Format
- You will need a title page and a reference page
- Title your Analysis
- This paper will be about 3-4 pages in length – not counting the title or reference pages!
- This means 3 full pages and at least one line on page 4 to be at the minimum length for your writing.
- There are no set number of sources for this paper. Use what you need to highlight your points.
- Use Times New Roman 12pt font, or similarly standard font.
- Double space this assignment.
- Indent new paragraphs
- The paper should be written using APA- or ASA-style
- Also, do not use MLA format – that wastes space and will not be counted toward page count!
- List your citations in A, B, C order
- Use the “hanging indent” format for your sources (second and subsequent lines indented).
- Do not use bullets or numbers
Analysis Guidelines
An analysis is a critique of the scholarly sources you collected in your literature on your specific topic. It provides a breakdown of the pros and cons for any potential intervention. You will offer three possible ways to address your health topic for this assignment. Sources will be used to justify these choices. When deciding on how to address the topic, consider the following:
- Education campaigns meant to raise awareness of the health issue.
- Punitive measures meant to force behavior through fines, jail, etc.
- Think seatbelt laws to reduce motor vehicle deaths
- Incentivized measures meant to reward individuals for adopting a better health lifestyle.
Why write an analysis?
When you write a thesis, dissertation, or research paper, you will have to demonstrate that your research was worthwhile. The analysis gives you a chance to:
- Demonstrate your familiarity with the topic and scholarly context
- Present the results of for your research
- Position your research in conjunction with other scholars
- Demonstrate how your findings could address aspects of the health issue, while pointing out how it could fail to address others
- Demonstrate that you can critically evaluate interventions using the cost-benefit analysis
Step 1: Return to your literature review
Before you begin writing your analysis, you need to return to your literature review.
Read how these researchers argued we should address the problems. Then read up on those solutions. Make notes of the ones that seem most promising.
Step 2: Select the best three options for addressing this topic
You probably won’t be able to present everything that has been suggested to deal with this topic – you’ll have to trim it down to the best options that have the highest return on investment.
For each possible intervention, ask yourself:
- How did the intervention address the problem?
- Were there any unforeseen benefits to a solution?
- What about unforeseen negative consequences?
- What kind of buy-in would be needed by the public to adopt this measure?
- Such as: is there a cost and who pays the cost, a daily medication / shot, etc.
- What are the strengths and weaknesses of the intervention?
Make sure the sources you use are credible, and make sure you read any landmark studies and major theories in your field of research.
Take notes and cite your sources
Just as with the literature review, begin writing with your reading. Take notes on the names of interventions or solutions suggested. Then look up those and make notes on how these interventions work. When in doubt, cite.
Step 3: Identify the type of intervention and how it addresses gaps in care
Based on your reading and notes, you can look for:
- Trends and patterns: do certain approaches become more or less popular over time?
- Themes: what interventions occur most often?
- Debates, conflicts and contradictions: are there disagreements in how this should be addressed?
- Gaps: what are current interventions failing to address? Are there weaknesses in current interventions that need to be addressed?
This step will help you work out the structure of your analysis.
Step 5: Write your analysis
Like any other academic text, your literature review should have an introduction, a main body, and a conclusion. What you include in each depends on the objective of your literature review.
Introduction
The introduction should clearly establish the focus and purpose of the analysis. This should not be more than one to two paragraphs.
Body
You might want to divide the body into subsections. You can use a subheading for each intervention.
As you write, you can follow these tips:
- Summarize and synthesize: give an overview of the main points of each intervention
- Analyze and interpret: don’t just summarize the interventions—add your own interpretations where possible, discussing the significance of findings in relation to the literature as a whole
- Critically evaluate: mention the strengths and weaknesses of your interventions.
- Write in well-structured paragraphs: use transition words and topic sentences to draw connections, comparisons and contrasts between the pros and cons of each intervention.
- Do not actively support an intervention in this section: instead, let me know more subtly which intervention you prefer. Show me more pros and fewer cons for the one that you will ultimately support.
Conclusion
There is no conclusion for this section! That will be the next part.
