Writing Question

Post ID: 3525491

🔎 Big Picture

You’ve already been doing the work — now it’s time to put it all together.

This assignment builds directly from:
- ✅ Activity 2, 5 and 7 articles you already selected, and
- ✅ Your Think-Pair-Share ideas from Discussion Board 2, 3 and 4
Your essay is a great place to:
- Revisit open-ended question you asked in DB2, 3 and 4 and what peers commented.
- Clarify ideas you were unsure about earlier.
- Expand on points others made in DB2, 3 and 4, particularly through peer comments on your own posts
  - *DB response revisit encouraged for reflection and self improvement.

Instead of starting from scratch, you’ll use what you’ve read, discussed, and questioned to create a clear, evidence based explanation of human origins (non-human primates and early hominins) as it relates to human evolution and/or genetics from a physical anthropological perspective.

🎯 Your Goal

Explain the trajectory of human evolution (proto, basal and archaic hominins) with insights from (population) genetics and non-human primate traits using credible evidence, methods, and evolutionary context.

👉👉👉🔍 What You’ll Do👈👈👈

Write ~1000 words using ≥ 6 SAPIENS articles (from A2, A5 and A7) + textbook(s); build on DB2, 3 and 4 question and peer insights; APA/MLA citations.

You will:
- Focus on one or two common themes from this course that you researched such as language development or bipedality.
- Use at least two (2) new and relevant SAPIENS articles of your choosing to forward your research.
  - There is no "approved articles list" but feel free to select from that list for your 2 new ones or find your own.
  - In addition, use your previous work/sources (above) for a comprehensive ~1000 word essay.
    - Note this will make a total of 8+ Sapiens articles and your two textbooks (10 sources total)
- *Build on ideas, questions, or examples from the semester by returning to previous assignments/discussions.
- Support your explanations with one or both course textbooks (use in-text citations) and above articles
  - HINT: Look at you Course Guide or Textbooks under Start Here for citation help for textbooks.
- Cite all sources using APA or MLA format with in-text citation and Works Cited
  - There should be 10 total sources (6 or more used previously, 2 new sources, 2 textbooks)
- Submit PDF through Turninin within the assignment folder. No extra steps, just submit. USE THIS ARTICLES : Dunn, J. (2018, September 7). Why can’t apes talk? SAPIENS. https://www.sapiens.org/language/ primate-speech Smith, T. M., & Green, D. (2022, October 4). Extracting hominin evolution from fossilized teeth. SAPIENS. https://www.sapiens.org/biology/fossilized-teeth-o... AND “Lessons From Lucy.” Sapiens, • “Is Violence Embedded in Our DNA?” Sapiens, AND
- Unraveling the Mystery of Human Bipedality
  - This article is about how bipedality emerged early in human evolution—well before large brains—and became fully established in australopithecines. New fossils and 3D imaging are helping scientists understand how and why this defining human trait evolved.
- Fat, Not Meat, May Have Led to Bigger Hominin Brains
  - This article is about new evidence from 3.4‑million‑year‑old fossils that suggests early hominins may have first exploited large animals by smashing bones to access marrow and brains, rather than hunting and cutting meat with flaked tools, and challenges the traditional views.
- The First Butchers
  - Recent discoveries show that stone toolmaking and meat consumption began hundreds of thousands of years before the emergence of the genus Homo, undermining the long‑held idea that these behaviors defined its origin. Instead, key traits like tool use, diet changes, and anatomy appear to have evolved gradually across multiple hominin lineages.

📊 Basic Rubric: WA3 Essay — 100 pts

Basic Rubric
Criterion	Points	Connected Outcomes (CLO · CRC)
Thesis & Conceptual Understanding	14.3	CRC1, CLO2 · Inquiry & Analysis, Knowledge & Understanding
Use of Scientific Evidence & Methods	14.3	CLO2 & 3 · (New) Knowledge & Understanding · Core IMPACTS
Evolutionary Context (traits/timescale)	14.3	CLO4 · Evolutionary Scheme
Organization & Clarity	14.3	CRC3 · Teamwork & Time Management (Written Communication)
Source Integration & Citations (APA/MLA)	14.3	CRC1 · Inquiry & Analysis
Synthesis from A2/DB2	14.3	CRC2 · Problem Solving
Mechanics & Professionalism	14.3	CRC3 · Teamwork & Time Management (Written Communication)
	100