Get Excellent Tips on Writing a Healthcare Term Paper

Writing guide
Posted on January 18, 2019

Before exploring the structure and the elements that characterize your term paper, it is essential to define what constitutes healthcare studies and the objectives of writing a term paper in this field. A term paper in healthcare is a project professors assign students to fulfill course requirements. You can also be assigned a term paper to assess and track expected knowledge outcomes about healthcare courses. As opposed to the essays in the field of healthcare, term papers require significant research and use of technical writing skills. Your healthcare term paper should focus on a single topic or interrelated topics in healthcare and must be organized, well-written, coherent, logical, and well-researched to reflect your knowledge of the chosen topic and area of study. The term paper should meet your professor’s requirements and adhere to the writing requirements observed in healthcare and social science studies. Often, your lecturer may provide the term paper topics.

Conversely, the professor may allow you to explore different topics in healthcare, depending on the area of healthcare studied in the course and the course requirements. In such a case, you need to understand how to select an appropriate topic for your healthcare term paper. Since a term paper serves as a commitment to a continual dialog between the professors and students, your lecturer may use the healthcare term paper to explore your understanding of healthcare issues and interpretation of theories and concepts in healthcare and uncover your ability to synthesize course readings. Writing a term paper may be challenging. However, this guide will provide you with the step-by-step guidelines that should make your writing process less tasking.

Selecting a Topic for Your Healthcare Term Paper

When selecting a topic for your healthcare term paper, you should always consider the following:

  • Length of the paper. Term papers in healthcare have a varied scope of content because the issues in this area intertwine with the individual, social, political, and economic concepts. Thus, some healthcare topics may be either too narrow or too broad. To come up with an appropriate topic that exhibits the scope of your paper, always consider the required length of the term paper provided by the professors. You should respond to the questions like “Will the paper be long, like eight pages, or short, like three pages?” or “How many words are required for the term paper?” Once you ascertain the required length of the paper, it should be easy to find and choose the topics that match the required number of words or pages. In this case, if the required length of the term paper exceeds five pages, choose a broad healthcare topic. Conversely, select topics that are narrow if the term paper should be less than five pages.
  • Topic complexity. Depending on the level of study, (college, undergraduate or postgraduate), some healthcare topics may be quite complex. You do not need to choose the topics that you cannot handle. Therefore, select the topics that you can handle with ease. In cases when it is impossible to focus and write about simpler subjects, ensure you are able to explain the chosen area of focus regardless of its complexity. If stuck, ask your instructor to explain and help you clarify certain areas of the topic that you find complex.
  • Resource availability. Check available literature resources, such as healthcare books, articles, and online sources to gather ideas on topics and ensure that a chosen topic has readily available and sufficient materials for reference when writing the term paper. Magazines and healthcare related news articles are also essential sources that provide different perspectives concerning healthcare issues.

Examples of healthcare topics for your research paper include:

  • Effects of Fast Foods on Adolescents;
  • Explore the Difference Between Wholesome Foods and Healthy Foods;
  • Examine the Benefits of Promoting Vegetable Intake on Human Health;
  • The Socio-Economic Impacts of Lung Cancer;
  • Evaluate the Benefits of Offering Universal Health Care Coverage.

Pre-Writing Tips You Should Consider

Even with clear prompts, topic, ideas, and literature materials for reference, starting off a term paper can still be challenging. Everyone faces the dilemma of translating thoughts into a coherent and carefully articulated paper. Before beginning the writing process, seek clarifications if needed and go through the provided instructions. Planning, brainstorming, clustering, and outlining ideas are among the essential health care term paper pre-writing tips that will ensure you write a stellar healthcare term paper. Since pre-writing involves planning and outlining information to ensure effective writing, it is possible to select the prewriting strategy of your choice. You can also use multiple prewriting strategies to come up with a refined topic and term paper in general.

  • Planning. A healthcare term paper requires appropriate articulation of facts without including unfounded information and speculating on concepts. Therefore, planning is a must as it helps to determine the paper timeline, allocate time to different parts of the paper writing process, and craft a resource outline to ensure plentiful reference materials are available.
  • Brainstorming. Ponder over the possible topic ideas as soon as you settle on a topic. Write every point that comes to your mind in no particular order to keep track of all thoughts and ideas that pop up in your head. Brainstorming will present you with new avenues to explore concerning the term paper topic.
  • Freewriting. Free writing is similar to brainstorming as it helps you transfer your thoughts onto paper. You do not need to worry about grammar, spelling or punctuation at this point since the purpose is to write as many ideas as you can about the healthcare topic. You can set a time limit of ten minutes and free write your thoughts and ideas. However, free writing should entail writing ideas about the healthcare topic in more formal sentences that only need editing and referencing.
  • Clustering. It is important to use the clustering strategy, especially if your ideas regarding topics and ideas are scattered. Clustering involves simple mind mapping and allows you to explore the way ideas you have developed fit together. You can cluster your ideas by writing your healthcare topic at the center of a blank paper and drawing outer circles that you should complete with ideas on your chosen topic.

How to Craft Your Thesis Statement

Choosing a creative and compelling topic for the term paper is only a single aspect of writing a healthcare term paper. A thesis statement summarizes the claim or the main point of the term paper. It should inform your intended audience about the importance of your healthcare subject matter and provide a roadmap for the entire paper. If the term paper is about cosmetic surgery and cost implications, the thesis statement should provide a claim for or against undergoing cosmetic surgery and the way to understand the concept. Thus, a thesis statement should:

  • Make a disputable claim or interpretation;
  • Be written as a single sentence at the end of the introduction to present the writer’s argument;
  • Tell the reader your opinion about the term paper and what it will prove;
  • Serve as the organizing principle of the term paper;
  • Direct your audience to the major pieces of evidence you will explore in the paper.

The body of the term paper should organize information and evidence that convince the reader of the logic of the thesis statement claim. If the term paper topic asks you to develop a claim about abandoning Obamacare, you should convey that claim in the thesis statement. Crafting an appropriate thesis statement may be challenging. Thus, you have to follow the guidelines below to learn how to craft one.

The following steps help with developing an appropriate thesis statement.

  • Read and compare sources. Gather and organize information found in books, journals, articles, and online sources on the chosen healthcare topic. Look for relationships between ideas and concepts that constitute the topic and analyze the significance of the established relationships.
  • Draft the thesis and consider the counter-arguments. Draft a statement that presents the basic argument that results from the analyzed sources, and that you can support using scholarly evidence. Since you are likely to take one side of the chosen argument, consider the other side of it, i.e., the counterclaim. The latter helps to refine the thesis statement. Notably, this strategy is more effective when it comes to writing an argumentative term paper.

Healthcare Term Paper Outline that Gets You an A+: Our Writers Know Their Business

A healthcare term paper may be persuasive, informative, or argumentative. Regardless of the type, the purpose and the structure, it should be well-organized, logical, and clear. The outline should entail:

  • Cover page. The cover page text contains name, course, date, and instructor’s name. Some lecturers prefer term papers with a cover page while others insist on the omission of the cover title. The formatting style should also dictate whether or not you should include a cover page.
  • Abstract. The abstract is usually half a page long or approximately 150 words, and it describes the term paper, its content, and its significance. Similar to the cover page, tutor preferences will indicate whether you should include an abstract or not.
  • Introduction. The introduction is the first main part of the term paper. It begins with a hook and a statement about the topic. The elements that characterize the introduction include:
    • A short statement of the paper objective, thesis, and questions that the term paper will answer.
    • The place that specific healthcare topics take in the broader context but in a way that represents the paper arguments.
    • The description of relevant and current literature on the healthcare subject of analysis.
    • The clarification of terms typical for the healthcare discourse.
  • Body. The body of your term paper should present a synthesis of the paper research and provide information about the topic to broaden the reader’s understanding of the healthcare issue you are exploring. The structure of the body segment depends on the goal of your term paper. Consequently, no solid conventions dictate the aspects that need to be discussed or the manner in which they should be analyzed.

    Important elements of the body section are:

    • Divide the body text into segments and subsections that represent the main ideas and supporting evidence. Each unique idea or argument should be in its own paragraph. Take note that one sentence does not constitute a paragraph.
    • Use the paragraphs and topic sentences to develop your paper argument comprehensively and without repetitions.
    • Provide evidence for your arguments by quoting existing literature on selected ecology topics. If the paper is argumentative, quote certain claims and contrast them with your opinion or disapprove the claims. Do not forget to provide reasons for disapproving a claim.
    • Reference all the analogous and literal text quotations. If the further clarification and comments are needed but their inclusion would disrupt the paper fluidity, insert the content as footnotes. Keep in mind that the presence of footnotes will depend on the specified term paper writing convention.
    • The composition of your text should be clear and logically comprehensible. The structure will depend on the aspects typical for the chosen ecology topic.
    • Provide the reasons for your idea and criticism instead of summarizing existing literature and gathering quotations. Moreover, provide only information that is essential to understand your term paper issue.
  • Conclusion. In some ways, the conclusion of your term paper is similar to your introduction. The conclusion should restate your thesis and summarize your main points of evidence for the reader. You should restate the topic briefly and explain why it is important. Ensure your prose is concise and clear. Rewrite the thesis statement because it should not appear or sound exactly as it does in the introduction. If possible, it should be narrowed and focused on your healthcare topic.

A Few Post-Writing Tips & The Job Is Done!

Proofread. The term paper is not complete until you proofread it to correct grammar, sentence structure, and content errors. While all the errors can be corrected during the first proofreading session, it is important to read through the paper twice or thrice to check for specific issues at each period. For instance, go through the paper to check grammatical errors and sentence structure mistakes. During the second reading session, read the paper aloud to identify incoherent content and sentence structure. Finally, assess the term paper to ensure clear content meaning, coherence, and logical flow of ideas.

Finally, ensure the paper is free from nested sentences, passive constructions, and unreferenced content.

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