Your second piece of COMM writing coursework_a 1200-word piece.

Learning objectives. By engaging fully in this formative work, you will:

➢ review, test and expand your understanding of one of the foundation subjects taught so far this
term, hopefully enjoying the process
➢ practise focused searches for reliable good quality peer-reviewed information sources. For
guidance about this, see point 4 below. You can also make use of other resources including the
COMM.07 session on 22nd November with DoLS’ librarian Ms Elizabeth Killeen, PASS sessions,
Imperial’s Success guide, the library, and the COMM folders in LifeSciLearning on Blackboard
➢ acknowledge and incorporate the feedback on your writing from your short 600-word essay and
COMM.06 and gain more practice in writing in a clear, logical, accurate, relevant, and correctly
referenced way
➢ keep practising your good academic integrity habits including avoiding plagiarism
➢ learn how to further develop your academic writing from the discussion of this essay with peers,
your personal tutor and in class
The writing skills and good habits that you are developing now will be useful throughout your degree and
beyond.
The five questions you can choose from for this essay are
1. Which group of organisms could we not survive without and why?
2. How does the structure of a single named plasma membrane transmembrane protein enable its
functions?
3. Why fund research into evolution?
4. How can life sciences research help ensure more people have access to clean water? (UN
sustainable development goal #6)
5. Why are in vivo defects in cell signalling so difficult to correct?
Your essay should:
1. Be typed in Times Roman font, point size 12 with 1½ line spacing, single column
2. Be an absolute maximum of 1200 words. This word count does not include short Figure legends (1-
3 sentences), in-text citations and your properly formatted reference list at the end of the essay. In-
text citations and references should be in the Harvard style.
Summary reminder example:
e.g., citing when using information from 3 pieces of other people’s work:
Information from source number 1 explained in your own words (cite it). Information from source
number 2 explained in your own words (cite it). Information from source number 3 explained in
your own words (cite it). Information from source number 2 again explained in your own words
(cite it) + a full reference list, Harvard style usually with DOI (Digital Object Identifier)
You can vary where you place the citation in relation to the information e.g., Temba et al. (2020)
demonstrated…. but the citation must always be linked to the information it relates to.

3. Please note the word count at the end of your essay. Do not contract phrases to try to squeeze in
more words e.g., write ‘is not’ instead of ‘isn’t’. Do not contract phrases in exam answers either.
Define acronyms the first time you use them.
4. Please include at least one figure in this piece of work i.e., your own scanned drawing or a figure
you have created using software like BioRender.com. Figures must be relevant, informative, well
labelled, referenced e.g., ‘modified from…’ and referred to in the text, e.g., ‘see Figure 1’. There is
some guidance on how to present figures well in in the COMM.05 folder on LifeSciLearning. You can
 also learn from how figures are presented clearly in the information sources you read. Note on
Figures: You might want to include a hugely detailed copy and pasted image but remember that
you need to show what you understand in this essay. For this reason and because you can’t draw
very complex images by yourself in an exam, it is best to produce a diagram which shows the most
relevant key features that you understand.

Reminder: Please do not cite Wikipedia or commercial websites in coursework; they are OK to read
during your research but only cite peer-reviewed sources e.g., textbooks, Encyclopaedia of Life
Sciences, Web of science, Google scholars, NCBI PubMed etc. in your coursework. For more
information about this, see the COMM.07 session on 22nd November with Elizabeth Killeen and
COMM resources on LifeSciLearning.

5. Your essay must be all written in your own words to convey your own understanding with citations
and references in Harvard style to maintain academic integrity and avoid plagiarism. Please include
a short note (<50 words) after your text and reference list about how you have avoided plagiarism
in this work. More information about plagiarism is in the COMM.02 folder on Blackboard in the
LifeSciLearning site and please ask if you are unsure via anita.hall@imperial.ac.uk.

6. Make use of any available feedback on your previous writing to improve this essay. Include a
statement about how you have done this after your reference list (maximum 50 words, not
included in essay’s word count, this can also be pasted in your e-portfolio). Optional but good
practice: you can also include the self-review questions from the previous 600-word task to
improve this essay before you submit it.

Some notes to guide you as you write your essay

Reminder: there is guidance on writing well in the COMM.02, 05 and 06 folders on LifeSciLearning and
from the Centre for Academic English e.g., their speaking and writing lab. In summary: Always think of
your reader and guide them through understanding your essay. Some useful advice is, ‘Tell the reader
what you are going to say and why it’s worth saying, say it, and then tell them what you have said.’
Feedback from previous work for you to use: Effective essays are written in a logical order and all the text
is relevant to the question guiding the reader through the essay. Precise terms are used and there are
plenty of relevant details and where useful, explanations of the life science behind them. Some critical and
analytical ability can be shown when discussing evidence e.g., by discussing and evaluating alternative
models. There are also some well-presented figures.

A check before submitting your 1200-word essay: Have you followed the instructions in steps 1-6 above
including adding a brief note about how you avoided plagiarism and acted on previous feedback?

Submission: Please submit your essay via the dropbox in the Assessment information folder on
Blackboard in CB for Biochemists/Biotechnologists and ED for Biological Scientists by 13:00 30th
November. Your personal tutors will feedback on your work during your personal tutorial meeting 1.3. We
can also discuss your essay in later COMM sessions.
Any questions? As always, please send them in e.g., via anita.hall@imperial.ac.uk or the COMM Teams site,
thanks.
If you have any requests for other information and resources that you might find useful, please also send
them in and I can post them in the COMM folder on LifeSciLearning and in the COMM Teams site, thanks.