ASSIGNMENT 1 - Blog post (40%)

Assessment one: 1500-2000 word written assignment (blog post - 40% weighting) 

Due in week 5 

Please write and submit your blog post via QMPlus Hub

 This assessment is delivered in the form of a blog post. Most of you will have never written a blog post before, but don’t worry! It is easy to do and will be assessed in the normal way against the same criteria as a normally written assessment would be assessed. See assessment criteria on QMPlus for these criteria. Also, see the end of these guidance notes for a short interpretation of the marking criteria. 

Instructions for the assessment Assessment: 

Please write a 1500-2000 word blog post responding to a topical news item that has arisen in the media on a contemporary health issue of your choosing. 

Blog posts are usually written as a response to a topical event or piece of writing or verbal comment made in the media. To help you choose your topic, refer back to the activity we did in week one where we reviewed the newspapers, and where you identified health-related articles. You could repeat that activity yourself and focus on one article/topic. You could then track down the original research paper or report that has informed or inspired the news item, and also search for other relevant evidence to inform your blog post. 

Structure 

A typical blog post has a standard structure or ‘anatomy’ (see below): 

There is usually a catchy title or headline to get the reader’s interest and an accompanying image of some kind (which should be referenced). As with your standard written assessment, there is then an introduction and a short summary of the ‘problem’ also known as the ‘lead in’. Then you get to the main points you want to make. This is the equivalent of the argument section of a standard written assessment. You finish your blog post with a short summary statement. Most blogs have software that automatically allows for comments, so a sentence at the end of the post encouraging your readers to reply is pretty typical.