Soc 423: Women, Health, and Healing
You have learned a great deal in this course about women’s health. In this assignment, you will have an opportunity to introduce a women’s health topic/issue to the public and explain why they should care. For this assignment you will need to carefully consider everything that you have learned and how you would explain your topic to someone who does not have a sociology/inequality/women’s health background.
Fact sheets are designed to provide a summary of important data, research, facts, and information related to your women’s health issue. Keep in mind that this is a sociology class with a focus on gender and health – the projects should be oriented around thinking about how health is impacted by social factors/social systems. Victim-blaming/person blame approach is not appropriate for this assignment. We want to be sure to use our sociological imaginations.
The fact sheet will be 3 pages in length (not including the reference page), single spaced, 12- point font, and 1” margins. The design of the fact sheet is flexible as long as the required elements (see below) are present. Your challenge is to make something that is easy for anyone to follow, visually appealing, and creative.
Your fact sheet should contain a minimum of 10 research sources, 5 of which must be scholarly journals (e.g. Gender & Society, Social Science & Medicine, Journal of Health and Social Behavior, etc). The additional 5 sources must come from government websites or other reputable sources. Please email me for pre-approval of reputable websites that are not government websites (end in .gov). Non-government sites that are not approved will not be counted to towards your required 10 sources. Websites such as Wikipedia, WebMD, About.com, etc. are not peer reviewed or even necessarily reliable and will not be accepted for this project. All sources must be published within the last 5 years. All sources should be cited using ASA format. Go to https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/asa_style/references_page_formatting.html and https://www.asanet.org/sites/default/files/savvy/documents/teaching/pdfs/Quick_Tips_for_ASA_Style.pdf for ASA style guides.
The fact sheets will include the following components[footnoteRef:1]: [1: If you feel that these three components do not fit your topic for some reason and would like to propose an alternative section for the fact sheet, you can email the instructor for approval. If requesting a change to the three main components, please provide rationale as to why you are asking for this change to the assignment. ]
1) Facts and trends – include the latest information and statistical trends related to your topics.
· Facts and trends should be up to date and provide a general overview of the prevalence, incidence, and/or impact of the groups topic in the U.S. This is the most substantive part of the fact sheet
2) Issues and perspectives – include relevant issues related to your topic.
· It is important to include different perspectives and opposing viewpoints if relevant.
· Present perspectives as viewpoints rather than facts.
3) National, State, and Local resources – Include a list of resources where a reader can find additional information on your topic. Please note that the sources included here should not be counted as part of your 10 sources unless you also use them somewhere else in the fact sheet.
Examples of fact sheets are posted online. In addition, during week four of our course (September 21-27, 2020) we will have a class discussion forum to have your questions regarding the fact sheet project answered. You are not required to participate in this discussion, but I encourage you to ask any questions that you might have, as well as review the questions of your classmates regarding the fact sheet project. I will review and respond to questions in this class discussion daily during the week four of our course.
