Assignment Content

1.

About the Project

This assignment is designed to run throughout the course and parallel

to it. Its objectives are:
1. Research, analyze, and write about a current environmental
issue that is ongoing during the semester.
2. Demonstrate that you can find and effectively use at least
three original research papers (also called journal articles)
3. Demonstrate that you can paraphrase information and cite and
reference all sources used in APA format

Deliverables

This assignment asks you to upload two things, included in one file
(.pdf or .docx format):
4. An 800 – 1,000 word essay (the citations and reference list
are not included in the word count).
5. An annotated reference list at the end of the essay:
o A minimum of 3 of your sources must be original research
papers / journal articles, published within the last 5
years (as older journal articles can lose relevance and accuracy
in this field).
o A media source showcasing your selected environmental
issue, as an example covered by the media during the
period of your project (the news source must be from the
current semester, even if the environmental issue has been
ongoing before this period).
o You may use as many additional sources as needed to write your
essay, but be sure to cite them all and include them all in the
annotated reference list.

Steps to get you started

9. Choose a topic that is directly related to the environment. Some

examples of topics include the various Learning Modules in this
course, such as pollution, consumption, population, food choices,
and climate change. Any one of these topics is acceptable, or
 choose a different topic that is related to the environment and is
of interest to you.
10. Come up with a strong argument/thesis statement. A good essay
has a strong argument in which you have stated an opinion and
then have used facts and reasoning to support your argument.
Strong arguments are relevant, specific and often advocate for
one action over a different action. Example of a weak argument:
We need to stop climate change before we destroy the planet.
Example of a strong argument: Immediate government action is
required to reduce air pollution in Toronto, as waiting for market
forces to reduce tailpipe pollutants will take too long. Note that
your argument might change once you start researching your
topic, as your opinion might change when you become more
knowledgeable. This is a normal part of the writing process. Note
that the use of recent/current sources is essential to support the
relevance of your argument (see publication requirements
above).
11. Start researching your topic, and take notes while researching.
You should start paraphrasing right from this point onward, so
you immediately avoid copying and pasting information into your
essay that will become a problem of plagiarism. Effective note-
taking includes writing out the full reference in APA format, and
then summarizing the main idea(s) from that source in your own
words.
12. Then, write your essay. If you took good notes, you should be
able to write your entire essay using only your notes because
you already summarized the information and have the full
reference information there in your notes. You might
occasionally have to clarify something by going back to the
original source.
13. Proofread your essay for spelling, grammar, and citations. Look
at each sentence. If the sentence is not your personal opinion, it
needs an in-text citation to tell the reader where you learned the
information, verify its accuracy and support your arguments. It
is not enough to just cite at the end of a paragraph, even if all
the information came from the same source.

Late Penalty Policy

Projects submitted late will have a late penalty of 1 mark/day (unless

you provided a letter with your accommodation information).
Assignments that are more than one week late will not be accepted.
Academic Integrity

o Everything must be written in your own words (paraphrased).

Copying and pasting and then changing a few words around is
plagiarism. One strategy to paraphrase information is to learn a
lot about a topic, and then describe it in your own words as if
you were explaining it to your parents or your siblings.
o You must use in-text citations in APA format to tell the reader
which information came from which source. You must also
provide a Reference List with the full publication information for
each source that you cited, as well as annotations for each item
in the reference list.
o If you use any direct quotes, you must use quotation marks and
in-text citations to indicate which information you did not write
yourself, and where each quote came from. BUT avoid using
direct quotes. Frequent or large quotes often indicate that you
have not understood all of the information in the quote, and this
will usually result in a loss of marks for not demonstrating your
understanding.

What is an Annotated Reference List?

It is the same as a regular reference list (in APA format), but after
each reference, write a sentence or two describing what you used the
reference for. This is an added check for you to ensure that you have
questioned how you know what you think you know, and whether your
information source is reliable. Copying and pasting the articles’
abstracts is unacceptable. You must write the annotations yourself.

Here are some made up examples of annotations in a reference list.

The sentences in bold+italics font are examples of annotations:

Annotated Reference List

McCabe, S.K. (2022). Sea otters have reached maximum

cuteness. Journal of
Mammalogy, 22(4), 26-39.

I used this source to understand why people cannot stop

watching videos of sea otters on YouTube.
McCabe, S.K. (2019). Spiders have fur and big eyes – yet we do not
think they are
cute. Journal of Arachnology, 12(1), 125 – 148.

I used this source to understand that although we love

mammals in part because they have fur and big eyes, the issue
is more complicated. We do not universally love spiders
because they have too many legs.

Hints for Success

o Wikipedia is not a reliable source. If you find something really

interesting in Wikipedia, go to their original source material and
read it and use that for your reference. If Wikipedia does not list
a reference for the information, you cannot use that information.
o Do not procrastinate. Pick a topic, start researching, and start
writing as early in the semester as you are able, so that you are
not scrambling trying to find and write about a topic at the last
minute.
o Use the grading rubric as a checklist for yourself before
submitting your essay to ensure that you have done everything
needed to achieve the grade that you want.
o Be brave and express your own fact-based opinions. We want to
know what you think.

Resources

If you are not sure how to write an essay, here is a link to some good
advice about 5-paragraph essays. Your essay may need to be longer
than 5 paragraphs, but these are good guidelines to start
with: https://medium.com/@dtunkelang/the-five-paragraph-essay-
5b32d41ba202

Contact the Writing Centre for help with planning, research, and
writing: https://humber.ca/learningresources/math-and-writing-centre

Refresh yourself on Academic Integrity at “You Quote It, You Note

It”: https://library.acadiau.ca/research/tutorials/you-quote-it-you-
note-it-2.html
To find original research articles (journal articles), use the
ScienceDirect database (review the Academic Integrity assignment or
ask a librarian if you have forgotten how to use this
site.): https://www-sciencedirect-com.ezproxy.humber.ca/search

- If you are not sure how to write an in-text citation in APA format,
Humber Library has a video to show you
how: https://library.humber.ca/help/apa/text-citations#main-content

- If you are not sure how to format a full reference in APA format,
Humber Library has videos for
that https://library.humber.ca/help/apa-6th
o For
websites: https://library.humber.ca/help/apa/websites#main-
content
o For YouTube
videos: https://library.humber.ca/help/apa/youtube#main-
content
o For newspaper
articles: https://library.humber.ca/help/apa/newspaper-
articles#main-content

- There are many reputable sites for news; if in doubt, send me a

message for confirmation, or contact the librarian. If you find one
news that you want to use, but that is behind a paywall, check if via
the Humber Libraries you can have access to it (they have licences for
your use). The following news sites are just a few suggestions:
o Science Daily Environment
News: https://www.sciencedaily.com/news/top/environment/
o CBC News: https://www.cbc.ca/news
o BBC
News: https://www.bbc.com/news/science_and_environment
o Global News: https://globalnews.ca/environment/
o Al Jazeera
News: https://www.aljazeera.com/topics/categories/environmen
t.html
o Financial Times: https://www.ft.com/
o Nature News: https://www.nature.com/news
o Reuters: https://www.reuters.com/
o The Atlantic Magazine –
Science: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/
o The Conversation: https://theconversation.com/ca
o The Economist - Science &
Technology: https://www.economist.com/science-and-
technology/
 o The Globe and Mail: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
o The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com
o The New York Times : https://www.nytimes.com
o The Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com

All assignments in this course are checked in SafeAssign to

ensure that they are written in your own words.

The SafeAssign results will be available to you (by clicking again on

the Assignment's link) and it will show you how much of your work
overlaps other documented material (often it’s also a good indicator of
the overuse of quoted material); this tool gives you the opportunity to
rewrite and resubmit the file. In order to have your Assignment
accepted for evaluation, you will need to get a Matching Score from
SafeAssign below 20%. If your document shows a Matching Score
greater than 20%, you will need to re-work it. You may need to upload
your Assignment more than once for analysis and editing. I will grade
the final attempt only. Note that SafeAssign's Matching Score may be
initially 0%, but that should be only temporary; please, review the
score again at a later time, as SafeAssign will update it with its final
score when it completes its process. Note that SafeAssign’s Originality
Report may take longer to be completed, depending on the server's
queue (the longer times tend to be closer to midnight).