PHRUC 2021 • Instructions for Part 1 of Term Paper 1

PHRUC 2021 • Instructions for Part 1 of Term Paper 1
PHRUC 2021: Instructions for Term Paper, Part 1
Due no later than Friday, November 12, 2021 by 4:00 pm, via Canvas
As noted in the syllabus, your term paper will come together in three stages (due dates in syllabus):
(a) Prospectus (1-2 pages) [Finished!]
(b) Part 1 (8-10 pages): Describe and justify the selection of your selected problem-place-periodpopulation combination and analyze its causes and consequences. (Instructions here.)
(c) Part 2 (6-8 pages): Review policies and interventions that have been proposed to mitigate the problem,
evaluate their merits and drawbacks, and provide your own recommendations. (Instructions to come.)
These instructions cover Part 1 ([b], above). This is the first half-or-so of the term paper; in this assignment,
you’ll introduce the problem-place-period combination you proposed in the prospectus*
; provide both key
and contextual details on each of the 4 “p’s” in that combo; give a rationale for why you prioritized (a fifth
“p”!) this problem, focusing on its public-health importance, particularly given the place, period and
population; and analyze the causes and consequences of the problem in its place, period, and population.
*A note on the relation between this paper and the prospectus: You should feel free to change your
problem-place-period-population combination from the one you presented in the prospectus ([a],
above) – whether you intend to tweak it slightly in response to my feedback, or to change it entirely.
If you’re leaning more toward the latter, though, I’d encourage you to email me with details of your
newly chosen problem, place, period, and population. The more lead-time you can give me, the more
feedback I can give you. Please, please (I’m begging, here!) don’t wait to the last minute to change
your combination completely; it will most likely be painful for both of us.
Assignment format and mechanics
1. First, provide an introduction to the specific health issue (problem) in a specific location (place) and time (period),
including a clear, concise statement of your problem-place-period combination.
This is, far and away, the most important part of your paper.
Clear and concise is crucial, here. Don’t shy away from phrasing your problem statement explicitly,
along the lines of “This paper analyzes [problem] in [place and population] over [period]” format.
Don’t try to write anything until you’ve gotten this part down pat. I encourage you to run your
problem statement by other people (including me). If those other people can’t figure out exactly
what your problem is, and it’s not clear to them (even before you elaborate) why it presents a public
health problem, you don’t have it down pat.
I don’t want to get too prescriptive, and I do want you to work in your own narrative style – but it
really is vitally important that as your readers start reading, you give the combo to them on a platter.
This will also help you, because you’ll avoid stating something of this sort: “This paper explores
multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, which is a very important public-health problem, because it affects
people who have HIV/AIDS, and HIV/AIDS is a very important public-health problem, and so in
this paper I’m going to analyze the ability of people with HIV/AIDS to access specialist health care
in rural areas, which will help them avoid getting multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, and so I’m going
to see how the effect of the shortage of funding for critical access hospitals in rural areas on the
ability to provide care for HIV-positive people who have multi-drug resistant tuberculosis.”**
**No one chose this topic, by the way, and nobody wrote something this convoluted in
a prospectus – it’s simply a very exaggerated illustration of what to avoid in this
assignment, when giving a problem statement.
PHRUC 2021 • Instructions for Part 1 of Term Paper 2
This “problem statement” is not clear, or concise; in fact, it’s barely a problem statement. It deals
with (at least) three potential problems: the shortage of funding for critical access hospitals; the
ability of critical access hospitals to provide care for multi-drug resistant tuberculosis in HIVpositive patients; and the access to specialist health care of people living with HIV/AIDS in rural
areas. Which one is the problem? (Note that “access to health care” is not a problem as much as an
issue; lack of access is a problem, and it calls for elaboration: relative to what standard of access?)
Again, this is an exaggerated illustration – but ask yourself repeatedly, “am I stating a problem,
here – or am I just stating an issue, or a topic, or a subject?”
“The cholera outbreak of 1848” is a topic. “The response to the cholera outbreak of 1848” is a
subject. “The reasons behind the ineffectual response to the cholera outbreak of 1848” is an issue.
“The failure of public-health authorities to effectively respond to the cholera outbreak of 1848” is
getting closer to the mark – it’s not a terrible problem statement, but it could be further refined,
adding information for clarity.
A common problem in this assignment is to rush to a solution. Constantly remind yourself:
interventions are for Part Two ([c], above)! If you find yourself writing on an intervention in the
assignment, ask yourself: is the intervention my problem? It might be! For example: “This paper
analyzes the failure of doctors in critical access hospitals to properly treat multi-drug resistant
tuberculosis in their HIV-positive patients over the last five years” – a clear, concise problem
statement, which makes an intervention (treating multi-drug resistant tuberculosis) the problem.
(The solutions in Part Two, then, would in effect be intervening on this problematic intervention.)
Finally, if you have even a suspicion that any of the terms you’re using might be unclear to a general
reader, please make sure you define them. (This holds throughout the paper.)
2. Next, drawing on published data and literature, provide details (quantitative and qualitative) on the problem you’ve
identified, and contextualize that problem with information on the selected place, period, and population.
You should provide a clear and coherent portrait of the nature, scope, and scale of the problem – as
well as the environments (physical, built, social, economic, political, etc.) in which it’s situated. While
you are, as before, free to draw on any personal connection or interest you have in the problem, this
should be a minor part of your paper. You should concentrate on providing details gleaned from the
peer-reviewed literature, organizational publications, academic books, media reports, etc.
Formal citations and a bibliography are a must for this assignment; there’s no minimum number of
articles or other resources, but if you’ve referenced fewer than five, at least, then you should
probably consider whether you’ve supported your arguments well enough. (I’m not fussy about what
sort of citation format [APA, Chicago, etc.] you use – just make it a consistent listing of author, title
of article and/or name of source [journal, book, newspaper], and date of publication, please!)
3. Justify your selection of the problem-place-period-population combination, drawing on the published literature.
The key objective is for this justification to leave the reader persuaded that this is a significant public
health problem. This doesn’t mean you have to prove that it’s THE MOST IMPORTANT
PUBLIC HEALTH PROBLEM ANYWHERE, EVER. It just means the reader needs to be
convinced that it’s worth reading several pages more about this problem. The justification should
include sufficient support of the choice of period, place, and population.
This might not be best accomplished in a completely separate section – you might want to structure
your paper so that the details from (2) above and this justification flow together.
Again: if the problem-place-period-population combination you choose is one with which you’re
familiar, feel free to use your “insider” knowledge in writing the paper – but rely primarily on peerreviewed literature, professional documentation, media reportage, etc.
PHRUC 2021 • Instructions for Part 1 of Term Paper 3
4. Drawing on course readings and other relevant literature, analyze the causes and consequences of the problem, in light
of (1)-(3) – providing your conclusions about which causes and consequences are most important.
This is the conceptual heart of the first part of the paper. This is where you show what you’ve
learned from the parts of the course that dealt with issues of cause, of key factors and determinants
(including but not limited to place, community, environment, occupation, class, race, ethnicity,
gender, sex, age, and the lifecourse).
Important: Don’t try to give details on every possible cause and consequence of your problem in
the place, period, and population you’ve chosen. Instead, give the reader a convincing argument
about the most important causes and consequences, given your analysis.
That said, being convincing means not simply ignoring obvious alternative causes/consequences –
lest the reader think you forgot or are ignorant of them! One strategy for doing this: mention the
other causes and consequences, but make a persuasive claim that these are (a) not as important as
the ones you’ve highlighted in more detail; (b) beyond the scope of your paper; (c) upstream or
downstream of your selected problem in some key way; (d) all of the above.
Again, you should cite peer-reviewed literature, professional documentation, media reportage, etc.
that support your point.
Also again, this might not be best accomplished in a completely separate section – you might want
to structure your paper so that the details from (2) and (3) above and this analysis flow together.
While I’ve listed numbered components and provided specific questions and criteria for you to address,
your paper should be in a fluid, narrative format. It’s not required for you to provide a segue into Part 2 of
the paper (e.g., briefly foreshadowing policies and interventions that have been implemented to address your
problem, and their success/failure), but as a conclusion to Part 1, this wouldn’t be out of place.
You’re welcome to create tables or figures to summarize data/sources, but again, it’s not required.
Although you submit papers through Canvas, I return them either in class or via individual email. To help
me out, please make sure your name appears on the first page of your paper. Papers without names will receive a
score of zero for this assignment.
Your report should be typed, double-spaced, using a 12-point font of common use (e.g., Times New Roman,
Garamond) and one-inch margins. Please include page numbers. Proofread your work carefully! Papers with
frequent misspellings and grammatical errors will be marked down by a half grade. Yet while grammar and
mechanics are important, it’s most important that you communicate your ideas clearly and concisely.
Grading Rubric
Section Points
1. Introduction to problem-place-period-population combination 25
2. Details on problem-place-period-population combination 50
3. Justification for choice of problem-place-period-population combination 25
4. Analysis of causes and consequences of problem 100
TOTAL 200 points