HHSM304 Writing and Communication in the Health Professions (3 cr.)

This course provides introductory strategies for developing academic writing, research, and oral communication skills in relation to healthcare and social science professions. Students explore rhetoric (audience, purpose, genre) as well as composing processes for both written and oral texts. Content includes selecting a current topic related to each student’s chosen field, finding and evaluating scholarly articles, synthesizing findings into an APA formatted research paper, and presenting research findings to academic and professional audiences. 

Upon completion of the course, students are expected to be able to do the following:

1. Examine and apply appropriate rhetorical strategies based on audience, purpose, and genre for oral and written communication in healthcare and social sciences.
2. Develop a focused research question on a topic related to healthcare or the social sciences. 
3. Locate and evaluate relevant academic and scholarly sources on a selected research topic. 
4. Organize, analyze, and synthesize key themes or findings from peer-reviewed research articles.
5. Compose an academic research paper by applying a process writing approach. 
6. Demonstrate academic integrity and the ethical use of sources in written and oral communication by correctly citing sources in APA format.