PHARMACY, HEALTH & SOCIETY II (PAC1322) 2011

ESSAY WRITING AND ESSAY TOPICS FOR PHARMACY, HEALTH & SOCIETY II PLEASE READ THESE NOTES: THEY ARE IMPORTANT "Reading Macbeth a full man, Conference a ready man, And writing an exact man". Francis Bacon, Of Studies, Essays, 1625. Essay -a short literary composition of an analytical, interpretive, or reflective kind, dealing with its subject in a nontechnical, limited, often unsystematic way and, usually, expressive of the author's outlook and personality. Websters, New World Dictionary, 2005. or A short prose composition on any subject. Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, Sixth edition, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2007. The essay of about 2,000 words is designed to permit students to work in some depth on a specific topic related to one of the main themes of the course. This essay should be more than a passive assembly of data and theory derived from introductory textbooks; there should additionally be signs of active structuring of material, selective and evaluative reading, critical and constructive thinking, and logical development of an argument. The lecturer's expectations are tempered by an awareness of the time constraints on students no more than 15 hours of effective working time should go into preparation of the essay. The essay constitutes 10% of Pharmacy, Health and Society II Unit and is a compulsory requirement of the Unit. Formal Requirements for Essay 1. The essay should be submitted by the date on which it is due. Applications for any extension of time should be made to me prior to the submission date; late work may otherwise not be accepted.

Please do not leave the final preparation to the last day. Excuses such as "my computer went down last night" are not acceptable. Allow for disasters.

DUE DATE (last day of submission), week 6, by 5pm Friday 2 September, 2011

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The essay should have a title page indicating name and the topic of essay and the topic number. Essays should be typed. Print on only one side of the paper, and leave sufficient margin on the left hand side of the page for comments. The essay is to be submitted in hard copy. It will not be accepted if submitted on-line.

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Essays in large excess of the word limit will be returned to the student for revision and resubmission (range ~1800-2500 words) For purposes of security, keep a copy of your essay and submit the original. It is essential that the essay is your own work, copying from another student is subject to heavy penalties (see plagiarism form below). Referencing and citation practices MUST BE IN ACCORD WITH THE GUIDE GIVEN BELOW. Do not use white out. Do not print out your essay until you have fixed up any typing or grammatical errors. PRESENTATION IS A VERY IMPORTANT ASPECT OF ANY WRITTEN WORK. TAKE PRIDE IN YOUR SUBMISSION. Do not present your essays in individual-page plastic envelopes. It is very difficult for the marker to make comments if they have to remove each page from a plastic envelope. Make sure that you have your NAME and Student Number on the front page. It is important that you can be identified. For those of you whose first language is not English, it would be wise for you to have some (a native English speaker) look over the essay for you before you submit it. Have the Plagiarism (Assessment form) Form filled in and signed as part of your submission. See below.

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Preparation of Essays Organisation is basic to effective writing. Establish as early as possible what the essay question required you to think about, develop broad hypotheses (subject to regular check and modification) that provide direction to your reading and enable you to search for specific material, evaluate your ideas as you gain more certainty on the topic, prepare a flow diagram to provide structure and development for your essay, and then write. The following steps might be followed: 1. Think about the topic. Many difficulties in writing an essay arise because the student has not really thought about alternative broad approaches to the topic and general lines of analysis that might be followed. The latter may be possible only after reading. You may find it useful to read an introductory textbook to gain a general orientation to the area of the essay before doing more specialised reading. However, it is essential that your reading extends beyond introductory texts. There will be recommended reading given with the essay topic. These can be sourced from the library. Read purposefully. Always keep in mind the precise questions you are trying to answer; the more clearly you know what you are looking for, the more effectively you will read. Most books and articles do not need to be read from start to finish with equal concentration throughout - if you are selective about what you read you will be able to increase coverage without

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necessarily increasing reading time. You can find additional references by following up material cited in the recommended reading. 3. Make sure that any notes you take are relevant and useful. If you take excessive notes, start asking whether you are doing this as a substitute for thinking about the material. Note-taking may give you a sense of security, but it is a false sense unless you are making good notes. These will be precise and relevant, and they are best taken after you have read the material, understood it, and assessed its contribution to the study. Your essay should be carefully organised to maximise logical development of your argument. Continuity, selectivity, and tempo are important. Before you start to write the essay prepare an outline of its contents firstly in terms of hierarchical structure (identify the themes and lines of argument that you intend to highlight, establish the relationship between these, and identify the specific material in terms of which theme or argument is to be articulated) and secondly by a flow chart (arrange material from start to end). Another of the objectives of the human behaviour essay is to instil in the student the necessity of the use of good English in communicating by the written word. To that end, English usage will be taken into account when assessing the essay. The introduction to your essay should state your case in general terms. By briefly outlining the main themes of your essay you provide the reader with an idea of what to expect. This will increase his comprehension of the specific material that follows. Make your introduction direct, informative, and impactful; do not waste your own or your reader's time with padding or vague generalities. In the main body of the essay develop the line of argument through three or four main ideas (or as many as are necessary), and in each case articulate and illustrate the idea by material drawn from your reading. Try to write tightly, directly and analytically rather than discursively and descriptively. Model your style on examples of good writing that you experienced in your reading. If your essay has been well organised it may not be necessary to conclude by summarising the main theme or line or argument. You may instead wish to finish with comments on wider implications and future trends appropriate to the topic. Many students find it useful to write the last paragraph of their essay first. Doing this will force you to organise your thinking on the topic. If you know exactly what conclusion you will be reaching you will have a sense of direction about your writing. 7. It is often very useful to prepare a first draft of an essay. At this stage you should be more concerned with getting down your ideas rather than with the best possible wording. Allow a few days between the first draft and preparation of the final version. You will need this time for the pride of authorship to subside so that you can critically read and edit your essay before rewriting it for submission. In summary, a good essay is characterised by: a logical, well-planned and consistent argument that bears directly on the essay question; evidence of wide reading and effective evaluation of what has been read; originality in thinking; selectivity and relevance in the material that is cited; full acknowledgement of sources; and clear, unambiguous writing.

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A final piece of advice START EARLY

Referencing 'Referencing' basically means giving acknowledgment that you have made use of another person's work. It must be clear that this applies to ideas just as much as to direct quotations. Remember that knowledge must always build up on the basis of what other people have already said; in fact in scientific writing, you should build your arguments and ideas from the building blocks of previously published material rather than on unverified opinions of your own. So don't think of it as any 'loss of face' to reveal your sources. This does not mean that opinions are completely taboo. Informed opinions may be useful for example in an essay when research has not covered parts of an area and you suggest what might be the case, on the basis of the present state of knowledge in the area, or in discussing your project you may hypothesise about the outcome of yet-to-be-done experiments based on the results of yours and others' experiments. When referencing you must be absolutely sure that the author in question really said (and meant) those things that you are putting the authors name to. Inaccurate referencing in science can be as disastrous as misquoting in the press and it's a habit you can't be allowed to get away with. A properly referenced essay, on the other hand, will allow you to build up for the reader how you think the ideas of a number of different authors may fit together, and how their general point of view may then be contrasted with that of certain other authors. One way to keep in mind that discussion should be based on unbiased evaluation of previous people's work is not to use the first person - 'I', 'me', and so on - in your essays. An essay with every idea and turn of argument directly supported by cited references is not such as impossible ideal if you read the source material, follow up to other sources on points that are not clear, and build logically on the ideas that are presented. So much for the why and wherefore, now how. Every discipline requires you to credit your sources, but the exact way of doing it remains a matter of convention which, unfortunately, differs from one field of study to another. We ask you to conform to one or the other of the Harvard System OR the Vancouver system. 1. Harvard (author-date) style: where only the author's name (or names) and the date of publication are 'cited' in the text, and a full list of references in first author alphabetical order is attached at the end of the essay. 2. Vancouver (numerical) style: where a number is placed after the reference and each reference is numerated and the attached reference list is numerical.

Please be consistent and use the one system. Please refer to the following Monash websites on the use of either system: http://www.lib.monash.edu.au/tutorials/citing/harvard.html http://www.lib.monash.edu.au/tutorials/citing/vancouver.html

ESSAY TOPICS - 2011

A series of 10 essay topics are offered. N.B. Only ONE essay is required per student. It must be realised that the topics chosen have been prepared to ensure that adequate references are available. In each case, firstly refer to the appropriate chapter in your text book, namely: Nolen-Hoeksema S, Frederickson, B, Loftus GR, Wagenaar. Atkinson & Hilgards Introduction to Psychology, 15th Edition. Thompson Wadsworth, Australia, 2009. (Note, this is your basic text). OR Any other recent introductory text on psychology. AND Any specialised text within a particular area. The Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Parkville Campus has quite a large collection of hard copy psychosocial texts of all kinds Monash libraries at other campuses (eg. Caulfield, Clayton, Sunway) have much larger collections of psychology books as do the University of Melbourne and RMIT University libraries.

Additionally, for most topics, one or more starter references will be suggested. These will be available from your textbook or the library.

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ESSAY TOPICS 2011

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Compare and contrast the LEARNING theories of personality with the PSYCHOANALYTICAL theories of personality.

Starter references: SchultzDP, Schultz SE. Theories of Personality, Eighth Edition, Thomson Wadsworth, Melbourne, 2005. See library for many texts on Personality theories.

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Evaluate the personality of any one individual from a biography, autobiography, novel or film from the 2010 year 12 reading list, in terms of any theory or theories of personality you care to choose.

Starter References Schultz DP, Schultz SE. Theories of Personality, Eighth Edition, Thomson Wadsworth, Melbourne, 2005. See library for many texts on Personality theories. Please start your essay with a synopsis of the plot of the story (100-200 words).

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Write an essay on the effects anxiety and social relationships on cardiovascular disease

Starter references: Roest AM, Martens EJ, de Jonge P, Denollet J, Anxiety and Risk of Incident Coronary Heart Disease. A Meta-Analysis. J Am Coll Cardiol 2010;56:3846 Holt-Lunstad J, Smith TB, Layton JB. Social Relationships and Mortality Risk: A Meta-analytic Review. PLoS Med. 2010 Jul 27;7(7):e1000316.

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Write an essay how religiosity affects illness

Starter reference Payman V, Ryburn B. Religiousness and recovery from inpatient geriatric depression: Findings from the PEJAMA Study. Aust N Z J Psychiatry. 2010 Jun;44(6):560-7. Payman V, Ryburn B. Religiousness and recovery from inpatient geriatric depression: Findings from the PEJAMA Study. Aust N Z J Psychiatry. 2010 Jun;44(6):560-7.

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There is no doubt that acne causes substantial social, emotional, and psychological effects in both adolescents and adults Thiboutot D, Dreno B, Layton A. 2008. Discuss the above statement and indicate how the pharmacist can assist the adolescent acne sufferer.

Starter references: Thiboutot D, Dreno B, Layton A. Acne counselling to improve adherence, Cutis 2008; Jan;81(1):81-6. Roller L, Gowan JA. Disease State management: Acne: description, treatment, quality of life, and the role of the pharmacist. Australian Journal of Pharmacy, 92: 6065, February, 2011

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You must know that the will is a powerful adjuvant of medicine Paracelsus 1493-1541) Discuss this statement in terms
of the placebo and nocebo

Starter reference: Kradin R. The Placebo response and the power of unconscious healing, Routledge, New York, 2008. Benedetti F. Placebo effects: Understanding the mechanisms in health and disease. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2009. Roller L, Gowan JA. Disease State management: The placebo-nocebo conundrum. Australian Journal of Pharmacy, 92: 76-80, May, 2011

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Write an essay on illness behaviour

Starter references: Brannon L, Feist J. Health Psychology: An introduction to behaviour and health, 7thedition, Thompson Wadsworth, Belmont, USA, 2009. Roller L, Gowan JA. Disease State management: Illness behaviour, the sick role, adherence and the pharmacist. Australian Journal of Pharmacy, 91: 60-64, December, 2010

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Write an essay on antisocial behaviour in adolescents

Starter references: Czech S, Kemp RI. Development of ASB 1: Development of antisocial behaviour in adolescents and young adults. Australian Journal of Psychology 2010; 62 (3): 149159

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Write an essay on the effect of mobile phones on the need to connect by adolescents and young adults

Starter reference: Walsh SP, White KM, Young RMcD. Needing to connect: The effect odf self and others on young peoples involvement with their mobile phones. Australina journal of Psychology 2010; 62(4): 194-203.

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Write an essay psychological distress in Australian university students

Starter reference Stallman HM. Psychological distress in University students: a comparison with general population data. Australian Psychologist 2010; 45(4): 249-257

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Comments and Marking Guide

Please note the following: 1. The idea of the essay is for you to take on board one of the 10 topics allocated and to research that particular topic. 2. The topic headings are deliberately worded fairly broadly. It is up to you as to what approach you will take. It is important that if you wish to concentrate on a particular area of the topic or you wish to take a broader approach, please indicate this in the first paragraph of the essay. We are not concerned as to your choice within a topic as long as you indicate to us what you plan to do. 3. The essay will be assessed according to the following parameters: Evidence that you have read in the area Evidence of understanding of the topic Language, grammar and spelling Logical thinking and linking of paragraphs Originality Presentation (must be typed)- please do not use white out Appropriate and consistent referencing Please refer to the above notes re the essay and to the Monash policy on plagiarism and on referencing as indicated in the notes PLEASE SEE NEXT PAGE FOR ASSESSMENT & PLIAGARISM COVER SHEET WHICH MUST BE HANDED IN WITH THE ESSAY

MONASH UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF PHARMACY & PHARMACEUTICAL SCIENCES DEPARTMENT OF PHARMACY PRACTICE PHARMACY, HEALTH AND SOCIETY ESSAY 2011 ASSESSMENT & PLAGIARISM COVER SHEET Students name (Family name) (Given names)

Students I.D. number Unit name & Code Title of assignment Name of lecturer Due date

eMail PHARMACY, HEALTH & SOCIETY II (PAC1322) Pharmacy, Health and Society Essay Associate Professor Louis Roller Date submitted

Friday 2 September, 2011

All work must be submitted by the due date. If an extension of work is granted this must be specified with the signature of the lecturer/tutor. Extension granted until (date) ....................... Signature of lecturer/tutor ...............................

Please note that it is your responsibility to retain copies of your assessments. Plagiarism and Collusion are methods of cheating for the purposes of Monash Statute 4.2 Discipline. Plagiarism: Plagiarism means to take and use another persons ideas or work and pass these off as ones own by failing to give appropriate acknowledgement This includes material from any source published and unpublished works, staff or students, the Internet. For further information see http://www. FACULTY WEB ADDRESS ON PLAGIARISM Collusion: Collusion is the presentation of work which is the result in whole or in part of unauthorised collaboration with another person or persons. Where there are reasonable grounds for believing that plagiarism has occurred, this will be reported to the Chief Examiner, who will disallow the work concerned by prohibiting assessment or refer the matter to the faculty manager.

Students statement: I certify that I have not plagiarised the work of others or participated in unauthorised collusion when preparing this assignment.

Signature .....................................................