FIRST THINGS FIRST: How to get higher grades on your papers! I want everyone to succeed in this course and am going to provide you with a tangible strategy to help you earn higher grades on your papers. One of the major issues that I have come across is receiving papers from students that don’t meet the criteria for full points to be awarded. The major reason for this is failure to adequately address all of the stated objectives to the appropriate degree of a given assignment. A great way to overcome this problem is to begin your paper by examining the “weight” of each part of your paper. In each assignment, look to see how points are distributed AND what areas must be covered in your paper. Use headings, sub-headings for your paper to organize the content. It helps to determine if all the criteria have been addressed and demonstrates the flow and organization of the content. Generally, APA Levels 1 and 3 are sufficient. I will show you what I mean…let us assume that you are given instructions to write a 2 page paper. Imagine that there are 4 areas (or objectives or instructions), each worth 25% of your papers overall grade. You should make certain that your paper covers each topic equally. Here is an example: Cover Page Introduction Objective/instruction 1 (1/2 page) Objective/instruction 2 (1/2 page) Objective/instruction 3 (1/2 page) Objective/instruction 4 (1/2 page) Conclusion References This is an excellent strategy to follow and will help you cover each of your topics in sufficient depth! And now…for your first case assignment: Case Assignment This first module contained considerable information about the foundation of the human body. We concluded with the integumentary system. We will now take the next logical step and try to apply some of what we learned about the nature of cells on a real life problem which you may encounter as health care professionals. Some patients admitted to hospitals suffer from pressure ulcers. The etiology of pressure ulcers is multifactoral. They are caused by unrelieved pressure on the skin. The pressure results from the patient’s own bony prominences compressing the skin/tissues between the bony prominence and the surface on which an individual is laying. Other factors that impact pressure ulcer development include medications, overall health status, as well as poor nutrition/hydration. For this first case assignment, I want you to describe, at the cellular and tissue level, exactly what is happening in a pressure ulcer. Be certain to include a description of normal anatomy/physiology of the skin and what happens at a cellular level that results in pressure ulcer formation.