Developing a position and evidence to support it

459 Spring 2019 Exercise 4

Exercise 4 Instructions – DUE MAY 9 by 11:59pm Developing a position and evidence to support it

(20% - 50 points) Purpose: This assignment asks you to put together the scaffolded skills that you’ve demonstrated in the prior three exercises into one coherent paper that is 4-6 pages in length. In other words, without being provided the purpose or approach, you will need to consider a similar set of questions that you’ve worked through in the prior exercises but this time you will independently determine your purpose and approach. (1a.) What do you want to achieve in 4-5 pages (e.g. Do you want to convince your reader to consider a feature of patient-provider communication that hasn’t been thoughtfully considered? Do you want to make a case about the optimal uses of technology in facilitating communication? Do you want to suggest best practices for educating medical students to communicate with patients in primary care (or another) setting?) That is, what is your larger purpose? (1b.) How will you convince your reader that this larger purpose is worthwhile? Why is it important to achieve and think about? This will provide the justification for your paper and help convince the reader that this is a useful endeavor and that they should be interested in reading. (2.) What are you going to argue or claim or show/reveal to your reader? That is, what is your thesis or position? Your thesis will be what all your remaining paragraphs work to support. Your thesis may start in one place and end in another (i.e., as you work through the evidence and develop your evidence in your paper, it is normal for it to evolve). Parts 1a – 2 constitute your introduction and it is up to you to decide if it makes sense to construct them in one or two paragraphs (an introduction does not have to be only one paragraph but because the paper is 4-5 pages, you want to make sure you leave enough space to properly support your thesis and build your case). Parts 3a and 3b constitute your body paragraphs – the evidence that you will present to convince your reader. (3a.) Weigh your evidence. You might draw on evidence from

• others’ experts opinions and make a case for why you agree (or disagree) with them • concrete examples or case studies that illustrate a perspective that support your position • research findings – some findings may straightforwardly make the case and all you need to

do is tell your reader x was found, • but often you’ll need to add your interpretation of a research finding to make the strongest

case for your position (because the original study was not necessarily conducted with YOUR purpose in mind)

• You might also bring disparate research findings together that when considered independently others might not have thought about them in the way that you are proposing

459 Spring 2019 Exercise 4 (3b.) Consider contradictory or counter evidence. If you have room, you might consider and address where there are holes or flaws in your argument that others might point out, where there is evidence you’ve come across that might subtly contradict or NOT support your thesis, or why readers may just disagree with you. (4.) Identify implications. Your last paragraph can serve as a discussion, as a way to take a step back from all of your evidence and remind your reader why this is important and valuable and what are the larger implications of what you’ve learned. (5.) A reflective paragraph. At the very end of your paper (it is fine if this goes over the 5 page limit), please comment on where you feel like you excelled in writing this paper – what was easy for you, why do you think it was easy, and what were you most proud of in the final product? – and where you feel like you fell short – what was hard for you, why do you think it was hard, and what did you have intention to achieve but in the final product those intentions just didn’t seem to surface in the way you had planned? These don’t have to be long (250 words can sometimes do it) but length is irrelevant; focus on content. (6.) Include a references list with the sources you’ve drawn from (at least 7 sources, formatted using the 6th edition of APA). Your in-text citations should also be formatted according to the 6th edition of APA. Be sure to proofread your work for clarity, grammatical and spelling errors (7.) Upload exercise to Canvas by 11:59pm on Thursday, May 9