significance and limitations of the study? Do they
highlight the strengths, weaknesses and future studies that are
required to substantiate any claims made? Is there evidence of the
student’s own evaluation of the quality and reliability of the data?
4. RESEARCH CONCLUSIONS: Did the student demonstrate a unique
synthesis of ideas, by examining related works, in order to generate
their own conclusions?
5. OVERALL IMPACT: Did the article leave a lasting impression on the
reader? Is the reader left engaged by the article and likely to want to
find out more? Were there any novel features of the article not
classified elsewhere?
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