This assignment must be submitted electronically using the Assignment tool in Moodle. In addition you MUST send me a copy of your research source. This must be a full copy. A link is not sufficient. An abstract is not sufficient. I must be able to read the article. This can be submitted via hard copy or electronically.
Project: Report on an Advance in Pathology
The purpose of this assignment is to learn skills required to remain current about pathophysiologic issues. This project has two aspects: doing a literature search and writing an essay about the results. For the learning and evaluation to be effective, each student needs to work independently.
Step 1The first step is to search the recent professional literature on biomedical research for an advance in knowledge regarding the etiology, pathophysiology, prevention, diagnosis or treatment of a pathology that interests you. The pathology itself may or may not be described in your textbook. The advance(s), however, should be new – initially published only in the last five years and not yet included in textbooks. You may have to try several topics before finding one with significant, recent discoveries.
Step 2
It is recommended that you contact your instructor and discuss your topic with her well in advance of the due date. Students have sometimes selected broad topics which then makes this assignment more challenging than is intended.
Step 3Finally, write an essay describing the disease process you have selected. Include etiology and pathophysiology. Summarize the new information on your topic. Also explain the links between the research and the pathophysiology of the disease process. In your essay you may include information from articles which you do not submit in hard copy, but your submitted articles should be the ones that are most important to the points you are making.
Write this essay in your own words; avoid using quotations, but remember to reference ideas using APA format.
This project is a learning activity. To get the most benefit from it, you should send me your ideas well before the project is due, so that I can give you feedback on them.
MATERIAL TO BE SUBMITTED
Essay
Submit the essay electronically along with your main reference article. The reference article may be submitted by hard copy or electronically.
Your essay should be 2,000 – 2500 words. It is a formal essay and you should use APA style for format and references.
Research ArticlesBy 2-day Express Mail (in the package with your essay), send hard copies of the most important research articles used for the update in your essay OR submit electronically. Include the entire article, not just the references to them, which will appear in your reference list at the end of your essay. The articles should be at the professional level. They should be written by research scientists or doctors, preferably the ones who did the experiments or developed the techniques. They should not be by journalists, i.e. “science writers” who are writing for the layman and are simply mentioning some results of experiments performed by scientists. The articles should be published within the last five years, and the advance(s) should not have been reported in any way prior to the last five years.
MARKING CRITERIA
Your assignment will be marked as follows:
ยท see marking guideline
Grading criteria This is the marking guide which will be used to mark your research paper.
Disease Process/PathophysiologyExplain the disease process. This should be a thorough discussion including relevant cellular and/or chemical changes. This will require sources in addition to your textbook.Maximum score30EtiologyInclude a thorough discussion of the causative factors that are thought to contribute to the development of the disease – include risk factors such as gender, age, ethnic background and geographic location.Maximum score5New Development/ResearchDescribe the new development including the research process.Maximum score30Links to Disease ProcessProvide an explanation about why the new development should work. This will require a link to the disease process itself. If the research result was disappointing – it is OK, sometimes theoretical associations do not turn out as expected.Maximum score20ReferencesYou must provide a hard copy of your main research article. All references must be recent and reliable.Maximum score10Format/WritingAPA format must be followed. The following areas will be evaluated – title page, running head, appropriate citations, reference page. Writing will be evaluated for clarity and appropriate terminology.Maximum score5