Miami University

ALICE KAHN

INTRODUCTION TO WRITING ASSIGNMENTS

SPA 623 Cleft Palate and Craniofacial Anomalies

Topic: “Delivering Unpleasant Information”

I want to introduce written assignments in SPA 623 in order to let students explore a topic that I do not have time to address in lectures or ordinary course activities. The content of SPA graduate courses is partially dictated by our certifying agency-the American Speech Language and Hearing Association (ASHA). I want to use written assignments to allow students to move beyond the expected “ASHA Standards Skills and Outcomes” topics.

Graduate student speech language pathologists (SLPs) take SPA 623 in the second year of their 2-year M.A. program. They simultaneously work at extern sites several days a week, treat clients in our clinic, attend classes, and write a department-required final paper or thesis. I believe that one long assignment would be unnecessarily stressful and would be viewed as a burden rather than a learning experience. Because the material for this class is difficult, and the students have limited time to spend on outside projects, I decided to prepare a sequence of assignments on the theme of “Delivering Unpleasant Information.” The assignments increase in level of difficulty as the semester progresses. I believe these assignments will:

• capture the students’ attention and help them develop skills in a less than pleasant part of their chosen career
• encourage them to apply what they have learned to their personal or professional experiences
• encourage class discussion and critical thinking
• alert the student to his or her attitudes toward, and limitations in dealing with, the necessity to confront unpleasant professional situations

SHORT WRITING ASSIGNMENT FOR STUDENTS

SPA 623 Cleft Palate and Craniofacial Anomalies

Alice Kahn 

Kahna@muohio.edu

Short Writing Assignment

 Conveying written information to parents and physicians.

Why you are doing this:

              As speech-language pathologists (SLPs), you must report the results of your evaluations to parents and other professionals in a readable, professional writing style. The facts contained in such reports will be the same, but the style of writing will differ depending on your audience. You need to learn how to convey information in several writing styles. The American Speech-language and Hearing Association (ASHA) requires that you meet specific content and clinical goals and outcomes for this class. This assignment fulfills content area goals/outcomes B, C, and D (developing level); and clinical area goals/outcome D (developing level).

After completing this assignment you will be able to summarize a problem, recommend an appropriate course of action, and write your recommendations in a way that is appropriate for your reading audience.

Writing assignment (what you are going to do):

              Pretend that you have completed a speech, hearing and language evaluation with a 3-year-old boy. You found the following:

• The child has the physical symptoms of Waardenburg’s syndrome Type 1 (heterochromia, dystopia canthorum, flexion contractures of little fingers, white forelock, small nares, and multiple nevi)
• The child’s mother has similar physical features and a unilateral, profound hearing loss.
• The child’s pure tone air and bone conduction hearing tests suggest that the child has bilateral severe hearing loss.
• The child has no oral speech and communicates with simple signs and gestures.

You believe that the child’s problems are genetic, and that the entire family needs genetic evaluation, genetic counseling, a craniofacial team evaluation, and otoacoustic emissions hearing testing. You must write a letter to the parents (Mr. & Mrs. Gomez), indicating what you have found and recommending a course of action. Mr. & Mrs. Gomez are bilingual, have a high school education, and work as roofers for a construction company in Hamilton.

You must also write a letter to the physician (Dr. Kummer), who heads the craniofacial team at Children’s Hospital, indicating what you have found and why you are recommending that this family receive a team evaluation.

How to do this:

1. Write only the body of the letters (no addresses, salutations, endings).
2. Do NOT include specific test scores. The purpose of the letters is to inform the parents/physician about specific problems, the course of action you are recommending, and why you are recommending it.
3. The final draft of the letters should be no more than one double spaced page in length.
4. The contents of both letters should include all the facts bulleted above.
5. The contents should be written at a reading level appropriate to the audience.
6. Each letter should take no more than 15 minutes to write.

You will write your first draft of this letter during the last 15 minutes of class today. On Wednesday, we will exchange and peer review papers. Your final, revised draft must be typed, double-spaced, and turned in at the beginning of class Friday.

What am I looking for? Ask yourself the following questions before turning in your final draft:

• Are the contents complete and accurate? Complete means that the draft contains all bulleted facts. Accurate means that you told the truth and did not downplay serious issues. (5 points)
• Are the letters written at the reading level of the readers? If you are not sure, run a readability check using the spelling and grammar check function on your computer. The reading level of the document should be no higher than 12th grade (lower is better). (5 points)
• Is the tone of the letters compassionate but unemotional? (5 points)
• Did you make the difficult concepts understandable to the low-level reading parents? (5 points)
• Do the contents of the letters compel the readers to take immediate action? (5 points)

This assignment is worth a total of 25 points.