Early History

Summary Report II: Early Life Writing Assignment 25 points

Assignment: Write an original work of fiction that includes aspects of early invertebrate life in the Paleozoic. The characters can be the invertebrate fossils, the setting would be the geologic setting, age, and environment, and the plot will focus on the daily life, dangers, etc. of the fossil(s) you choose. Fiction? Really? Yes! You can choose whatever style of fiction you like. The only catch is it has to be geologically accurate! Be sure to read the grading rubric on page 2.

References: You may need additional background information. You will need three references. Textbook readings, the class lecture, the module videos, and additional webpage (or book) reference that provides additional helpful information about the Paleozoic fossil are acceptable.

Note: In order to get full credit, you need to include some references. You will use in-text citations and have a reference list at the end. You may work some really good ideas in what you learn from studying about other “real” fossils and localities, and these should be

referenced. Normally references are not required (or expected) in works of fiction, but I’m grading your factual backgrounds as well as the quality of the fiction. You may use outside resources for this assignment.

The information you use should be referenced in the text of your writing. You may use whatever format you like, but be consistent. All sources referenced in your story should be listed at the end of the story as a references section. Again, you may choose the format, but make it consistent throughout.

Required: Make this an actual work of fiction, with interesting characters, dialogue, plot, intrigue, etc. Put as much geological information (factually reasonable, of course) into this story that it will hold without destroying the artistry of your literary work. Remember that most word processors have spelling checkers associated with them for your convenience (and your

grade). You can also use resources such as Grammarly, should you need it.

Length: Your story should be at least 750 words. Any shorter than that will be significantly lacking in completeness, no matter how well conceived. Make sure to take your facts to create a story.

Grading Rubric (points awarded out of 25 possible):

Storytelling	Work not acceptable.	Work turned in, but fails to meet college standards. Has substantial flaws in presentation and content/ completeness.	Work meets the minimum requirements for the assignment, but generally lacks creativity or has problems in presentation, content, or completeness	The story suffers from one or more minor problems with presentation/completeness of information. On the whole, however, it is a passable college-level work of geological fiction.	Decent plot and character development, well-written with grammatically correct sentences.
	0 points	2 points	3 points	4 points	5 points
Geological Info	Work not acceptable.	Did not show that you’ve learned a significant amount about early life.	You showed that you’ve learned something about early life, but you failed to demonstrate this well enough.	The geology suffers from one or more minor problems with correctness/completeness of information. On the whole, however, it is a passable college-level work of geological fiction.	Geologic information is factually correct, and the depth of information is at a suitable college level for this class. Your work clearly shows that you’ve learned something about early life.
	0 points	3 points	6 points	8 points	10 points
Spelling and Grammar	Work not acceptable.	Um, did you even proofread this?	Major spelling and grammatical errors.	Minor spelling and grammatical errors.	No spelling errors and only minor grammatical errors, if any.
	0 points	2 points	3 points	4 points	5 points
References	Work not acceptable.	Lacks any references.	References included but not properly cited.	Only one reference included in story.	Your references cited are reflected in the geological information you’ve covered.
	0 points	2 points	3 points	4 points	5 points