ELI 120

First Writing Assignment
Due September 30, 1998

 

You are the student representative on an LSA committee formed to consider requests for undergraduate research funding.

You have before you a request from the department of Psychology for funds to investigate the language acquisition of chimpanzees. The project wants to investigate how chimpanzees acquire language and discover better methods for training mentally retarded children who for various reasons fail to develop expressive linguistic skills during their early years. The committee has asked you to report on recent research and findings on ape language acquisition that may help them decide whether this project is worthwhile.

Read the article entitled "Aping Language." Using information from this article only, discuss in writing whether apes can learn language. Your paper should be written in a style appropriate for an academic setting, keeping in mind that your report will be read by LSA faculty who may or may not be familiar with this area of study and that your purpose is to inform (by summarizing the article).

Begin your discussion with an introduction to situate the discussion. Your introduction should come from you, not the article. At the end of your introduction or at the beginning of the second part be sure to identify the source of your information (even though I already know it). After your introduction, discuss the current state of knowledge with regard to ape language acquisition (in other words, summarize the article, focusing on the question whether apes can learn language).

To conclude write a short paragraph discussing whether you think the project is worthwhile. Be sure to include reasons for your recommendation. This final paragraph will not be a major part of your final grade, so don’t worry whether you make the "right" recommendation or not. However, it is important that you provide a recommendation and that your recommendation makes sense given the information in the article.

Your paper will be scored according to the following scheme.

 

 

Points Possible

Points Received

First Draft

Points Received

Second Draft

Accuracy of content

2

   

Introduction

1

   

Identification of source

1

   

Conclusion

1

   

Originality of presentation

1

   

Grammar

1

   

Vocabulary

1

   

Flow of ideas

1

   

Formatting

1

   

TOTAL

10