Overview
This individual essay assignment is worth 15% of the final grade. It is due on November 17th, 2022. The assignment should be submitted electronically through Nexus. Your paper should be word-processed, double-spaced, in 12-point type, and no more than 2,000 words (excluding references). A penalty for late submissions will be 5% per day, including weekends and holidays. Please name your submitted word document using your last name followed by your student ID, separated by an underscore (e.g., Desforges_12345678).
Your essay assignment is to write an analytical research essay on a salient human-environment interaction. Human impacts on the environment are widespread and can have significant implications for wildlife populations. Identify a threatened or endangered species in Canada and discuss their main threats. Make sure to discuss how these threats specifically affect your chosen species and what mitigation measures could be taken to help protect them. Are there aspects of the species ecology or life history that make them more vulnerable to human threats? Is it likely that mitigation measures will actually be put in place? and if not, why not?
In the essay, you must use at least five peer-reviewed scholarly articles. You are not to use informal blogs, newsletters, or other similar sources. Other acceptable sources include websites for government agencies or professional organizations. It is important that you properly reference all facts, data, and opinions that are not your own. In text referencing should be “author, year” format (APA), whereas the full citation should be listed in the literature cited section (i.e. "References"). It is mandatory to use the citation formatting in the course textbook, so please refer to the textbook for proper formatting of in-text citation and references. For assistance in finding peer-reviewed articles and other aspects of library research, see: http://libguides.uwinnipeg.ca/c.php?g=124963&p=817304.
The evaluation criteria for the essay assignment are as follows:
Structure, organization, and references (20%)
Intro, body, conclusion, flow, word count
Reference sources (10%)
Topic focus (10%)
Species specific info
- Content, critical thinking, depth of knowledge, and use of research (50%)
Comprehensive, logical, research depth, ecology, mitigation
- Writing, spelling, and general effort (10%)
See the following links for information and guidelines for writing research papers: