Professional blogs

Purpose:

Professional blogs are increasingly used by experts to express, illustrate, and integrate core values, ideas, and explain these to a wider audience. It is a way to connect with others based on what you identify as important.

The goal of this assignment is to reflect upon, integrate, and share how your personal life experiences have led to you have a life philosophy/value system/set of ethical beliefs about poverty, social justice, and global health. We want you to focus on what role that philosophy or belief system will have when executing your future goals, whether personal, professional, or political. This assignment is likely quite different from the type of paper you have written in other courses. In most papers, you should avoid writing in the first person, that is, you should avoid using “I think…” or “I believe…” The point of this assignment though is for you to write in the first person, in a professional manner. This type of writing is what is required in Personal Statements or Statements of Purpose, which are often required for scholarship applications or graduate school applications. Thus, this assignment should serve a purpose beyond helping you to develop intellectually; it is basically a (edited) draft of an important piece of writing that you might needs as you move into your life beyond this class. It can reflect where you come from, where you are, and must indicate where you are going in your professional life, integrating this with what you have discovered through the course.

For inspiration, feel free to browse Dr Brewis Slade’s and Dr Wutich’s blog on stigma in global health, where we integrate what we learn as we do global health research into our own evolving professional ethics and values: http://lazycrazydisgusting.com/

Here is another example of a professional blog by our ASU global health colleague Dr Katie Hinde, who blogs about the benefits of breastfeeding, ethics, and many other things: http://mammalssuck.blogspot.com/

 

Knowledge and Skills:

Upon successful completion of this assignment, you will be able to demonstrate that you have the ability to…

• Discuss your own values as they relate to poverty, social justice, and global health
• Develop and articulate your future goals
• Integrate class concepts into an evaluation of personal/professional values and goals
• Identify and address personal doubts and/or articulate ambiguity
• Write in an engaging AND professional manner
• Address and engage a general (public) audience through your writing, working with in length requirements/limits (a typical constraint in public writing)

Task:

To complete this assignment, you need to write an essay in the style of a blog post of 1250-1750 words that includes the following:

 

• Class concepts: you need to address the concepts that we dealt with in class while you are talking about your life philosophy, value system, or ethical beliefs.

 

• • It is not enough just to talk about what your beliefs are, you have to say how they relate to issues, like structural violence, that we covered in class. You can refer to cases you encountered inside or outside the course to illustrate.
• Privilege and inequity: you need to deal with issues of privilege and inequity as they relate to your personal experiences and your philosophy/belief system. Everyone brings their own set of experiences that leads them to understand how privilege and inequity are related to health issues. You should reflect upon your own experiences of privilege and/or inequity here.
• • Some of you may have personally struggled with poverty or had a family member who was negatively affected by health inequities and these experiences have likely shaped for philosophy in profound ways. It is appropriate to reflect upon those experiences here.
  • Some of you may have had a fairly privileged existence. You shouldn’t be embarrassed by that or think that you have to make up a personal struggle to address this section. But, it is not enough to simply say “Wow, I’ve been really privileged and I have no concept of what we are talking about here.” This is a time to reflect on your personal growth during this class and to think about the role that inequity plays in the lives of others and how you can use your position of privilege to make a change.
    • A word of caution: although it may be tempting to do, the best way to get a good grade is not to assert in an untruthful manner that this class has revolutionized your point of view. If that happens to be the case, then it will come through in your writing. But, if that is not the case, you should avoid saying it as it will probably sound insincere. The point of this assignment is to be truthful and self-reflexive.
• Personal doubts: you need to address any doubts that you have about your life philosophy or belief system.

 

• • Once you begin to think deeply about your life philosophy/value system/ethical beliefs, you will likely recognize that in some situations, they are incomplete or don’t fully apply. You must discuss these doubts as well as your attempts to resolve these doubts.
    • As an example, you may have discussed how your participation in a charitable organization impacted your beliefs about poverty, social justice, and global health. And so, it would be appropriate to talk about doubts that you had that the approach taken by the charitable organization was appropriate to, or would be sufficient to address, the problem you were working on. This is just an example though, you are not required to use this example. You should write about what is relevant to your own experience and beliefs.
• Future goals: you need to discuss the role that your beliefs about poverty, social justice, and global health will have in the execution of your future goals.

 

• • Global health majors or those considering a career in health or social justice, have likely already thought about their future plans through the lens of poverty, social justice, and/or global health. Now is the time to discuss the role that these issues will play in your career or life goals.
  • For those who are not planning on pursuing a career in the areas of poverty or social justice, perhaps it is appropriate to discuss how your knowledge of these issues will affect your involvement in volunteer work. Or, you can address how these issues will impact you as a citizen of your country. We all have a basic stake as citizens in the issues of poverty, social justice, and global health. How will you engage with these issues as a citizen?

This blog-style essay should be formatted with 1-inch margins and single spaced with 12-point, Times New Roman font. You are not required to cite sources in this essay. However, if you do cite sources, please use a professional formatting for your citations. You may include one image (appropriately attributed to the source).

Criteria for Success:

 

• • This assignment can be approached in a number of different ways. You do not need to address the issues above in the order that they are presented. You need to compose an essay in blog post format that shows careful thought and clarity of expression and which flows smoothly from one idea to the next. You must demonstrate thoughtful integration of concepts and propositions we have explored in the class with one’s own personal philosophic and ethical positions, engagement with issues privilege and inequity, the acknowledgement of doubts and the effort to resolve doubts, and and understanding of how your longer-term goals articulate with the concepts of poverty, social justice, and global health.
  • Pay careful attention to the word count requirements. Use the template!
  • Blog essays over 1750 words will not be read beyond 1750 words. This statement means that any section of the essay that is in the section written beyond the 1750 word count will not receive a grade.
  • You may include one figure or photo, as long as appropriate attribution for the source is given. Check out the Rubric to see how this assignment will be graded. Your draft will be graded based on this rubric, here. Compare your completed assignment to the rubric to ensure you have met every expectation.
• Think like a blogger: here are some tips for writing in this style

 

• • use a catchy title
  • use a figure or otherwise an arresting image to make a point visually
  • keep sentences short and edit your post over and over until it is as clear as it can be
  • have the main point you are trying to communicate
  • have a start, middle, and ending, to the point you are trying to make
  • personalize, by bringing your self into the story
  • BUT, at the same time: don’t self-promote. Present with humility.
  • Use concrete examples as much as possible
  • Be professional: this is a professional blogging assignment, representing you as an emerging professional. Be respectful, edit carefully for grammar and spelling, and make the format easy to read.