| Introduction | Writing Guides | Seminar Schedule | Paper Due Dates | Honors Paper Guidelines |

HPAA 99 is a seminar course designed to help you manage the production of your Honors thesis. The purpose of the seminar is to monitor your progress on your individual research topic; to provide support as you research, plan and write your paper; and to facilitate intellectual inquiry and interchange between students.

In order to allow us to share ideas, news, drafts, articles, and research suggestions in between seminars, I have set up an on-line web forum for the class.

The seminar will meet every week; see the schedule below for a week-by-week look at topic areas and reading assignments. Some weeks the seminar will be devoted to presentations on topics related to producing the honors thesis, and other weeks will be reserved for sharing ongoing project work. Course writing expectations and due dates are listed below.

Dr. Bender and I will assume primary responsibility for directing the development of student projects during the fall semester. During this time, you should identify and contact one additional faculty member to serve as first or second reader of your thesis, to be chosen based upon the focus of your proposed work. This faculty member should receive a copy of each section of the paper in draft form.

In the Spring semester, primary responsibility for guiding the paper through the remainder of its development, revisions, polishing and presentation will shift to the First Reader. Students and First Readers are also responsible for developing a meeting schedule which meets mutual needs. Meetings should be scheduled so that the thesis defense is completed before March 31.

The seminar will meet on Thursday, from 2:30 to about 4:15.

REQUIRED TEXT

• Dees, Robert. Writing the Modern Research Paper. 2nd edition. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1997. (available from UNC Bookstore and Cadeusus Bookstore)

• Hacker, Diana. A Pocket Style Manual. Boston: St. Martin's Press, 1973.

A clear, concise readable manual of style; lists common grammatical and writing errors and gives clues for improvement in easy-to-read two-color text.

• Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. Washington, DC.: American Psychological Association, 1994.

A widely recognized standard in social science and public health publishing.

• Munter, Mary. Guide to Managerial Communications: Effective Business Writing and Speaking. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 1997.

This text focuses on strategies for effective communication, emphasizes issues related to choice of style to match the purpose of the communication; also addresses verbal structure and visual aids in addition to the preparation of written documents; correct word usage, unbiased language, grammar, and punctuation are addressed in the appendices, although not as thoroughly as in one of the style manuals named above.

• Porush, David. A Short Guide to Writing about Science. New York: HarperCollins, 1995.

A particularly readable text for writing scientific papers; addresses common issues in preparation of research papers, such as topic selection, writing introductions, and citing references, but also includes sections on using lab notes and reports in preparation of scientific reports; chapter six presents a very reasonable explanation of why and how to write abstracts.

• International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals. The New England Journal of Medicine 1991; 324(6):424-8.

This is the style sheet recommended for use in preparation of the Honors Paper, unless justification can be made for use of another model.

• August 20
  • Preliminary topic discussion
  • Selection of Peer Mentors (kind of a support group)
  
  
• August 27
  • Refining Topics & Developing a Thesis Statement
  • Student Reviews of Honors Papers from prior years (in pairs)
  • Dees, Chs. 1 - 3
  
  
• September 3
  • Selecting Literature to Develop and Support your Thesis
  • Speaker: Julia Shaw-Kokot, Health Sciences Library in the MAAC Lab
  • Dees, Chs. 4 & 6
  
  
• September 10
  • Lit Search Progress Reports (be prepared to talk about search areas, general trends in the literature, specific articles)
  
  
• September 17 -- Study Design & Scientific Method
  • Kuhn: Structure of Scientific Revolution
  
  
• September 24 -- Collecting Data: Interviews and Focus Groups
  • Guest Speaker: Dr. Bender
  • Dees, Chapter 5; handouts
  
  
• October 1 -- Collecting Data, Part Two
  • Feedback and Peer Review on proposal
  • Chapters 7,8 & Appendix A; handouts

  
  

• October 8 -- Data Collection Workshop

  
  

• October 15-Fall Break

  
  

• October 22 -- The Drafting Process
  • Dees, Ch. 9
  
  
• October 29 -- Draft Workshop
  • Dees, Ch. 11-12
  
  
• November 5 -- Designing a Presentation
  • Speaker: Lynne DeGitz, Educational Media Specialist, UNC-CH Center for Teaching and Learning
  • Dees Ch. 13
  
  
• November 12
  • Presentation Workshop
  
  
• November 19 -- Works in Progress: Student Presentations
  
• December 3 -- Works in Progress: Student Presentations

The following due dates have been set as benchmarks for development of parts of your independent research project.

September 17

October 22

October 29

November 20

• title page
• table of contents
• introduction
• methods
• expected/anticipated conclusions and recommendations
• bibliography (or list of references used)

This document is directed towards those students who intend to or are working on an honors paper, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for "Graduation with Honors" from the University of North Carolina.

The primary focus of guidance for you in conceptualizing, developing, and completing the paper should be the HPAA 99 seminar and your honors paper committee. The honors paper committee consists of two faculty members of your choice, who have appointments in a graduate or professional school, and agree to serve on your committee. One of these committee members must agree to chair your committee. Furthermore, the chair must have his/her primary appointment in HPAA.

Through meeting the honors paper requirement, you should

• gain an in-depth understanding of a health issue or problem from an administrative or policy perspective (this problem is often one identified during your internship experience);
• gain a critical appreciation of the available relevant literature, including both library and world wide web sources;
• develop and use the skills necessary to
• formulate a researchable problem;
• locate, summarize, and cite pertinent literature;
• prepare a research protocol, including the selection of a methodology of the collection, analysis, and reporting of data;
• be provided with an opportunity to integrate the knowledge and skills acquired through required and elective course work, in an area of specific interest to you, and in a manner to prepare you for similar professional tasks after graduation;
• strengthen written and oral communication skills, i.e., in reporting findings and conclusions; and
• develop and enhance professional self-confidence.

The honors paper is a focused in-depth piece of research, analysis, and writing, which should foster an understanding and application of the scientific method. The skills developed in researching and writing the paper should also be a foundation for analysis and presentation of similar problems in health policy and administration in your career or in graduate work.

Building on completed course work and the internship experience, and your specific interests, the honors paper begins with a question of interest and continues with

• the identification of a problem, stated in clear, unambiguous terms;
• a plan or design for exploring the problem and its appropriate sub problems;
• a hypothesis that will give direction to your thinking while examining the question;
• the collection of data/generation of information; and
• a consideration of that data/information, organized into meaningful aggregates and interpreted.

The honors paper can be one of two types:

1. Explanatory or hypothesis-testing, research. Students should be forewarned that original data collection can be both expensive and time-consuming. Serious consideration should be given to identifying existing and readily available data sets, which would be developed as follows:
• problem statement and research questions/hypothesis;
• literature review;
• study model with variables specified and defined;
• suggested measures/operationalization of variables;
• kinds and sources of data needed to test the model;
• dummy tables showing the types of answers expected;
• proposed mode of analysis.
2. Descriptive research. Either an organizational problem analysis or a more generalized policy analysis of a significant health issue. The problem-solving model would roughly follow the following steps:
• precise problem statement;
• literature review (may be briefer than that for the research proposal);
• explication of alternative options for solution (sources where appropriate);
• examination of pros and cons of each option;
• recommendation and defense of chosen alternative.

Copies of recent BSPH honors papers are kept in the HPAA Student Study Area. You are encouraged to review these papers to understand how others have chosen to frame their problems and execute their research, but be advised that the papers are of varied quality; they are available as examples only. It may not be a wise decision to model your paper on a particular completed paper.

The exact specification to the paper-abstract, table of contents, appendices, and so forth-is the responsibility of your committee to determine. They will also provide guidance as to length, form and style, and so on; see the final page of this memo for the appropriate format for the title page. The paper should be typed on 8 1/2" by 11" white bond paper, double spaced. Papers must be word processed. An original of the paper, in press board binder, must be submitted to the department registrar.

Procedures

You are required to register for HPAA 99 for 3 credit hours in the Fall semester and 1-3 credit hours in the Spring semester of the academic year of graduation. The requirement for Fall semester, graded on the scale A-E by the course instructor.

In order to be allowed to continue writing the paper, the HPAA 99 instructor and program director must certify that the requirements for Fall semester have been met and that the student seems to be making satisfactory progress toward completing the paper by the end of Spring semester. This includes presenting a draft of the introduction, the methods, and the expected findings/outcomes, on or before November 20.

It is your responsibility to give your work to the committee in sufficient time for the committee to read it and decide if satisfactory progress has been made. If the committee does not or cannot make this certification by the established date, the student will not be allowed to proceed with the paper. The student will receive a grade for the Fall semester course, but will not be allowed to register for HPAA 99 for the Spring semester.

The requirements for Spring semester, also graded on the scale A-E by your committee chair in consultation with the second reader, is the complete written paper and its oral presentation as discussed in this document.

If the proposed topic entails a study of human subjects, suitable clearance must be obtained from the school's Institutional Review Board on Research Involving Human Subjects (IRB), before the study is initiated.

Upon completion of the honors paper, you are required to formally present your research or findings orallybefore your two readers. Your classmates-your professional peers-are also invited to be present for your formal presentation. The formal presentation is to be scheduled prior to March 31, at a date mutually convenient to you, and your committee. It is the student's responsibility to select and negotiate a mutually convenient date. Do not expect your committee to schedule the defense until both readers have had an adequate opportunity to review the final draft of the paper.

DEADLINE for submitting the paper is set by the University. It is the student's responsibility for having the paper in appropriate form, signed off by the committee, and defended on time.

Created by Deborah Bender and Stephen Orton [last update September 16, 1998]