Topic: Gun violence
Order Description
Research Paper Assignment
Students will be required to research a public health topic of their choice and compose a college-level research paper of their findings.
Papers should be:
• At least 3 pages in length (not including a Reference page)
o Typed, double-spaced with standard 1 inch margins
o 12 point font (Times New Roman, Arial, or Calibri are acceptable fonts)
o Cited in APA format
• Spelling and grammar-checked (this factors into your overall quality score)
• Written in your own words, with proper in-text citations
Papers should include:
• An Introduction to the topic
o Clearly describe the topic. Include a BRIEF discussion of the relevance of your topic to public health.
• The Body of the Paper must cover:
o What is the prevalence? Are there any trends (increase or decrease in recent years?)
o What are the causes of the disease/topic?
o Further elaborate on its relevance to public health (use your “12 ways to identify a PH problem” handout)
o Is there a health disparity? (one group more affected than another? Racial/ethnic, low SES, women? One country over another? Etc.)
• Prevention or health promotion plan: The goal of Public health! You should come up with a prevention plan or health promotion plan for your topic.
o keep in mind the multi-factorial model that works best for PH prevention; try to cover this. ie: education, change physical environment and/or social norm, health behaviors, etc.
• A Conclusion section; this should be one paragraph which is a brief synopsis of your paper and future recommendations
o So what? Why do we care about this as a PH problem
o Why is your intervention/prevention useful and/or needed?
• A Reference page with your sources appropriately cited
o Sources MUST be peer reviewed journal sources or appropriate websites
? Websites include .gov sites or appropriate PH agency sites
• Sites such as Wikipedia, webmd, About.com are unacceptable
o You must have at least 3 sources, 2 of which have to be peer reviewed journals
• Provide clear links to related topics discussed in class THROUGHOUT the paper