Assignment guide


Training Course in Impact of the Environmental Pollutants On Reproductive Health

 

Assignment guide

Alexandria University and GFMER Team

Alexandria University

and

Geneva Foundation for Medical Education and Research

  1. Introduction:

The purpose of these assignments is that participants get acquainted with presentations and accompanying documents and show they can apply their knowledge. Participants receive assistance and precise instructions for the assignments; as well as an Assignment Guide that contains information about the required format of the assignments. The papers that are the result of the assignments have to meet academic criteria. Timely submission of assignment is taken into consideration for the final evaluation and certification of participants.

Instructors will incorporate peer feedback and self-evaluations.  Participants will process the assignment expectations at a deep level to critically analyze someone else’s work, which will help them to critically review their own work. Participants will receive peer feedback benefit from different perspectives on their work.

 

  1. Assignment structure

2.1.    Title page

Your assignment should have a title page as the first page. This should show the assignment title as well as your name, your email address and your institutional affiliation.

2.2.   Contents page

After your title page, there should be a content page which should highlight the various headings in your assignment. The table of contents can be automatically generated using the application in Microsoft Office Word. This can be found under the heading ‘Table of Contents’ in your References tab

2.3.   Introduction

Here you are required to make a short introduction on the subject of your assignment, which can include some definitions (if necessary) some global issues (data, information) on the subject under study.

2.4. Literature search

Literature search is the most important part your assignment. Literature search should be done using reliable sources. Most recent and relevant documents to the topic of interest should be identified and consulted. These could be official reports, papers or articles. They could be hard copies from the library (various libraries can be used for this purpose); or information found on Internet. Internet sources include general search engines (e.g. Google search), PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, and WHO Databases. You should then extract the information that you need for your assignment.

Following literature search, all the information, ideas and opinions should be written logically and in your own words. The information should adequately address the assignment question, should be comprehensive, evidence-based as well as supported by statistical examples. Your evidences should be well analysed and interpreted. The texts of your assignment should be written in full sentences instead of bullet points, which should be utilized only when necessary. They should be arranged in such a way that it will be easy to follow the flow of your key arguments and thoughts. All abbreviations or acronyms should be fully written out at the first time of use. As much as possible, avoid unnecessary or repetitious words. You should make use of explicit headings/subheading in your text. For example, when writing about the main topic “Maternal health situation in Nigeria”, “Maternal health indicators in Nigeria” can be a heading/subheading. In all, your assignment should be evidence-based as well as reflect your own opinion, usually as a conclusion in your assignment.

Your literature search should provide a comprehensive image of the subject in your country.

2.5. Conclusion

This part of assignment highlights your personal opinion and suggestions about the subject that you have studied for your assignment.

2.6. References

Any credible scientific paper must contain reference citation. Moreover, failure to acknowledge all borrowed ideas and information in your assignment by providing references can result in accusation of plagiarism. References should be provided as soon as possible after giving the information and should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text. Copied sentences should be put in quotation marks; correctly spelled and punctuated as well as accurately cited.

A reference list should be provided at the end of your assignment in the correct style and formatting. This should be linked to the text body of your assignment. We generally recommend using the National Library of Medicine style (NLM). You should consult NLM’s Citing Medicine for information on its recommended formats for a variety of reference types. References should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text. The following is an example of reference style and format:

  1. World Health Organization. WHO guidelines for the management of postpartum haemorrhage and retained placenta. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2009.
  2. Halpern SD, Ubel PA, Caplan AL. Solid-organ transplantation in HIV-infected patients. N Engl J Med. 2002 Jul 25;347(4):284-7.
  3. Murray PR, Rosenthal KS, Kobayashi GS, Pfaller MA. Medical microbiology. 4th ed. St. Louis: Mosby; 2002.
  4. Advanced Life Support Group. Acute medical emergencies: the practical approach. London: BMJ Books; 2001. 454 p.
  5. Meltzer PS, Kallioniemi A, Trent JM. Chromosome alterations in human solid tumors. In: Vogelstein B, Kinzler KW, editors. The genetic basis of human cancer. New York: McGraw-Hill; 2002. p. 93-113.
  6. Geneva Foundation for Medical Education and Research [Internet]. Geneva: Geneva Foundation for Medical Education and Research; [cited 2010 Aug 22]. Available from: http://www.gfmer.ch/.

3. General information

3.1. Formatting

3.1.1. Title page

This should be written in Times New Roman font all aligned to the centre (see first page of the current document). The assignment title and your name should be separated by a space of font size 14. Line spacing should be multiple at 1.15; space before: 0 pts and space after: 10 pts. The following font sizes should be used:

Assignment title                                 font size 20

Your name                                         font size 14

Your institutionnel affiliation         font size 14

E-mail                                                 font size 14

3.1.2. Page number

Bottom of page, centred, first page not numbered.

3.1.3. Table of contents

The table of contents should be aligned to the left. It should be formatted as TOC 1, Calibri font; size 11, show levels 3. See table of contents in the present document.

3.1.4. Headings

Please use the heading styles (heading 1, heading 2 and heading 3) used in the current document.

3.1.5. Normal text

Normal text should be written in Times New Roman font, size 12, aligned to the left, line spacing single.

6. Others

You should proof read your assignment before submission. You can use the ‘Spelling and Grammar’ application in Microsoft Word in the Review tab. You may also want to ask a friend or colleague to proof read you assignment for you.

Your assignment should be saved and submitted as a Word document file. It should be sent as an attachment via email, appropriately labelled/named as follows:

“Assignment code”-“participant’s code”-“your name”

The assignment should be sent to your personal coach with a copy to the following e-mail: aminafarag2002@yahoo.com.

7. Multiple choice questions

In addition to the assignment, at the end of each module the participants are required to answer to a number of multiple-choice questions. The results are used as an indicator of the participants’ overall performance during the course.