All health professionals need to be able to communicate and justify their work to a non-specialist audience, which may comprise those involved in policy-making decisions as well as the general public....

All health professionals need to be able to communicate and justify their work to a non-specialist audience, which may comprise those involved in policy-making decisions as well as the general public. As you will be aware, the health sciences are often poorly represented by the media. There are plentiful examples of reporting that may be sensationalistic, misleading, biased (e.g. on vaccine safety), inaccurate (e.g. many media sources seem to view the words bacteria and viruses as interchangeable), or all four. Hence, there is a need for, and a potential career in, good writing and communication in the health professional arena.

This assessment involves addressing aseries of generic questionsin the form of an essay. The questions relate directly to the case studies presented. Key points to note are below:

• Your answers must be incorporated into sentences and paragraphs that include facts from the case study.


• All answers must be specific for the person in the case study; marks will not be given where your essay does not relate to the person in the case study.


• The answers to the questions in the case study must be integrated into an essay, which should include an appropriate introduction and conclusion; your written communication mark will be heavily penalised if a question-answer style presentation will be .


• You can present the information in the order that you feel flows best; you don’t have to present it in the order of the questions.


• The information you present must be synthesised from reliable sources (e.g. peer-reviewed articles in the scientific and clinical research literature, and textbooks).


• Care must be taken in all aspects of the essay, including spelling and grammar.


• You may include graphs and tables.