Biology Question

Congressional Testimony.This paper should center on antibiotic resistance (possibly in relation to the microbiome), or sleep/circadian biology in society. These areas concern questions of science, human and ecological health, and government regulatory policy.

For that reason, your paper will follow the form not of the traditional essay, but of a legislative
congressional hearing. A legislative congressional hearing is an event used to gather and
analyze information in the early stages of making or changing public law. Members of Congress
listen to testimonies from experts, members of the public for whom the issue is of special
relevance, or other policy makers.
Your first task in this paper is to write a neutral one-page QUESTION of the problem at hand that
Congress is interested in acting upon. This should be a straightforward statement of the
problem without the voicing of any particular opinion, should be in the third person, and should
narrow and define the issue. Rather than choosing “the microbiome” for example, think of an
issue such as the regulation of probiotic supplements. To use a real example, many
congressional hearings have been held on the issue of stem cell technologies, with members of
Congress interested in making laws to ban human reproductive cloning or ban the use of human
embryonic stem cells. What issue will your made-up experts be responding to?
Your framing of the problem on page one will then lead into two mock testimonials, each of 3
pages in length, for a hearing on the role of government in addressing that problem. You will
have to invent people (biological scientists, affected citizens, social scientists, social activists,
historians, epidemiologists, philosophers, bioethicists etc.) to speak to the issue from a
particular point of view. You could also choose a real-life person, if you have an idea of what
their perspective would be (you still make up their argument, don’t use their words). You will
use the readings from class as sources to provide the substance of what these speakers say, as
well as your own ingenuity and thoughtfulness to come up with proposed solutions to the
problems they are addressing.

The congressmen/women wish to hear from the specialists they’ve invited regarding:
? what the nature of the problem is from the specific perspective of the speakers’ expertise
? what the evidence is for causes of the problem
? and what kinds of government interventions are implied by the definition and causal
explanation of the problem.
Each testimony should state “the problem” as the speaker sees it/defines it, give arguments for
what is causing the problem, and then propose actions for the Federal government to take that
specifically address these proposed causes. (For example, if a speaker says that over-
prescription is causing antibiotic misuse, and the evidence given relates to medicine, then the
proposed interventions should follow logically and address not just the problem of antibiotics
generally, but how to intervene in antibiotic use in the medical realm; or, if a speaker addresses
the overuse of air conditioning in response to heat, the intervention should be specific to the
problem, to specific agencies or regulators who can have impact on appliance use). If
appropriate, a testimony can criticize other viewpoints, and strengthen its own position by
saying why other approaches are misguided. Or the two speakers may agree, it is up to you.
Look at examples to get a sense of the general rhetorical form: obviously, though, you will need
to be shorter and more concise to fit your evidence and argument into 3 pages per testimony.

General Grading Rubric: Unlike your long answers on the exams, which are not really graded
on organization or style, this assignment will take into account the clarity, creativity and
organization of your writing. The paper is worth 20% of your grade for the class, and these are
the four categories of assessment that will be used to reach that grade:
1. Grammar, spelling, and sentence structure. These are the technical building blocks of a
good paper. Check your sentences to make sure each one is grammatically correct, of a
reasonable length, and that it flows coherently with the sentence before and the sentence
after. Run-on sentences, unclear referents (it not being clear what “it” refers to), and non-
sequiturs are frequent errors. Another common error is using a word because it sounds
right (or sounds important) without actually looking it up to see if its usage is correct. Use
the Oxford English Dictionary, a resource available to you through the library website to
double-check your word choice, but use straightforward language when possible. Often,
reading your paper out loud to yourself or a friend can help you find those sentences that
are awkward or difficult to understand: if it is hard to read out loud, it will be hard for anyone
to read to themselves. All these points are true regardless of which topic you choose.
2. Overall organization and paragraph structure. Make sure your paragraphs have topic
sentences, that the material in each paragraph belongs together, and that the paragraphs
move in a logical order. If you choose the Congressional Hearings, then testimonies should
have an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. The material should be clear, and clearly
communicated. State your case, then make your case, then sum up your case. Remember
you are trying to persuade someone to take action, and to believe your version of the facts.
No paragraph should contain more than 7 sentences, and paragraphs should be roughly the
same length as one another. If you are writing a plot make sure you are building a fictional
world but starting with a basis that is well-situated in concrete facts learned in class
(supported through citations from class material) and that there is internal logic and
consistency to the world you imagine. Make sure that you provide a QUESTION of your new story and plot synopsis, in which you describe the characters, setting, and what happens in the story, as well as explaining the big themes the plot would explore. What has changed and what is still the same in your new vision in comparison to these earlier works?

3. Concreteness and use of relevant resources. When writing on the Congressional Hearings,
avoid extremely general statements, even in your opening and closing paragraphs. For
example, “Man has for all time…”, “ People have always…”, “Society is changing,” etc.
Always be precise, ground your statements by referring to specific times, places, people,
things or facts; alternately, offer a specific example to illustrate a general statement. “For
example” should be your friend. It can often be very helpful to actually quote a portion of a
text to illustrate your point, but do not overuse direct quotes keep them short and use them
at key points. All facts or quotes should be cited using a (name, date, p#) format. You
must reference at least 3 different class readings in each testimony, for a total of 6 different
class readings. For your story, you also want to create a specific, detailed world with key
memorable characters and a clear plot relevant to issues around either antibiotic resistance
or sleep/circadian rhythms; you need to show that you have mastered the material you are
‘playing’ with in your fictional account, so make sure to illustrate your knowledge about
science and societal issues at the heart of your story by using clear facts or quotes from the
articles of interest (make sure to reference at least 6 articles from class).
4. Quality of Analysis. How convincing, well-reasoned, and original are the observations put
forward in the testimonies? Or, how are the class materials mobilized in the making of a
new story? If the paper describes the facts but does not interpret them, this is reportage
rather than analysis. Is the author able to make something new and original out of the
materials provided? Important: does the explanation of the problem match the intervention
suggested or the future envisioned? How specific and well thought-out is the intervention or
the future scenario?

Emphasis on #4.

Please provide an outline to me before working on it.