Biodiversity

Essay: Biodiversity in Agricultural
Landscapes

Your writing for this class so far has been short in format, informal in
style and has required little attention to the quality of sources and their
documentation. However, most scientific writing is very different in its
character. It is more formal in style,relies
on academic sources and requires detailed and precise documentation of sources.
In this assignment, you will write a scientific essay.

ATTENTION

Please read the assignment, in its entirety, carefully and
follow the instructions provided exactly. Failure
to do so will affect your grade significantly. If an instruction is not clear
to you, ask questions. You will complete only one draft of this assignment. You
have one shot to get it right.

The Question

Your essay should focus on one of the three
questions below. Your first task is to choose which question you want to
address. Do not try to tackle more than one in your essay.

QUESTION: How does agricultural practice affect biodiversity?

QUESTION: Does low intensity/organic/agro-environmental/sustainable
(you will see all four terms applied to supposedly biodiversity-friendly
farming methods) agricultural practices always benefit biodiversity?

QUESTION: How can farming practices be changed
to promote biodiversity?

By design these questions are broad and open-ended. You
could go in a lot of directions with any of them. You will be constrained
somewhat by your sources. But your second task will be to think about
how to focus your essay so that it will be coherent (not wandering from topic
to topic) and have a depth of content (describe, analyze and interpret a range
of evidence and examples rather than simply making a series of general
statements).

The Research

We have not talked much about research in this class.
(There just isn’t time to do

everything!) So, I have done your research for you by providing a
series of articles from

scholarly sources that you may use for this essay. The articles are
available on GRAPES web page. Your essay must cite at least five sources.
Essays earning top grades will, of course, cite more sources. Your third
task is to identify which sources, from among those provided, are most appropriate
for the question and specific focus you have selected.

The Outline of Your Essay

An important component of the assessment of this essay will
be whether there is a coherent flow of logic through the paper. You must create
a logical flow. I offer the following as a suggestion. You do not need to
follow it slavishly, but it has proved to be a useful scaffold on which to hang
your own ideas.

INTRODUCTION: One paragraph. Your introduction has three important
jobs. 1) It needs to provide all the background and definitions that the reader
will need to understand the question you will address. 2) The introduction must
state the question you will address. In this case, it is fine to restate the
question as presented above. Don’t be afraid to use a sentence with a
question mark at the end. That’s the easiest way to state your question.
Resist the temptation to answer the question in the introduction. If you do,
why would the reader go any further? 3) Describe how you will narrow or focus
the very broad question. (See above.) These items work well when presented in
this order.

BODY: Generally three to five paragraphs, but this may vary
with your topic. Here you lay out the evidence and logical argument that will
take the reader from the question you posed in your introduction to the answer
you will present in the conclusion. Some important considerations:

• Each paragraph should have only one main idea. The
main idea is clearly expressed in the topic sentence.

• The main idea of each paragraph should be backed up
with specific examples, evidence and arguments drawn from your sources. Top
marks will not go to paragraphs composed

entirely of broad, general statements that have no evidence behind
them.

• Ideas and examples within a paragraph (sentences)
and paragraphs themselves should be linked together logically so that the body of
your paper includes a flow of reasoning that draws your reader toward your
conclusion.

• Feel free (but don’t feel obligated) to use
headings or other subdivisions of the essay to help delineate the organization
of your paper.

CONCLUSION: One paragraph. Answer the question you posed. Resist the
temptation to

recapitulate your arguments and evidence. In an essay of this length,
the reader can be expected to remember all the way back to the beginning
without a summary.

REFERENCES
CITED: The list of references you
cited in your text should follow immediately after your text ends. See below
for more details.

Documenting your Sources

One feature of writing is that all of your sources of
information must be carefully and

thoroughly documented. Documenting your sources involves two
components: In-text

citations occur within the text
and mark which of your facts or ideas came from which sources; and a references
cited list that provides full bibliographic information on each of the
citations in your text. Several things to keep in mind:

• Every in-text citation must have an associated full
reference and every reference must be cited in your text.

• In-text citations and references cited must follow
the format prescribed in MLA precisely. Your grade depends on it.

The Writing

Your essay should be between 1000 and 1500 words in
length.

I will be focusing on content.  Some tips on what I will be looking for:

• The essay should be rich in content. You should
have a lot of significant things to say. If you find that you don’t,
don’t try to pad. Read some more.

• Make your writing clear, concise and correct.

• Avoid complex constructions and fancy words.
Contrary to popular impression, they don’t make your writing sound more
scholarly, or you look any smarter...particularly if the grammar or diction is
off.

• Get rid of warm up writing. First drafts commonly
have a lot of repetition and tangents that represent the writer trying to
figure out what to say and how to say it. Make sure that these are edited out
of the draft you turn in.

Resources to Help You

• Additional Eyes on your paper will help you
recognize lapses in logic, language errors, and proofreading mistakes. Find a
friend to read your paper over for you and give you comments. Offer to return the
favor. Take it seriously. It really helps