Final Paper-historical biography

Final paper: Wikipedia-style biography of a female scientist or engineer of your choice

Audience:  the entire world (remember that such an audience carries with it the ethical responsibility for accuracy of writing, of facts, of references)

Purpose: to educate your reader about the life and important contributions of your woman in science.

This final Wikipedia biography is due by the beginning of the last class, Wed Dec 2.  You may submit this biography in one of two ways:

1.  Upload the article directly into Wikipedia, then email the instructor that you have done so.  If you choose this method of submission, you will be graded using this rubric:  WikiBio-Rubric-Grading-FinalWikipediaSubmission

2.  Email to the instructor a pdf file of the biography.  If you do this, your references must still be in Wikipedia-style (including both in-line links and footnote references).  If you choose this method of submission, you will be graded using this rubric:  WikiBio-Rubric-Grading-FinalPDFSubmission

For reference:

What is the final writing assignment? An understanding of the work, life and biography of a female scientist/engineer (broadly defined, living or dead) is something that you will develop over the course of much of the semester, through both oral presentations and written work. The work will be developed from topic selection, through two drafts (with peer review), to a final submission. The format will be in the style of a Wikipedia article. You may not choose a woman whose story is already well-developed in Wikipedia; you may choose a woman whose story is only a “stub end” in Wikipedia. (Consider the well-developed Wikipedia articles for Isaac Asimov and Rosalind Franklin and the “stub end” article for Ellen Stofan.)

What is the purpose of final writing assignment? Public scholarship is a way of communicating academic, scholarly work to the world beyond academics. The most effective public scholarship will be written for the general audience and will often engage or impact the general public. Examples of public scholarship include: working in and with museums and other cultural organizations and institutions (magazines, theaters, public libraries, book festivals); writing and compiling institutional and other histories (such as oral histories); establishing a media presence; engaging in activism and political/cultural advocacy; making documentaries; consulting and providing expert testimony on public policy and cultural matters; undertaking cultural and historic preservation and resource management, and archival administration and creation of bibliographies and databases. This kind of public engagement is important.

The purpose of this final paper is for you to begin to understand how academic work can be and is translated into something relevant to the public. By completing this assignment, you will:

  • Perform extensive research on the life and work of a female scientist;
  • Learn what it takes to research, write and publish a well-developed Wikipedia article;
  • Write a Wikipedia-style article on that scientist’s life and work.

What are you required to do for the final writing assignment? The final writing assignment (a biography of a female scientist/engineer) will involve student selection of a female scientist/engineer of interest. You will perform core research on her life and work. We will tackle this assignment through most of the semester: you will identify a female scientist/engineer of choice early in the semester and explore her life and work through research, course discussions, oral presentations, and writing.

Draft #1: Draft #1 should be an indication that your research is well on its way. It should be in Wikipedia format. This draft will likely not include all sections, but will include sufficient sections, with original references, to show that you know who your scientist is and what she has contributed. This draft include sufficient original references on which to complete your article, so that we are certain that enough material is available.

Draft #2: Draft #2 should be a draft of all of your article in Wikipedia format, including references (though you will perhaps add additional information and/or references in the final draft, based on questions asked by your classmates).

(Drafts #1 and #2 will be due within 48 hours of your oral presentations.)

Final paper: The final paper is a complete Wikipedia-style article, suitable for publishing in Wikipedia. (See this web page for information on how to write a Wikipedia-style article: http://www.cs.duke.edu/csed/wikipedia/.) You may consider publishing your article in Wikipedia.

How will you be graded on the final writing assignment? The final paper will be graded based on the following rubric:

Criteria Unsatisfactory Underdeveloped Satisfactory Proficient Exceptional
Points 1 2 3 4 5
Content and theme – evidence of thorough research Essay limited in communicating research and multiple sources; lacks appropriate referencing Essay shows evidence of using small number of sources appropriately or sources lack diversity; some references are appropriately referenced, other details are not appropriately referenced Essay shows evidence of synthesis of material from multiple and diverse sources which are mostly adequately referenced Essay synthesis from wide diversity of sources, all of which are fully an appropriately referenced
Content and theme – historical biography Essay does not communicate understanding of person; details of person’s life and work are limited or vague Essay contributes to understanding of the person described; some detail is provided, other detail is vague; reader gains some perspective on the person and her significant contributions Essay accurately portrays the person, with a concise treatment of details, essay places person in historical context in a limited or surface-level way Essay paints a portrait of the person that holds the reader’s attention, skillfully incorporates learnings from class on larger issue of women in STEM fields Essay is confident and well-thought out; paints a vivid portrait of person; uses information gained in class and develops a novel or creative theme that holds the essay together
Content and theme – historical context Essay is limited in the way it places the person into the historical context of women in STEM fields Essay begins to place the person in the historical context of women in STEM fields, but context is limited Essay accurately places the person in the historical context of women in STEM fields Essay shows a comprehensive understanding of how person fits into the historical context Essay confidently places person in historical context and develops a novel or creative theme around this context
Organization Writing is disorganized and underdeveloped, with weak or no transitions or closure Writing is confused and loosely organized; transitions are weak; closure is weak or effective Uses correct writing format; appropriate transitions; coherent closure Writing includes strong beginning, middle and end, with transitions and good closure Writing includes strong beginning, middle and end, with clear transitions, and a strong and effective closure
Voice, perspective Writing is flat; writer’s voice does not come through Sometimes the writer’s voice and personality comes, though writing does not engage the reader Most of the time the writer’s voice & personality show up in the writing; writing is appropriate to life and work of the scientist Writer’s voice is lively & confident; writing sounds real and has personality Writer’s personality comes through in a creative way
Attention to audience Writing suggests no or little sense of audience Writing shows vague sense of audience, and what audience will understand Writer writes with an understanding of the specific audience; reader understands what he/she is reading Writer actively engages the audience Writing is skillfully adapted to the audience and the audience’s perspective
Vocabulary/Word choice Languages is vague; careless or inaccurate word choice which obscures meaning Language is trite or flat or shows limited use of varied word choice Language and a variety of word choices make the writing interesting Purposeful use of language and word choice, that is occasionally engaging Word choice is consistently effective and engaging
Sentence fluency Some run-ons or fragments; little variety in sentence structure Occasional run-ons or fragments; limited variety of sentence structure, or uses sentence structures inappropriately Writer uses simple, compound, and complex sentences appropriately Frequently varied sentence structure is appropriate to the moment Consistent variety of sentence structure throughout that helps capture reader attention
Conventions, grammar, syntax Inconsistent agreement between parts of speech; many errors in mechanics; issues with spelling Occasional errors in agreement between parts of speech; some mechanics and/or spelling errors Maintains agreement between parts of speech; few errors in mechanics, punctuation, capitalization, spelling Consistent agreement between parts of speech; correct punctuation, capitalization, spelling Uses consistent agreement between parts of speech; no errors in spelling or mechanics

Rubric expanded from that developed from that provided by ReadWriteThink.org, a Thinkfinity website developed by the International Reading Association, National Council of Teachers of English.