Syllabus

Technical Writing in Health Sciences

CHS 211, Spring 2017

Room EJCH 252; Meeting time M & W (& F), 10:00 – 10:50am

Instructor: Drake Gossi

Office: FH007-8; Office Hours: after class and on Friday

Telephone: 682-7095; Email: drakestechnicalwritingclass@gmail.com

Course Description:

Expository writing in the health sciences is specialized. This course is designed to improve student skills in developing and presenting written discussion of the health sciences. Students will gain experience with norms and guidelines for successful writing in the sciences. Students will practice writing drafts through various assignments and exercises. Students will produce a health science literature review paper.

This course is required for the CHS, Public Health major and is a pre-requisite for some CHS upper-division courses. The course is supported by the University Writing Center.

Student Learning Outcomes:

1. Categorize and appraise the relevant health sciences literature that is the background for a research question.

2. Synthesize health sciences literature in an appropriately written review that includes paraphrasing, comparison, and assessment.

3. Describe the writing process and stages of successful writing.

4. Apply the APA and AMA notation styles for citing sources and attributing credit.

5. Create structured and unstructured abstracts that summarize a new paper.

6. Practice expository writing in the health sciences.

7. Produce a writing sample in at least one other category relevant to public health professionals. Students will produce, present, and submit a lightening talk (or data blitz) presentation.

Texts:

1) Helen Aveyard, Doing a Literature Review in Health and Social Care: A Practical Guide. 3^rd edition. Open University Press, 2014. Available free at UNR KC, link to electronic copy.

2) Berridge, Virginia. Public Health: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2016.

Course Requirements:

Weekly assignments, graded in-class exercises (maybe), and drafts of papers. A final paper including all the sections from the semester will be submitted at the end of the course.

Points are allocated as follows (not all points are represented here; in class assignments and drafting work will be added later on):

Literature review paper, final draft in APA = 40pts.

Attendance = 27 classes, including the final, which is worth 4, so = 30pts.

PowerPoint presentation in AMA presented on the final (5/8, 5/12 = black out days) = 30pts.

Deliverable (some genre I know not yet) by the final + process memo = 30pts.

Book club (on YouTube; starting in April) + 3 responses = 30pts.

Research journal = 10pts. each (x3) = 30pts total
Two conferences, Writing Center (one by 3/17) = 10pts. each = 20pts total³
6 page, 10 source draft of the “results” section of the lit review (by 3/17) = 20pts.

Summary table/synthesis matrix = 20pts.
Synthesis proposal = 5pts.
Explaining your project = 5pts.
In class work (2/6 + 2/8) = 4pts (1pt. available as extra credit)

Hello post = 1pt.

You cannot pass this course without completing the literature review, the Power Point presentation, or the deliverable. For extra credit (5pts.), you may visit the Writing Center in addition to the two times required by this course, but you will never get an appointment at the last minute.

The final letter grade will include “plusses and minuses” according to the following guide: A (100-93); A- (92-90); B+ (89-87); B (86-83); B- (82-80); C+ (79-77); C (76-73); C- (72-70); D+ (69-67); D (66-63); D- (62-60); F =59 and below.

Blog: This course will be mediated though a personal blog on Blogger, which you must set up yourself. While there are a manifold of reasons for this, a lot of the things we do cannot be done on Canvas, which is unfortunate, but just the way it is. If you are uncomfortable with your name being online, you may use a pseudonym. Other students will comment on your blog, but I wont, as I can’t leave evaluative comments in public spaces. I will evaluate your work on Canvas.

Participation and timeliness: The professor will directly keep track of attendance. Assignments cannot be made up or redone after they are listed as due, save for in case of emergency, as determined by me. The same goes for in class activities. There are no make up points for attendance, either, as there are no excused absences at this university, save for university sanctioned activities and religious holidays. In case of emergency, as determined by me, I will simply void the daily point. Class discussions will include critical information not available elsewhere. You are responsible for anything that takes place in class or over email, so please pay attention to any special announcements, and check your email daily. A term paper is “chunked out” and assigned “in stages” that build toward a final product. Being any later than 5 minutes is ground for loosing your daily point. Technically, there is no class Friday. But I will be here, checking email and helping anyone who wants help in person. On that day, feel free to come and work on this course. There is no limit to the classes you can miss, although they are each worth a point. Out of class assignments will only ever be due on Sunday and Friday, both by 11:59pm to your blog, with a few possible exceptions, such as the final, which I will tell you about well in advance of the deadline. If you have, or anticipate having, a problem getting to or from class (or doing the work on time), you must tell me well in advance of the problems that do take place to negotiate anything The rule here is, if you want an accommodation or exception to be made, you have to inform me beforehand, or, at the very least, continue to keep in excellent communication with me during, plus immediately after.²

Getting in touch with me:¹ I will check my class email on Friday only. The reason for this policy is that I see you Monday and Wednesday in person, and, with the added day of Friday, that means you have three opportunities to discuss anything with me every week. Plus, for every assignment I can think of off the top of my head, save for the final and probably the book club, there will be a three-day grace period, which means, if there is a posting problem, you can just upload it from another computer the next day. But to prevent abuse of this, I will limit these grace periods to three times. You therefore have three three-day grace periods. So, if you have a problem posting something on Friday, just upload it by Monday. If you receive an email from my personal email (it’s linked to my MyNevada, so it could happen), do not respond to that email, although I will try to not use it for exactly this reason. There’s no need to email me, say, if your car breaks down, or if you just don’t feel well one morning. If you can get me a doctor’s note, I’ll void the points for the day. But I’ll never simply give you points for not being in class. For any emails that ask me to recapitulate what we did in class this week, I will simply say, "See syllabus." Emails are meant to address meaningful course problems as related to the research process, not to review for those who did not bother to show up.

Professionalism and minimal disruption of student learning are expected from everybody. Students and the professor are expected to be respectful of everyone’s time, and are encouraged to develop problem-solving skills to handle any unexpected concerns or challenges politely and discreetly. Students will be held to a high standard of professionalism throughout the semester and are encouraged to engage meaningfully with the mission, values, and pillars of professionalism upheld by the School of Community Health Sciences (e.g. Self-awareness, Integrity & Honesty, Reliability & Responsibility, and Communication & Collaboration). I reserve the right to not give you your daily point if you are being disrespectful in (or are late to) class. Falling asleep or “checking out” would count as being disrespectful.

Student Services and Required Statements:

Veterans may also wish to check the UNR Veterans Services office for support: http://www.unr.edu/stsv/veteran/. 

Cultural diversity: The Center for Student Cultural Diversity offers a number of resources for all students, while placing specific emphasis on students that self-identify as African American, Asian American/Pacific Islander, American Indian and Hispanic/Latino, First-Generation (neither parent holds a four year college degree), Income-qualified, Multiracial/Biracial and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Transgender (LGBT) http://www.unr.edu/cscd/index.html.

Disability Resources:  If you have any disability or challenge (broadly defined) for which you will need accommodations, please contact me or Mary Zabel, Director of the UNR Disability Resource Center (784-6000 or mzabel@unr.edu) or go by the Disability Resource Center (Thompson 107) as soon as possible to arrange for accommodations.

Religious observances:  The instructor and students will follow the policy of the university regarding excused absences for religious holidays.

Academic Success Services: Your student fees cover usage of the Math Center (784-4433 or www.unr.edu/mathcenter), Tutoring Center (784-6801 or www.unr.edu/tutoring), and University Writing Center (784-6030 or www.unr.edu/writing_center). These centers support your classroom learning; it is your responsibility to take advantage of their services. Keep in mind that seeking help outside of class is the sign of a responsible and successful student.

Academic integrity:  Students are encouraged to read the appropriate sections in the university’s General Catalog regarding policies and procedures on academic dishonesty and to speak with the professor if there are any questions regarding these policies and procedures. Plagiarism is taken very seriously at the university. Plagiarism is stealing the words, thoughts, ideas, organization, or data of another person without giving proper credit. Plagiarism includes taking ideas, copying words without quote marks and citations, paraphrasing without giving credit, and using facts, statistics, graphics, etc. that is not common knowledge without giving credit. The choice of flunking the assignment or the course for plagiarism is up to the professor’s discretion. The procedures for addressing an academic integrity issue are outlined in the University's "Academic Dishonesty Procedures", which can be obtained from the Office of Student Conduct.

Required Statement on Audio and Video Recording: Surreptitious or covert video-taping of class or unauthorized audio recording of class is prohibited by law and by Board of Regents policy.  This class may be videotaped or audio recorded only with the written permission of the instructor.   In order to accommodate students with disabilities, some students may have been given permission to record class lectures and discussions.  Therefore, students should understand that their comments during class may be recorded.

Disclosure:

I reserve the right to slightly tinker with these policies, but you will always be made aware of what changes I do make.

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1 2,665: Faculty Accessibility Policy Revised: February 2014 Faculty members who teach classes are expected to provide students with reasonable access for promoting student-faculty consultation, in accordance with major unit/department policy. The methods of consultation should be included in course syllabi and publicly posted each academic term. Whenever possible, arrangements most convenient for both students and faculty, e.g., email, phone or chat groups may be substituted for the posted method of consultation where provided for by department policy. ^↩

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2 FOOTNOTE^↩

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3 Comments: xxxxxxx came in to work on the organization of her synthesis proposal. xxxxxxx was unwilling to participate throughout the session and seemed to only be there for the credit in the class. I suggested ways we can work on the results section but she was not willing to work on it. She plans on writing the results sometime later today.^↩