Please submit electronic copies of papers to the course website, double-spaced with Times New Roman 12-point font and 1″ margins in a .doc or .docx file. Insert page numbers and include a title. Use APA style format for citations. Include a works cited page.
Description:
For this assignment you will examine how either the presence of a specific drug or medicine has impacted your community-“oral contraceptive such as Seasonale”.
If you choose to examine presence, your task will be to investigate the adverse health and/or socio-economic effects that have resulted from the use of an available drug. You may choose to research the harmful effects of a legal pharmaceutical treatment that has been understudied, over-marketed, inappropriately prescribed, or illegally abused. Or you may investigate the effects of a substance distributed outside the pharmaceutical industry, provided you demonstrate why the industry is relevant to the problem.
Consider why the drug you’ve chosen has become widely available and used/abused in your community despite its harmful consequences. Causes could include marketing, lack of adequate regulation, significant policies/legislation or lack thereof, etc.
Your paper must make an argument as to how this has impacted your community as well as present a possible solution to the problem. Your proposed solutions may—but do not have to—draw from ideas presented by authors we have read. They may be policy-based and “practical,” or they may lean more aspirational. Think of your “solution” as provisional: it should be well-informed, but it doesn’t need to be flawless.
Note: you may define your community in whatever way feels most appropriate to you given the parameters of the assignment. This could include your geography (the town or city where you are from or where you live now, or your country of origin); your racial or ethnic identification; the patient population you serve; your gender or sexual identity; your age group, etc.
Guidelines:
This is a formal essay, do not write in the first-person, and assume your reader has limited familiarity with the subjects you’re discussing. Define key terms.
The topic you choose for this assignment must be different from what you chose to write about in your first assignment.
Your paper must quote at least 3 course authors; at least 2 of these must be authors you did not cite in your first assignment.
Make sure your paper contains the basic organizational elements of an essay: an introduction and clear thesis, body paragraphs with supporting evidence, and a conclusion.
A conclusion does not simply restate the thesis but readdresses it in light of the evidence provided while gesturing towards larger social, economic, political, and/or ethical implications of your argument.
Break down and analyze the quotation after citing it. Assume the quotation is not transparent; explain what the author is saying/trying to say. Then, after explaining the quote, tie the quotation back to your thesis or topic sentence. Ask yourself, how does the quotation back up my argument?
Evaluation Rubric
Thesis, Argument
FULL CREDIT: The thesis is clearly introduced in the opening paragraphs and reiterated throughout the essay. The thesis directly addresses the prompt by making an analytical argument regarding the impact of the presence or absence of a particular medicine on your community and a possible solution to the problem. The thesis is original, debatable, manageable, clear, founded in textual analysis, and significant in wider cultural terms. The essays title obviously relates to the thesis and/or central argument.
Evidence, Analysis
FULL CREDIT: The argument is consistently supported with strong and well-selected textual evidence. The analysis explores the impact of the presence or absence of a pharmaceutical drug from multiple vantage points. Key concepts are defined, specified, and employed with precision. Each paragraph contains one or more direct quotations from relevant sources that are introduced and explains. The analysis explains the relevance of outside material to your overall thesis, effectively “unpacking” the issue for the audience.
Organization
FULL CREDIT: The essay is well-organized around a clear and logical progression of ideas that build a coherent and significant argument. The introduction is engaging, “hooking” the reader, while laying out a clear plan for analysis. Each paragraph contains a clear topic -sentence and there are effective transitions between paragraphs. The conclusion reiterates the thesis claim while gesturing towards larger social, economic, political, and/or ethical implications of your argument.
Quality of Writing
FULL CREDIT: The writing is clear, formal, and concise without contractions or colloquialisms. Diction and sentence structure are effective and varied. Writing flows. Authorial voice is analytical and consistent. Technical issues (typographical errors and grammar issues) are absent or very minimal.
Quality of Research
FULL CREDIT: The author effectively cites at least three scholarly sources outside of the course material and three course authors. The secondary sources are well-selected, well-founded, and do not overwhelm the author’s own voice and analysis, which remains original and significant. The author correctly employs Chicago, MLA, or APA citation (just be consistent) and includes a complete and correct “Works Cited” page.