For this essay, you are welcome to write on any topic related to Microbiology based on your literature research. You can choose to write about viruses, bacteria, microbiome, infectious diseases, biotechniques, CRISPR, vaccines, antibiotics, antibody-based therapy, oncolytic viral therapy of cancer, immunotherapy of cancer, exciting discoveries, Noble prize winners and their discoveries, or any things else. Try to find something that excites you or something that has impacted you or someone you know.
You are free to organize the structure of your essay, but you should generally include some key elements as described below:
Title and subtitles:
You should include an informative title and subtitles.
Introduction:
Briefly describe some background information and explain why you choose the topic.
The science behind:
Describe the basic biology of the microorganism(s) of interest.
Try to include the name, taxonomy, life cycle, growth/replication characteristics of the organism of interest. You may include diagrams made by yourself or from a reference (make sure to credit the source).
Describe how things (therapy/drug/technique) work or how the discovery was made.
If you choose to write about infectious diseases, you may include the symptoms, course of the disease, modes of transmission, diagnosis, therapeutic and/or preventive measures etc.
References: At least 5 references from either research or review articles from scientific journals should be used in your essay. Your citation can follow the same styles used in any of your cited scientific articles. You are encouraged to use PubMed (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?otool=fsumlibLinks to an external site.) and Google Scholar for searching relevant references. Additional sources (e.g. websites) can be cited.
ChatGPT: You may use ChatGPT to do initial research on the topic, but you need to do further research on your own because ChatGPT often makes a lot of mistakes. Please refrain from using ChatGPT to write the essay for you.
Page limit: Your essay should be typed (font 11 or 12 points, double spaced) with page limit ~ 5-10 pages (up limit will not be strict but please keep it reasonable).
Plagiarism: Be aware that your document will be automatically scanned for originality, any plagiarism attempt should be avoided. The Turnitin scan report could impact your score!
Outreach: Please use this opportunity to educate yourself, and then your friends and family members. I also encourage you to use the story to advocate the importance of basic research.
