World Animal Resources
Recommendations and Actions
Assignment Requirements
- Must include a clear thesis statement, which identifies the topic and offers a concise statement of the main point(s)
- Length – minimum of 1,500 words (does not include words from the references)
- Due Date/times o Draft – 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, December 1 o Final version – 11:59 p.m. on Friday, December 13
- Point value – 100 points
- 1.5 or 2.0 line spacing; 1-inch margins; 11 or 12 pt. font (Calibri or Times New Roman preferred)
- VERY IMPORTANT: papers must be submitted in Word format. This will allow the instructors to view and make comments on your writing assignments (most other formats are not visible to the instructor when assignments are submitted in Compass).
Recommendations and Actions paper
This paper will be consist of two parts, with the first part focusing on a wildlife/conservation recommendation for your assigned country, followed by the second part, which should include an animal agriculture recommendation for your assigned country.
Part 1: Wildlife/conservation recommendations
Imagine you are a natural resource conservationist in your assigned country, and you are asked to make a wildlife or conservation-oriented recommendation. Your recommendation should focus on either one species or the animals within one ecosystem (within your assigned country, and should include the current status of the species or ecosystem populations, as well as information about threats and constraints (which could include issues such as climate, topography, competing interests, culture, or other limitations).
What is your recommendation to address the situation faced by the species or ecosystem populations? What will be the impact of your recommendation on the species or ecosystem population, as well as the impact on the country’s economy and human population? You may (but are not required to) look at successful policies that have been implemented in other countries. The best papers will clearly lay out the issues and provide rationale for making the recommendation.
Minimum word count for this section – 750 (not including words from the references) Audience – Instructor
Part 2: Animal agriculture recommendations
Imagine you are an animal scientist in your assigned country, and you need to make an animal agriculture recommendation. Your recommendation could be related to any area of animal agriculture, and you can recommend an increase, decrease, or no change in the production level of your selected area. Your paper should include the current status of the production system you choose (the level of production, consumption, and other data you deem important), and your recommendation should address the nature of the production system (extensive, intensive, combined), and whether production should increase, decrease or stay the same, and why?
Your recommendation should include changes that are feasible in the real world, considering potential constraints related to climate, access to capital and technology, education status of producers, culture, population, or other factors. Consider your suggestions in light of animal well-being, food security, the environment in the country, and consider the impact on the economy and human population.
Minimum word count for this section – 750 (not including words from the references) Audience – Instructor
Tips:
- In this assignment you can draw on any of the information we’ve used in the class, and for data about your assigned country the following websites are highly recommended:
- Our World in Data:
o https://ourworldindata.org/meat–production o https://ourworldindata.org/seafood–production o Or other pages within the Our World in Data site
- FAO statistics page: http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data
- Remember that you have to submit a recommendations and actions discussion post containing 2-3 resources related to your assigned country (the post is due at 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, October 30)
Paper 5 – Rubric
Draft
Points for the draft version (due December 1) will be assigned on the basis of the following criteria. IMPORTANT NOTE: your point total on the draft is not necessarily indicative of the points you will receive on the final version, which has more of an emphasis on content and writing quality.
| Section | Missing/poor | Average | Excellent |
| Content clearly and effectively addresses the topic/prompts | 0-3 | 4-7 | 8-10 |
| Word count (not including references) – Part 1 | 0 (< 750 words) | 0 (< 750 words) | 5 (≥ 750 words) |
| Word count (not including references) – Part 2 | 0 (< 750 words) | 0 (< 750 words) | 5 (≥ 750 words) |
| References provided and formatted appropriately; overall paper format | 0-1 | 2-3 | 4-5 |
| Total Points | 0-4 | 6-11 | 22-25 |
Final paper
Below is information about how the two parts of this final paper will be evaluated. In the final version (due December 13) you’re asked to revise this paper based on feedback you receive from the instructor (feedback will be provided no later than Sunday, December 8).
Part 1 – Wildlife/conservation recommendation
| Section | Missing/poor | Average | Excellent |
| Provides an overview of the threats and issues facing a particular species or ecosystem populations | 0-1 | 2-4 | 5-6 |
| Provides a clear recommendation related to the species or ecosystem population | 0-2 | 3-5 | 6-7 |
| Provides information about the potential impact on the country’s economy and human population | 0-1 | 2-4 | 5-6 |
| Provides rationale for the recommendation | 0-1 | 2-4 | 5-6 |
| Word count (not including references) | 0 (< 750 words) | 0 (< 750 words) | 4 (≥ 750 words) |
| Total Points | 0-5 | 9-17 | 25-29 |
Part 2 – Animal agriculture recommendation
| Section | Missing/poor | Average | Excellent |
| Provides an overview of the current status of the chosen production system | 0-1 | 2-4 | 5-6 |
| Provides a clear recommendation related to the chosen production system | 0-2 | 3-5 | 6-7 |
| Provides information about the potential impact on the country’s economy and human population | 0-1 | 2-4 | 5-6 |
| Provides rationale for the recommendation | 0-1 | 2-4 | 5-6 |
| Word count (not including references) | 0 (< 750 words) | 0 (< 750 words) | 4 (≥ 750 words) |
| Total Points | 0-5 | 9-17 | 25-29 |
General quality of writing and formatting citations
| Section | Missing/poor | Average | Excellent |
| Grammar/spelling, punctuation, format (follow the required format) | 0-3 | 4-6 | 7-9 |
| Proper use and formatting of in-text and reference section sources | 0-2 | 3-5 | 6-8 |
| Total Points | 0-5 | 7-11 | 13-17 |
