For Essay #2, we develop a Review/ Perspectives article on Human Ancestry for the journal Nature.
Find the species name of the Human Ancestor that you have chosen to research(example: Homo erectus )
After you select an early Human Ancestor, and identify it by its species name, you may begin researching this species for the Review article/Essay 2
Carefully evaluate Reading # 5: the sample Review article from Nature, “A tip of the hat to evolutionary change”, to develop a concept of how a Review article is formatted.
Here are some basic components for a Review/ Perspectives article:
1. INTRODUCTION: Introduce central idea, and the significance of this type of study. (Why is it important? Who is your ancestor, and why is this ancestor relevant to understanding human evolution?)
2.INTERMEDIATE PARAGRAPHS: Relate the central idea to several recent studies about this ancestor. (Some compare and contrast between studies.). *Try to find 2 or 3 articles that have been published in the past 10 years.
3. CONCLUSION: Writer’s perspective/evaluation on the field of study, and suggestions for future research. (Although this is largely opinion – we avoid using 1st person – and phrase ideas to infer opinion. Example: “It seems likely that … “it probably indicates that ….”
4. REFERENCES: Sequenced/ numbered in the order they are discussed in the writing. (NOT alphabetically). (In-text citations are given as numbers in parentheses (1) or superscript 1.
