Books needed: -In the Shadow of Man (2000) Jane Goodall
-The Wolves of Isle Royale: A Broken Balance (2007) Rolf O. Peterson
-Next of Kin: My Conversations with Chimpanzees (1996) Roger Fouts
General Information: Your paper should be 5 ½ to 6 double-spaced pages long.
• In addition to the books, you may use the Internet to answer questions #2 and #4 below. Do not cut and paste from articles on the Internet without citing the author, article title, and URL, and (of course) using quotation marks, if you are quoting directly. Put the author’s name and the date in a parenthetical citation after the quotation. If you are paraphrasing, also use parenthetical citation for author and date. If you use the Internet, please include a “Works Cited” page indicating the author, article title, and URL in alphabetical order.
• Paper topics:
Choose 3 of the following 4 topics to write about.
1. Rolf Peterson and Jane Goodall take different approaches to conducting research on animals in the wild. However, in Peterson’s case, Isle Royale constitutes a very different environment than Gombe Stream Reserve in Tanzania. Compare and contrast the ways in which each of these habitats presents both opportunities and challenges to the researchers.
2. Compare and contrast the research approach of Fouts and Herbert Terrace. How does Fouts’ research on Loulis learning ASL from Washoe contradict Terrace’s claim that Nim Chimpsky had only learned to imitate his trainers? If Fouts is right, why was Terrace successful in casting doubt on the validity of the ape language research findings?
3. Compare the research approach of Jane Goodall and Roger Fouts. What do you see of the strengths and weaknesses of Goodall’s and Fouts’ research programs?
4. What are some of the reasons that Professor William Lemmon is such a troubling figure in Next of Kin? In what ways does he become Fouts’ nemesis?
A Final Word on Argument and Style. Unlike your informal blogs, assignment #1 requires that you use the “academic essay style,” one that is more formal and error-free than the blogs. You must also support your claims, which is something you do not have to do in the blogs. Also, I will mark off for usage, grammatical, and spelling errors. This means that you must carefully proofread your papers before you turn them in. I will mark down papers with more than 2 spelling, usage, or grammatical errors per page.
