The creative essay will be conducted as follows:

Students will do this assignment individually, you will be required to write a non technical “story” from the point of view of a microbe of your choosing (i.e. you will become the microbe and tell your story), in a simple yet scientifically factual language that an average 1st year university science student could understand.
Students will need to choose a microbe (you can be a bacteria, virus or parasite) and develop the key ideas, which will form the basis of their essay (describing the pathogenesis of infection of their chosen microbe).
All written assignments are to be word-processed with size 12 font either Arial or Times New Roman with double-line spacing and single sided only. You only have 1,500 words, therefore it is not possible to summarise all of the material you will have read. There is a 10% tolerance for the word limit (i.e. max 1,650 words). Your assignment is to be written in sentences and paragraphs (i.e. an essay), avoiding dot- points and lengthy quotes. You should use headings to structure your assignment and you should use pictures, tables and diagrams etc. Although this is a creative essay it is based on scientific facts and needs to be based on a broad range of sources, typically with several references per paragraph.
Students will have to selective and focus on the aspects that you are most relevant in addressing the assignment topic. Students will need to find a number of relevant journal articles or microbiology books that support their essay plan. Researching a topic takes time, so you will need to put a strategy in place to space your reading over a number of weeks, rather than cram your readings into just a few days (or hours!). Once you have completed your readings you will now need to put a twist on this subject matter and write it in a creative and engaging way, this will be the most challenging aspect of the assignment as to be able to do this you will have to have a good understanding of the subject matter. Good assignments are usually re-written several times; this also takes time.