Students will be required to complete a 7-10 page final paper for this course. The final paper will require the student to select an infectious or chronic disease and provide an epidemiological overview of this topic. Please note that you must gain approval from your instructor for your topic during Week 4.  Also, carefully review Lesson 7 before you begin to work on this paper.  All writing should be in paragraph form and academic writing style (no lists).  Include at least one epidemiologic table or graph in proper format.

Since topics may vary, formatting will as well; however, students will need to provide:

1. Abstract
2. Introduction of disease
   1. nature of disease –  if chronic or acute, infectious or not, disease agent or underlying causes
   2. Clinical picture – symptoms of disease, treatment
3. Descriptive epidemiology 
   1. Number of people infected or affected today (number of deaths, if applicable)
   2. should also use graphs and tables (Use descriptive epidemiology concepts) – at least one is required
   3. What populations are more at-risk and why?
   4. overall trend in incidence and prevalence of disease
4. Public health
   1. interventions including prevention such as vaccination programs, educational efforts
   2. how is the disease controlled by public health (not how individuals avoid it)
5. Conclusion
   1. what is the outlook of the disease?
   2. summarize main points of paper

There must be a minimum of five (5) different scholarly sources used. References must follow the American Psychological Association (APA) guidelines for reference and bibliographic citation. If necessary, refer to Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6^th ED). 2009 Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.

3.  Use Times New Roman Font in a 12-point font.

4.  Use 1 inch for the top, bottom, left and right margins.

5. Use proper APA format as given to you in the attached example.

Submission: You must submit your completed paper through this assignment link as it will be subjected to TurnItIn. Save your file in the following format before you submit: Last Name, First Initial Research Paper (i.e. Jones, L Research Paper). Failure to submit the file in the proper format will lead to point deductions.

*PLAGIARISM: Your paper will go through TurnItIn, a plagiarism software.  If you receive a high score in TurnItIn, it is likely that you have committed plagiarism whether intentional or not.   Review this website to insure you do not commit plagiarism: http://www.plagiarism.org/.  If you receive a TurnItIn score that is high, I suggest that you revise and resubmit before the due date. Resubmissions are not accepted after the due date. Submissions that do not have a valid TurnItIn score will not be graded.  It is the student’s responsibility to make sure a score is received by the due date.

Due Date

No later than Sunday of Week 7 at 11:55 pm

****************************************************************************************************************************************************************\

Assignment Instructions:

Please review the Final Paper/Project Grading Rubric prior to submission (Click on View IRubric    in the main Assignment List page).  Once an assignment is graded, students should return to the IRubric to view the instructor’s feedback on their assignment.

Final Paper/Project is due in the Assignment portion of the classroom by Sunday, 11:55 p.m. EST each week. Make sure you read and understand the directions and requirements for each Assignment. Please ensure you cite your references in APA format with a minimum of 5 references (You may use your textbook as a reference and you should have a minimum of 4academic outside references including 2 peer-reviewed journal articles).  Assignments submitted late without advance notice will receive a 5% per day late penalty and will not be accepted for grading five (5) days past the due date.   

The Final Paper must have a minimum of 7-10 pages for a Undergraduate level course (excluding the title, abstract, and reference pages). The paper must be typed, double-spaced with 1-inch margins in 12-point Times New Roman font with all references cited.  As always, Wikipedia, Wikianswers, and Answers.com are NOT academic/scholarly sources. Papers will be graded based on the following areas: Foundation and synthesis of knowledge, application of knowledge critical thinking, writing skills, use of computer technology and application, and organization of ideas and format. Refer to Library Online Resource Center for any research assistance. Refer to the Student Handbook for policies relevant to academic honesty and other procedures and policies related to this course.

A Grade Papers = ABOVE COURSE STANDARDS (ACS)
The principle characteristic of the ACS paper is rich content; teaching the reader sentence after sentence, paragraph after paragraph. In composition, it is marked by stylistic finesse: the title and opening paragraph are engaging; the transitions are artful; the phrasing is tight, fresh, and highly specific; the sentence structure is varied; the tone enhances the purposes of the paper. Finally, the ACS paper, because of its careful organization, development, and logic imparts a sense of completeness and unusual clarity. An ACS paper is highly instructive for other (and future) members of the course; as a result, it is publishable.

B Grade Papers = MET COURSE STANDARDS (MCS)
This paper is more than competent. In addition to being almost free of mechanical error, the MCS paper gives the reader substantial information of quantity, interest, and scholarly value. Its specific points are logically ordered, well developed, and unified around an organizing principle that is clear. The opening paragraph draws the reader in; the closing paragraph is both conclusive and thematically related to the opening. The transitions between paragraphs are for the most part smooth and the sentence structures pleasingly varied. The diction of the MCS paper is typically much more concise and precise than found in the BCS paper. Occasionally, it even shows distinctiveness and finesse. Overall, an MCS paper makes the reading experience pleasurable, one that offers substantial information with few distractions.

C Papers = BELOW COURSE STANDARDS (BCS)
The paper is generally competent. It meets the assignment, has few mechanical errors, and is reasonably well organized and developed. The actual information-content is either thin and commonplace or made to seem so. The ideas are vague generalities; they prompt the reader in some confusion to ask margin questions “In every case or why or how or how many…? How do we know this?” Stylistically, the BCS paper has shortcomings as well: the opening paragraph does little to draw in the reader; the final paragraph offers only a perfunctory wrap-up; the transitions between paragraphs are often bumpy; the sentences, while choppy, follow a predictable (and monotonous) subject-verb-object pattern; and the diction is occasionally marred by unconscious repetitions, redundancy, and imprecision. The BCS paper gets the job done but lacks imagination and intellectual rigor; rereading would be a chore.

D Papers = UNACCEPTABLE EFFORT (UE). Not Graduate Level Work.

The paper’s treatment and development of the subject, though promising, are yet only rudimentary. The organization is neither clear nor effective. Sentences are frequently awkward, ambiguous, and marred by serious mechanical error. Evidence of careful proofreading is scanty, if non-existent. The whole piece gives the impression of having been conceived and written in haste.