DD13HW4 Final Project #3

Team CGCR Consulting's FINAL REPORT is available here. Thank you!

DD12HW8 Reflect on Peer Review

Reviewing my peers' reports was helpful because it reminded me of all the checklists we need to use to review and edit our own draft. The first report I read was very technical and wordy, whereas the second report included shorter and more concise paragraphs. I hope to revise my team's draft to make it fall somewhere in between. I also saw a comment on one draft about what needs to be on the Table of Contents- that they can start with the Introduction section. 

There are also a handful of edits and additions we need to make to our report, such as Table of Contents, some sentence structure and wording of paragraphs, and Tip Sheet. Although my peers' Tip Sheets were visually appealing, they were difficult to read. I want to make sure we do not make that same mistake with ours. We also need to make some changes with our bibliography. We need to put our Works Cited/References page in alphabetical order and make sure our references and in-text citations all follow the same format. 

DD12HW5 Sentence Analysis

Here is the link to my Sentence Analysis document.


Example One

Before Sentence: Get to know your team.

After Sentence: Learn something about each new team member.

Pattern Used: Substitution helped me revise this sentence by replacing a single word with a word group. I also used modification by adding a modifier (new) to team member.


Example Two

Before Sentence: An online application such as Todoist can help keep tasks organized and allow access to all team members.

After Sentence: A free project management online application, such as Todoist, can help keep tasks organized, and features allow all team members to have access.

Pattern Used: Modification and Subordination helped me revise this sentence by adding modifiers to the subject.

DD12HW1 Analyze Ethical Considerations

Analyze Ethical Considerations

One important ethical consideration that exists with Project 3 is plagiarism. When conducting research and writing a report about findings, I know it is important to include a bibliography page and in-text citations. I will be sure to do this, and also to review my paragraphs and make sure if I am directly quoting that I use quotation marks. If I am paraphrasing, I will make sure to include in-text citations.  Groupthink is also an ethical consideration to be aware of in Project 3. We are working on a team project and want to be sure that we are working together and not participating in groupthink. Because I am aware of groupthink, I think it helps me make sure I am making ethical decisions. 

In the future, I need to be aware of ethical considerations. Just because the majority may be going along with an idea, I will not go along with a decision if I do not feel comfortable with it. I will also be sure to monitor ethical considerations such as falsifying or fabricating data, and using visual images that conceal the truth. In my Public Health profession, we often conduct research and review data. My organization puts a great emphasis on portraying data in an ethical manner and not editing data to make a graph look better. Plagiarism is also a concern. In my profession, we often have meetings where we brainstorm new health promotion messaging and programming. It is important to refer to research when presenting a new idea both in communication and on paper. When writing formal reports we always include bibliographies and in-text citations to give the authors credit. 

DD11HW2 Individual Resource Evaluation, Part 2

This article was published in 2012 and includes 12 different references, most of which are from peer-reviewed journals. Diversity in the workplace is defined and described, followed by strategies in managing diversity, and the description of the study itself. This article is organized and includes strengths, barriers and limitations to the study, which shows all various points of view (1). The tool used in this study was a validated tool developed by a team of researchers and professionals and the response rate was 88%, which is good; however, the authors did not provide information on how they distributed the survey and collected results. They are missing that in their methodology. Also, their sample size was 300 people, which was a decent sample size for this study, but may not be large enough to make generalizations across all workplaces (1).


1. Patrick, Harold Andrew, and Vincent Raj Kumar. Managing Workplace Diversity. Sage Open. 2012; 2(2): 2158244012444615. doi: 10.1177/2158244012444615.

DD10HW7 Synthesize Your Research, Part 2

Please click on the image above to zoom in. You can also view my mind map here. 

DD10HW6 Individual Resource Evaluation, Part 1

This article was published in 2010 which is relatively recent, considering it takes time to implement a study, write and article and then publish. The authors' biographies are included and show they all have experience in technology, technical writing, and communication. The evidence appears to be sufficient. There were 27 references, ranging in years and from a variety of journals. The authors also included limitations to their study, acknowledging there may have been self-report bias (1). I thought the findings of this article were interesting, yet agreeable. People feel more relaxed when joining a group and seeing a warm funny photo of the person as their profile picture, rather than a professional photo, which tells them "it's all business" (1). It was also noted that when a new person joins a group and receives an immediate IM from another team member, they feel welcome. I can understand this, but also have been in groups where this has occurred and it's because the person sending the IM wants to get started with the project quickly and down to business. This article provides results from participants' recording logs, which again could be bias, but it also could be an accurate portrayal.  The authors do a good job of making this known to the reader, including the limitations of the study and future recommendations (1).


1. Wojahn P, Taylor SK, Blicharz K. Forming groups into teams through virtual interactions:  Researching remote collaborators and “getting to know you.” 2010 IEEE International Professional Communication Conference. 2010; 203-209. doi: 10.1109/IPCC.2010.5530009.

DD10HW2 Chapter 19 Writing Descriptions

Description of Meister Task

Meister Task is a project management application tool used to collaborate with others and organize online projects. It can be used as a communication tool for students when they are completing an online group assignment. Meister Task provides access to all team members working on the project by allowing open access to the same information. Students can add tasks under the Open, In Progress and Done tabs, as well as drop and drag items between these tabs. This allows all team members to participate in planning, implementing and monitoring tasks. New members can also be added by clicking on the Add Members + sign. Meister Task includes a mind mapping tool to aid in organization of thoughts, ideas and goals. Meister Task applications are free and available for iPads, iphones, Mac OS, and Windows, making it versatile and accessible.

DD9HW9 Synthesizing Research - Part 1

Please click on the image above to zoom in. You can also view my mind map here.

DD9HW6 Formal Research Report Needs Assesment

Statement of Purpose: The purpose of this digital report/manual is to help staff at UA improve their teamwork skills, as they have not been working together in groups very well.


Business Need: The business need for this digital report is to have a manual available to staff, in order to improve communication, collaboration, and teamwork between employees at UA.


Audience: The audience of this report consists of the UA CEO and all UA employees. The primary audience CEO is the CEO who requested the document, and the secondary audience includes the UA employees who will be required to read the document and carry out the teamwork. The audience consists of 250 people, who are experts in their field, but need assistance with how they can work together and complete projects in teams all over the world.


Situation: This report will be distributed digitally through email and will also be posted on an internal server for all employees to have access of the report at any time. Although this report will be read by UA employees in different countries, it will be provided in one language, English. Some employees will want to read the whole report, while others will only skim or refer to specific sections for information they feel is important to them. They may be resistant to the information at first, if they believe they are a great team player. There will not be any specific software or equipment required to view this report.


Goals of the Communication: This report will allow UA employees to enhance their ability to work with others on future projects. Ideally they will have a better understanding of teamwork in the work place and improve their communication skills, time management skills, and collaborator skills, such as appropriate tone, style and etiquette in the workplace. This may be measured by how well employees work together on future project outcomes.


Requirements: This report will be distributed as an attachment via email. It will be a Word document or PDF, but can be transferred to a web-based design in the future if desired. The report will include an Executive Summary, Acknowledgements, Table of Contents, Introduction, Background, Problem Statement, Methodology, Main sections of Information, Conclusion, Reference page, and Appendices.


Scope: The final report will be available in one document with all relevant information, but the table of contents will include hyperlinks to each section for quick reference.

Topics: The report will include sections on what teamwork is, background of UA, the best ways to communicate virtually, examples of virtual teamwork, tips and tricks, goals of communication, and next steps.

Audience prerequisites: The Audience will all be employees of UA and will have knowledge of common practices, projects and workload at UA.

Expertise of writers/designers:  The writers who will design and develop the communication will have some background knowledge of the company and teamwork, and will be experts in research.

DD9HW5 Rhetorical Situations

	Audience	Purpose	Intended Use
Individual Collaboration	The CEO of Universal Assistance (UA)	To show the behind the scenes work/informal reports made by the group.	For the CEO to see that all individuals collaborated and worked together.
Executive Summary	UA employees	To inform all employees what the report will be about and why it is needed.	To allow employees to receive a summary without having to read the entire document.
Acknowledgements	UA CEO, UA employees, or anyone who is reading the document	To thank the company and employees for the opportunity	A way of saying thank you to the parties involved in the creation of the document.
TOC	UA CEO, UA employees, or anyone who is reading the document	To keep information organized, and the contents of the document easily accessible to readers.	For readers to be able to locate information in the document without having to read through the entire document.
Problem Statement and /or Research Questions	UA CEO, UA employees, or anyone who is reading the document	To ensure the reader understands the problem that will be addressed in the rest of the document.	For readers to be aware of the problem; and for them to decide if they want to read the document.
Methods used to produce the report	Anyone who is reading the document, or who wants to know the methodology.	To allow readers to know the process of how the document was put together.	For readers to see the steps involved in the process of group/team work.
Tip Sheet	UA employees	To provide a brief summary/recommendations to be followed by UA employees	For UA employees to use as a reference in the future when working on group/team projects
Documentation of Work Sessions	The CEO of Universal Assistance (UA) [Also the ENG 308 Instructor]	For group members to see what other group members have been working on; to maintain communication through collaboration.	For the CEO (Instructor) to see that all individuals collaborated and worked together.
Transmittal Memo	The CEO of UA and all UA employees	To let employees know the where, what and why of the document that is being released.	To announce the release of the document- where, why it can be found.

DD9HW4 Research Collaboration and Teamwork

Annotated Bibliography


1. Lowry PB, Nunamaker JF. Using Internet-based, distributed collaborative writing tools to improve coordination and group awareness in writing teams. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication. 2003; 46(4): 277-297. doi: 10.1109/TPC.2003.819640.

This article discusses the differences between face-to-face CW (collaborative writing) teams, and “distributed internet-based” CW groups, and tools that can be used to improve distributed CW groups. This study explore the use of a new tool to use for distributed internet-based CWs, compared to the groups that utilize word processing programs and email as main means of communication. Results of this study showed Collaboratus, a new distributed internet-based CW tool, assisted groups with being more productive, and producing higher quality documents than those who used Word.

2. Managing Virtual Teams Staff. Advantages and Challenges of Virtual Work Teams. Managing Virtual Teams (MVT). http://managing-virtual-teams.com/en/virtual-teams-articles/project-management/advantages-and-challenges-of-virtual-work-teams.html. Accessed August 2, 2016.

This web page provides a bulleted list with descriptions of challenges and advantages of working in teams. Challenges include physical distance, changing world, routine, personal life and work life imbalance, and diverse multicultural teams. Advantages include time, space, money, comfort, flexibility, and environment. Hyperlinks are also included that lead to additional information pages on their website.

3. Wojahn P, Taylor SK, Blicharz K. Forming groups into teams through virtual interactions:  Researching remote collaborators and “getting to know you.” 2010 IEEE International Professional Communication Conference. 2010; 203-209. doi: 10.1109/IPCC.2010.5530009.

This study states many people prefer to know people they are collaborating with on a written assignment; however, that is not always the case. Knowing something about your team members work and communication style in the beginning of a project can help improve efficiency of the completed project. It is recommended that collaborators use strategies to help form relationships virtually, in order to work together more comfortably and efficiently.

DD9HW3 Chapter 15 Text Messaging

Digital and Social Media Question

Text message to a friend:
"Hi friend! Are you here yet? Where do you want to meet?"

Text message to a co-worker:
"Hello Co-worker, this is Christi. Please let me know when you arrive and I will meet you in the lobby. Thank you!


The first text message to a friend is written in a casual tone. The co-worker text is more formal, but is still polite and engaging.

DD9HW2 Chapter 2 Audience and Use Profile

General Question #2

Audience and Purpose
Primary audience: New employees to Campus Health
Secondly audience: Health Promotion Department, and Supervisor
     Relationship with audience: Primary audience: colleagues within the same department
     Secondary audience: Supervisor of same department
Purpose of document: This document is "to inform, instruct and persuade" (as stated in Chapter 2).
Audience and purpose statement: The purpose of this document is to explain to new colleagues the difficulties that come with planning an event on the UA mall. I will show who the main contacts are, how to follow a timeline, and suggestions for avoiding common mistakes made when planning and organizing a health event.
Intended use of document: For new employees to be able to plan, organize, and implement a health event on the UA mall in a timely fashion while following all necessary UA policy and procedures.
Information needs: Employees may, or may not, be new to the UA so they may or may not be familiar with the process of reserving a space on the mall, or with Health Promotion protocol. Instructions will need to be descriptive and easy to follow.
Technical background: The primary audience can be considered laypersons.
Cultural considerations: New employees may have experience at another university in the past, but they may come from different backgrounds and experiences, as well. Some higher education and/or health-related terminology may be used, as they were hired for a higher-education health-related position, but the wording will need to be clear and direct.
Probable questions: What types of health events are planned on the UA mall? How much time will I need to set aside to organize these events? When should I start planning? Who are my contacts in Health Promotion? Who are my contacts in the Student Union office? How do I reserve a golf cart to transport equipment? What is the timeline for this?
Probable reaction: New employees will most likely be grateful for this step-by-step information; however if they are familiar with some of the procedures already, they may not follow each step and skip ahead.

Audience Preferences about the Document 
Length and detail: This document may be a few pages long, to ensure appropriate steps are taken.  This should be acceptable for a higher education professional.
Format and medium: A PDF with instructions would be beneficial.  This can be printed for new employees, or attached to an email. It may even be referenced in a memo distributed via email to all new employees.
Tone: A friendly, but professional tone would be best.
Due date and timing: This document will be included in the initial paperwork given to new employees during their first week and will also be available on a shared drive for easy accessibility.
Budget: No printing costs are needed for the email distribution of the PDF; however if printed by supervisors or new employees, this paper cost will be included in the Health Promotion budget.

DD9HW1 Chapter 5 Team Techs

Digital and Social Media Question

MEMORANDUM

To:               Antonnet Johnson, Instructor

From:          Christi Castillo, Student

Date:           August 1, 2016

Subject:      Virtual Meetings

Virtual meetings are beneficial when there is a need to collaborate on a project, but partners are unable to meet face-to-face. These meetings can be held via Skype, through Google Hangouts chat feature, emails, phone conferences or social media, such as Facebook. 

Pros of virtual meetings are working with people's schedules. Using a Google document allows everyone to contribute, whether at the same time, or on different timelines. Multitasking is also a benefit. It is possible to be working on a document, while being on the phone with another colleague, or conducting research on another web page. Some people may feel more comfortable and confident expressing themselves through a virtual meeting by writing out their ideas, rather than speaking them. 

Cons of virtual meetings include coordinating schedules and communication issues. Not everyone may be able to participate in a phone conference or google chat at the same time. Some members of the group may need to be caught up if they are unavailable during a meeting. Also, it may be difficult to understand tone in an email or written document, which can lead to confusion. Some people prefer to express their ideas in person, so a face-to-face meeting would be ideal. 

Collaboration and communication are key when participating in virtual meetings. It is best to consider the strengths of involved parties in order to choose the most appropriate technology.  

Copies: English 308 students

DD8HW9 Project 2

Project 2: Using Visuals in Nutrition Education Column and Annotated Bibliography


Rhetorical Situation:
The purpose of this document was to remind nutrition educators of their ethical responsibilities when working with visuals. The target audience for this ethics column is Health University's Campus Health Service.  This department trains health educators to provide nutritional counseling and education to members of campus and the community. This column will be provided to new and current employees, and published in the company's weekly newsletter; therefore, it will include links to various websites and images. This will allow employees to access additional information as needed.

Project:

• What are you most proud of in the entire project? Why?
• I am proud of the final document because I learned a lot while writing it. I was familiar with some nutrition and public health ethical and cultural considerations, but had never written about them. I learned a lot about paramedic editing and varying sentence style and am proud of the changes I made to this document. 
• What do you wish you had time to further expand, include, or revise in the project?
• I would like to learn more about the paramedic method. I use a lot of prepositions and although I made a lot of changes to my column, there are still areas that could be revised if given more time. 
• When and where did you get stuck while working on the project? How did you overcome your problem?
• I had a hard time narrowing down visuals and ethical issues when I first started the process. Public Health is a very broad field including mental health, physical health, socioeconomic status, and health disparities, as well as educational aspects, health promotion, health prevention and data collection. Even after I decided on nutrition, I still had to narrow down my focus to nutrition education. I overcame this issue by conducting a lot of research. I reviewed many peer-reviewed articles and used a few different databases. 

Learning:

• What technologies did you use to complete this project? Why were they appropriate? What processes did you take to learn the technology application/s? What did you learn? What more you hope to learn in the future? How/why might you use the technology application/s again?
• I used a variety of technologies to complete this project. I used my laptop at home and my desktop at work to complete my research. I used the Arizona Health Science Library website to choose Google Scholar, PubMed, and OvidSP databases. I used links provided  on D2L as well to research Technical Communication Journals. Lastly, I used Google and various nutrition websites. I was reminded of the various visuals that are often used in the nutrition field, such as photographs and illustrations, and MyPlate and MyPyramid.  I learned about the importance of adapting visuals to your audience, but maintaining ethical standards in the process. For example, using simple illustrations for people with low literacy skills. I will continue to conduct research and use visuals in health education, especially when designing educational materials for different populations. I will also pay more attention to and consider cultural considerations in my current profession at Campus Health. 

• Discuss at least three of the course outcomes you feel you worked towards with this assignment. Provide evidence of your learning by pointing to specific aspects of the project.
• 1. Critique and use flexible strategies for reading, drafting, reviewing, collaborating, revising, rewriting, rereading, and editing using a variety of technologies.
• This project focused a lot on proofreading, editing, peer-reviewing and grammar. Using the style checklist, proofreading checklist and usability checklist on my peers' docuemnts, aided me in the drafting and editing process of my own.
• 2. Develop intentional cross-cultural connections and relationships with others to participate in the collaborative and social aspects of technical writing processes, including giving and responding to productive feedback and working in teams.
• We were not required to work in teams for this project, but I felt like this peer review process was more collaborative. I chatted with another student while peer reviewing and felt like the comments I received on my document were more detailed and helpful. I reviewed all of the comments and made necessary changes to my column and bibliography, based on some of the feedback.
• 3. Explain why genre conventions for structure, paragraphing, tone, and mechanics vary and extrapolate common formats and/or design features for different kinds of technical texts.
• I learned a lot about technical writing this week while working on this project. Writing an ethics newsletter was a different style of writing for me, and I enjoyed learning about different ways to improve my writing style, especially when completing the Paramedic Editing exercise.

• Discuss at least one personal course goal you feel you worked towards with this assignment. Provide evidence of your learning by pointing to specific aspects of the project. 
• Personal Goal: To gain a better understanding of what Technical Writing and Technical Communication are and how to properly apply them.
• I feel like I am starting to understand more aspects of technical communication. I conducting research using various databases, incorporated themes of ethics and visualizations into a field of my interest and put it all together into a column for a newsletter. I used various forms of technical communication and applied them to produce one document.

• What did you learn about yourself as a technical writer?
• As mentioned in my description of my personal goal, I learned a lot about technical communication and writing this week. I realized there is a lot more thought that goes into technical writing, but that the more I practice these writing style techniques and exercises, the more likely I will begin to incorporate them into my writing on a regular basis. 

DD8HW6 Sentence Variety and Style

Original: 

     Photographs are also a commonly used visual by Nutrition Educators, where ethical issues need to be considered. Editing a photograph by cropping out part of an image, or altering a photo in a way that it is different than it's original intent becomes an ethical issue if that alteration changes the context of the photo and the accompanying information. Photographs of healthy foods are often used to show examples of nutritious choices. Photographs are also used to show the differences in various cultures and their eating habits.  Culture plays a big role in nutritional health and photographs should avoid displaying any cultural stereotypes.

     Nutritionists and Nutrition educators often use tables to show a particular food, along with its serving size, calories, fat, carbohydrates and proteins.

Revised:

     Photographs are also a commonly used visual by Nutrition Educators that require ethical considerations. They are often used to represent examples of healthy and unhealthy food items. When photo editing techniques change the context of a photograph, and a persons' understanding of accompanying information, this is unethical. Examples of these changes include cropping out part of a photo, altering a photograph to distort the image, and changing the colors of a photo from color to a black and white. Photographs are also used to show the differences in various cultures and cultural eating habits. Culture plays a big role in nutritional health and photographs should avoid displaying any cultural stereotypes.

     Tables are often used by nutrition educators to display a type of food, amount of calories in that food, and categories of nutrients in that food, such as carbohydrates, proteins, and fats.   

Reflection:

• I noticed three of the six sentences started with the word "photographs" so I chose to vary the sentence opening in one of the sentences. I kept "photographs" as the opening in two of the sentences to show emphasis. by changing those sentences, which helped with the flow of my paragraph. 
• The Various Methods for Joining Ideas handout was useful and I edited some sentences using commas and conjunctions to to join ideas. 
• I started two of my paragraphs with the name of the visuals (graphic illustrations and photographs), but I didn't for the third.  I changed this and started that paragraph with Tables, to provide consistency and emphasis. 

DD8HW4 Self-Review of Full Bibliographic Citations

I used American Medical Association (AMA) style for my annotated bibliography. I had used this in graduate school for public health research papers, but it had been a few years so I needed to do my own research to remember how to properly cite articles. At first, I found some conflicting information, but after I continued my research, I was able to properly complete my annotated bibliography.

The following were the most commonly revised issues:

• Capitalization: Some examples I found showed only the first word in the journal article title capitalized and the rest of the key words were not, and some examples showed all the words capitalized, as they were in the article. 
• Punctuation:  I did not need to put periods after initials. 
• Volume/Issue:  It took some time for me to figure out how to include these.
• DOIs or URLs:  I didn't add this in the first draft, but went back to do so after reviewing.  
• Title: Some examples showed an italicized title, but a few didn't. I researched more and found out it should be italicized if it's an online journal article.  
• Order: Items in the bibliography needed to be listed numerically, as they appeared in the text, not alphabetically. 

I also found an AMA style guide that gave recommendations for using AMA style within the paper. These included adding page numbers to the document, and adding a header aligned with left margin.

DD7HW6 Ethical Issues Mind Map

DD7HW5 Key Ethical Issues

Illustrations: An ethical consideration when using illustrations or similar visuals, is to include an image that accurately portrays your message. It is recommended when using color to use it sparingly and maintain consistency.

Photographs: Editing a photo by cropping out part of an image, or altering a photo in a way that it is different than it's original intent could be an issue if that changes the context of the photo and the accompanying document.

Symbols and Icons:  These are usually widely known and should be presented in a way that they are representing what they stand for, and are not misleading.

Tables:  When constructing tables, you want to be sure to include all relevant information, but not omit information that could change others' opinions on the data. Keeping all tables the same size, with the same font and style is also recommended.

Graphs (Bar graphs):  The scales on graphs can be changed to show an accurate portrayal, or an overstated or understated portrayal of data. It is important to follow ethical considerations when constructing graphs from your data, so that you aren't misleading the audience.

With all of these various types of visualizations it is important to remember your audience, and to place visuals where they can easily be seen, aren't crowded and can easily be understood or interpreted.

DD7HW4 Key Visualization Techniques

Illustrations: Food Pyramid, drawings of food

• Where: On nutrition education materials 
• How: This is a commonly used educational tool that can be found in textbooks and online.
• Why: The food pyramid is a universal way for people to know what foods and food groups are recommended. Drawings of food can also be a helpful visual. 

 
Photographs: Photos of food

• Where: Handouts, brochures, presentations, magnets, any health messaging 
• How: Drawings can be made by an instructor, or a graphic designer, depending on the audience.
• Why: People can identify with things they see that they are familiar with.  It is also helpful for a person to see what a food looks like, so they can identify it when they go grocery shopping. 

Symbols and Icons:   MyPlate

• Where: On nutrition education materials
• How: These are given in presentations in classrooms and to children on placemats. 
• Why: This image is easy for children to understand. It is a commonly used image symbolizing healthy eating.  

Tables are often used. Numerical- used to compare exact values. Prose- used to organize verbal information.

• Where: In textbooks, or in presentations. 
• How: Tables are used to show food sources of vitamins, minerals, fats, carbs, proteins, etc. They include the food, the recommended serving size and health benefit.  
• Why: Tables can be an easy way to look up a vitamin and check to see what food you can eat in order to reach daily recommended intakes. 

Graphs:  Bar graphs Results of a Nutrition survey.

• Where: Results of a the Health & Wellness Survey at UA. 
• How: Graphs show the amount of students who report healthy eating habits. 
• Why: These can be a good way to see what students are doing well, and how they can improve, which helps staff to learn what areas they can strength in health promotion. 

DD7HW3 Chapter 9, Article #2

I followed the guidelines for TC's Summarizing Information (pp. 176-177). 

Article Title:
Visual Representation of Health Information:  A Critique of the 2005 Food Pyramid

USDA guidelines have changed over the years since the first recommendations were made in 1917. Originally there were 5 food groups, including "fruits and vegetables," "meats and proteins (including milk for children)," cereals and starches," "sweets," and "fatty foods." There are still five groups but they are categorized differently, shifting away from Sugar and Fat, and identifying Grains, Vegetables, Fruits, Milk, and Meat & Beans as the five categories. The goal of USDA guidelines have also shifted from telling people to "eat more" to ensure they had enough nutrients, to "eat less" because of the rise of obesity and other chronic diseases stemming from food consumption.

The Food Pyramid has also changed over the years, but the goal has remained the same. The purpose of the pyramid is to show people what the daily recommendations dietary guidelines are to live a healthy life. Descriptions of visual differences between the food pyramids and why they may be confusing to users have been identified. The original food pyramid was a pyramid with visual representation of foods in horizontal divisions.  The focus was that there is a foundation of foods to eat on the bottom, and then recommendations for smaller amounts of food groups as you went up the pyramid.  The new representation has made vertical divisions, with six different colors separating the five food groups, with a small colored line added for oils. Visually, the vertical bands of color appear to be different sizes, but it is not as easy to understand recommended portion sizes, as it was on the original horizontal pyramid.

The new Food Pyramid is visually more appealing for users due to the design and colors. It also includes an image of a person climbing up stairs along the side of the pyramid, representing recommendations for physical activity.  Although there are some benefits to this pyramid, the original is easier to understand and to use when following recommenced dietary guidelines.


Citation:

Noland, Carey, and M. Isabel Meirelles. Visual Representation of Health Information: A Critique of the 2005 Food Pyramid. American Communication Journal 10. 2008; 431-432.

DD7HW1 Citation Style

I will be using AMA style for Project #2.  AMA style is the American Medical Association style, which is used by many scientific journals, and primarily used for medical and public health journals. My topic for Project #2 is a public health topic- Nutrition Education/Visuals/Ethics.


1. The AMA Manual of Style is a guide that includes the following sections:

• Preparing An Article for Publication
• Style
• Terminology
• Measurement and Quantitation
• Technical Information

The manual itself must be purchased, but this website does include links with some descriptive information that is useful, such as Visual Presentation of Data. 

2. This Biomedical Editor website includes samples of references, with 1 author, 2-6 authors and 6+ authors.  It also includes examples of citations, and how they should look in an article.

3. This University of the Sciences website is useful because it includes specific examples of how to cite an online journal article with six or fewer authors and an online journal article with more than six authors.

DD7HW2 Chapter 9, Article #1

Article Title:  Picture This: Visual Cues Enhance Health Education Messages for People with Low Literacy Skills

Informative Abstract (Summary):
Using visuals on nutritional health information can help people understand the written information more easily, especially people with low literacy skills. This is important because nutritional health professionals want to build a rapport with their clients and assist them with making healthy behavioral changes. 

Health information is often lengthy and wordy, and can become confusing for readers with low literacy skills. Foremost, when constructing visuals, start with a clear main message then review the written text to see if reducing the text will still allow the reader to understand the content. The type of visual (photograph or drawing) is not as important as the appropriateness of the visual and how it portrays the desired health message. 

When designing nutritional health media with text and visuals, the following considerations are recommended:  

• Use simple drawings with few distracting details.
• Manage visual space on a wed-based format to facilitate reading. 
• Use sans serif fonts (Arial or Century Gothic) for electronic messages. 
• Use serif font (TImes New Roman) for printed messages. 
• Avoid using all capital letters. 
• When using bullets, start a sentence with a capital letter and end with a period. 
• Consider cultural relevance of images. 
• Include people from your target audience in creating these health messages. 

Best practices for communicating nutritional health messages include various distribution formats, such as web-sites, video self-modeling, text messaging and general uses of smartphones. Nutritional health messaging can be a powerful educational tool, but only if it is clear and easy to understand, allowing clients to feel comfortable enough to make decisions about their health.


Descriptive Abstract:
Educational materials with visuals can aid in comprehension of nutritional health information for people with low literacy skills. Visual cues and messaging are identified and recommendations are made for making both printed and electronic formats easy to navigate. The better understanding people have of educational material, the more likely they are to incorporate the information into their lives and make healthy nutritional decisions about their health.


Citation:

Peregrin, Tony.  Picture this: visual cues enhance health education messages for people with low literacy skills.  Journal of the American Dietetic Association 110.4. 2010; 500-505.

DD6HW8 Evaluating a Source

Title of article:  College Freshman Perceptions of Effective and Ineffective Aspects of Nutrition


Purpose:  Why was the resource written: to inform, to present options, to report research, or to sell a product? For what audience is it intended?

• The purpose of this article was to report research.  The purpose of the research was to assess the effectiveness of nutrition education taught to college freshman by graduate students. The audience intended for this article is anyone in the public health field studying nutrition, or using and implementing different nutrition education models. 

Authority:  What are the author's credentials? Are qualifications, experience, or institutional affiliation given? 

• Three of authors are employed at Georgia State University, two in the Division of Nutrition and one int eh Department of Educational Psychology and Special Education. The other author is employed at Georgia Perimeter College in the Department of Humanities. Three of the four authors are PhDs, two are RDs, one is a MFA/MS. Their credentials appear to make them qualified (strength); however 3 are from the same university.  I would be interested in hearing from other higher-ed institutions as well. 

Accuracy:  Is the information correct and free from errors?

• This article includes information that appears to be correct. Visuals of focus group questions are included, as well as the themes from the focus groups.  The authors also include limitations of the study after the results, which shows there may be potential bias. Use of visuals is a strength, as well as the headings throughout this article, specifically the Themes. 

Timelines:  Is the information current or does it provide the proper historical context for your research?

• The research study was conducted in 2004, but published in the Journal of American College Health in 2010. Since it takes time to conduct research, have it peer-reviewed and published, this time frame amy be appropriate; however, I would be interested in seeing updated information to see if this nutritional education model is currently producing the same results. Therefore, the timeline could be both a strength and a weakness. 

Coverage:  Does the source cover the topic in depth, partially, or is it a broad overview?

• The source covers the topic in depth (strength). The introduction gives history, background and current examples of the issues with nutrition among college students.  In the Methods section they describe procedure and list the focus group questions, and in the Results section, they list and describe various themes discovered from focus groups. 

Objectivity:  Does the information show bias or does it present multiple viewpoints?

• As with any research study, there are always potential biases.  This article focused on the viewpoint of the benefits of nutrition education, and in particular, one specific nutrition model. They used both open-ended and close-ended questions which is a strength and helps eliminate bias, but there sample was relatively small (weakness) since it was a qualitative study. They did note some limitations, such as the lack of ability to generalize results since all the students came from one university, and the students that participated were already interested in nutrition. 

Kicklighter, Jana Regina, et al. "College freshmen perceptions of effective and ineffective aspects of nutrition education." Journal of American College Health 59.2 (2010): 98-104.