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Purpose: In health care, written work is a frequent means of communication

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Purpose: In health care, written work is a frequent means of communication. Often, how well we communicate in writing has profound impacts for our patients or consumers. Seeking feedback from others and applying it to drafts of your work is vital to becoming an effective writer in college and in the health professions.

Peer support forums are designed to provide a place for you to post drafts of your work for helpful and constructive feedback. Constructive feedback involves communicating practical, concrete, easily understood, and helpful recommendations in a respectful tone regarding what is done well and opportunities for improvement. The acts of giving and receiving feedback will help you communicate more effectively with others about written work.

Process: In this course, we will use the “Feedback Sandwich” model for providing peer support.

Sandwich style feedback starts with the bottom slice of bread. Here you will make several positive comments about specific things that the writer has done well.

Next, you provide the “meat” of your feedback, with specific areas that can be improved and how.

Finally, you have the top slice of bread, where you close with something positive about the draft. 

In this week’s Peer Support Forum, you will help one another prepare for your research paper, which is due at the end of Module 12.  Back in Module 4, you did a short literature search on social media applications and their use for certain health issues. This week, we will continue working toward the Module 12 research paper. 

Please carefully review the assignment instructions for your research paper. Over this week, you should be working on your research paper – the preparing and drafting stages – so that in Module 12, you can edit, finalize, and record your presentation.

Using the same topic as in Module 4, you will submit two components of your research paper for helpful feedback: the introduction and a brief description of your literature review. 

Part 1: Submitting Your Written Work 

• Begin by posting a draft of your introduction and literature summary for your research paper.
  • The introduction should consist of 1 paragraph that:
    • Describes your social media strategy;
    • Identifies the health care topic;
    • Briefly describes how your social media strategy and health care topic connect;
    • Introduces the rest of your paper.
  • Your summary of literature findings should consist of 2-3 well written paragraphs that:
    • Describe the social media strategy you selected and how it is used, based on the information you have gleaned from your Module 4 literature review (and any other research you have done since then);
    • Use formal academic writing style;
    • Contain in-text citations where appropriate to support your statements.
  • Important: Before you submit your draft, please carefully review the Peer Support Forum Checklist so that you submit a strong draft for feedback.
  • Your submission must be posted by Thursday at 11:59pm ET of this module to allow sufficient time for classmates to read.

Part 2: Reading Your Classmates’ Work

• Choose at least one classmate’s draft to provide feedback. Be sure to choose someone whose work has not been commented on yet, so that everyone in the class can receive supportive feedback.
• Read your classmate’s draft from beginning to end, carefully, as you might one of our assigned readings. Look to understand what the person is trying to say; avoid looking for problems.
• Next, re-read the draft and provide sandwich-style feedback on the following questions.
  1. Positive Comments: What was done well in this draft? Or, what impressed you about this draft?
     1. Use the Peer Support Forum Checklist to help you select areas to comment on. Consider organization, any sources used to support the topic, communication style, voice (use of third person, formal academic language), clarity of the writer’s purpose/intent, formatting, connections of literature with topic, etc.
  2. Constructive Comments: What are 1-2 areas the writer could improve upon?
     1. Use the Peer Support Forum Checklist to help you select areas to comment on. Consider organization, any sources used to support the topic, communication style, voice (use of third person, formal academic language), clarity of the writer’s purpose/intent, formatting, connections of literature with topic, etc.
  3. Positive Comments: What is one positive takeaway you gained from reading this draft?
• Your feedback must be posted by Sunday at 11:59pm ET of this module to allow your classmate Your feedback must be posted by Sunday at 11:59pm ET of this module to allow your classmate enough time to incorporate your recommendations into their work as appropriate.

Tips for providing productive feedback:

• Read with a positive eye, not a negative or critical one.
• Always use “I” statements. Never begin a sentence with “you.”
• Always start with the positive and end with the positive.
• Be respectful and kind in your feedback. Click here for some sample “helpful” v. “unhelpful” comments (Links to an external site.).
• Point to specific elements of the draft that are well done.
• Point to specific elements of the draft where revision would be helpful.
• You don’t have to fix your classmate’s work. Your role is to provide supportive, constructive feedback.
• Don’t focus only on grammar and punctuation; look at the content. How well is the draft organized? Is the purpose clearly stated? How engaging and appropriate is the word choice for the intended audience?

Evaluation: Your peer support feedback will be graded according to the Peer Support Rubric. Additionally, you will be graded in your M12A1 assignment for how well you apply the feedback.  Peer Support Forum participation is worth 5% of your final grade. 

 

Outcome(s) addressed in this peer support forum include:   CO2: Apply the appropriate communication type and form for health care related communications. CO5: Produce various forms of professional communication including e-mails, memos, executive summaries, and reports for diverse audiences.