Community Health Profile
Adapted from an assignment by Dr. Mary McCall and Dr. Dan Kenzie
Goals: 1. Research the health literacy needs of a North Dakota or Minnesota population.
If a population in another state is more relevant to your current/future career, then you
may research that population instead.
2. Communicate information to a professional audience.
3. Design a user-centered document.
Outcomes: This project helps fulfill NDSU General Education requirement C and the English
department outcome for upper-division writing. See our course syllabus, pages 1-2 for
descriptions of the outcomes.
Audiences: North Dakota or Minnesota health professionals (Community Health Profile)
Your instructor (reflective memo)
Due Date: Draft for peer review—Thursday, April 2 at 11:59PM on Blackboard (Discussion Post 11)
Draft for instructor review—Sunday, April 5 at 11:59PM on Blackboard (Writing Activity
11)
“Final for Now” draft —Sunday, April 12 at 11:59PM on Blackboard
Description
Community Health Profiles (CHPs) are an important genre for health professionals, as they can provide
important background information on the culture, values, and history of a community. In this project,
you’ll write for an audience of North Dakota or Minnesota health professionals about the health needs
of a local community. (You may also write about a local community outside in another state, if doing so
better suits your professional/academic goals.)
In order for patients/clients to receive health information that is more accessible to them, we need to
know much more about their communities, values, and histories with healthcare. This project asks you
to
• Choose a community and either adapt a state or nationally compiled and produced Community
Health Profile
• OR research, write, and design an original Community Health Profile for a community you
anticipate working with. This second is option is more challenging.
For purposes of this project, community includes two components:
• A geographic area (either a statewide community, or a regional or local community within the
state. For example, you could focus on North Dakota or Minnesota as a whole, or the Red River
Valley, or Fargo-Moorhead).
• An additional demographic definition of your choosing. This could mean: age, race/ethnicity,
gender, etc. In previous semesters, for example, students have written about older adults in
North Dakota, the Native American community in Western North Dakota, and new mothers in
the Twin Cities area. The professional and student CHP examples can help you narrow down
the community you’ll focus on.
Your profile should explain your research of this community’s past interactions with our healthcare
system, your assessment of their current needs within the four domains of literacy (as defined in our
chapters from Zarcadoolas) and your ideas for addressing those needs within your field of study while
relying on the bioethical principles you have studied in the chapter from Rich. Be sure to also draw on
what you learn from all the Community Health Profiles we read; knowing the possibilities in the genre
will help you write your CHP.
ENGL 325 Writing in the Health Professions
Spring 2020 2
Please begin this task by considering your own discipline within the large world of healthcare—
personalize your work on this project to your own expertise as much as possible. Which communities
will be most affected by your work? Which communities need your specialty? What are some situations
for which you better need to prepare yourself? For example, a former student who is an OB nurse had
a patient who was Nepalese, didn’t speak English, and was in labor. She could use this project to
research and plan ahead for how to deal with such a situation.
If you can contact an appropriate health care provider or community leader who can help you localize
the national information, I strongly recommend this step. He or she will be a good resource for this
project.
Finally, work to create a strong visual element to your profile—write a document you would be proud to
share with your professors and other professionals, and design a document that grabs your readers’
attention visually as well as textually. You are welcome to use some of the maps and images from the
source community profiles you are working with.
Readings You Will Need to Complete This Project
To create a successful Community Health Profile, you will need to draw on several readings (all
available on Blackboard):
1. Sample professional Community Health Profiles
2. Zarcadoolas chapters on health literacy
3. Rich chapter on bioethics
I will also provide examples of student Community Health Profiles from previous semesters.
Deliverables (200 points)
You will submit two deliverables for this project: The Community Health Profile and a self-assessment
memo.
Community Health Profile (175 points)
Use the existing health profiles to help you with the content and design of these profiles, but as you
move from the long document to the focused 4-6-page single-spaced profile, be sure that your profile
includes:
• Relevance—you will be sifting through a lot of information; try to identify the fundamental
literacy, scientific literacy, civic literacy, and cultural literacy elements (and ethical issues) that
are going to be most relevant to your North Dakota or Minnesota health care professionals.
These four domains of health literacy are defined in the Zarcadoolas et al. chapter.
• Research—you will need to provide information about both how the community you are profiling
has been treated in the past in our healthcare system, as well as how they are treated currently,
and thus what their health literacy needs are. Please use at least 3 credible sources.
• Design—make sure that your profile is created with visuals carefully designed to draw in
readers. You can use photographs, charts and graphs, timelines, color, etc., in order to produce
a document that is well rounded in all aspects of communication.
What do students sometimes forget when they are completing this project? Please make sure to
remember:
ENGL 325 Writing in the Health Professions
Spring 2020 3
1. A history section. This will be the bulk of your research as you find out how your community was
treated in terms of health care in the past. Look for advancements, legislation, famous media
stories, etc.
2. Localization. Finding the local information might be the hardest part of the project, but don’t
leave it out just because it is challenging to find.
3. Headings and design. Even though I note this is one of the big sections of this project, students
still will sometimes turn in papers that have no design elements, no headings, or very few
images. We are in a visual culture—do you like to read things that look bland? Try to imagine
yourself writing for some kind of health magazine and imagine what level of work you would
have to put into this design.
4. Correct use of APA. I don’t make you buy a manual for APA—instead, please use the Purdue
OWL website or other credible resources.
Self-Assessment Memo (25 points)
This single-spaced reflective memo should assess your writing process for the project in at least 300
words. As with every project, reflect on your thought/writing process, major challenges, application of
course material, and/or things you found interesting. For this project, this discussion could include how
you adapted an existing profile (if you did) and/or your learning about your chosen community.
Evaluation
This project is worth 200 points total. I will evaluate your work using the following categories:
• Content: The content in each deliverable is appropriate and complete.
o The Community Health Profile includes a history section and localized content.
o The Community Health Profile addresses the four domains of health literacy for the
community.
o The Community Health Profile is 4-6 pages in length and single-spaced.
o The Self-Assessment memo addresses the topics in the Deliverables section above.
• Genre: Each deliverable uses appropriate genre conventions.
• Audience: Each deliverable is tailored to the appropriate audience.
o Community Health Profile audience: North Dakota or Minnesota health professionals.
(Or health professionals in a different state, if your Community Health Profile talks about
a population in another state.)
o Self-reflection memo audience: Your instructor, Ashleigh.
• Design: Each deliverable uses the “Big Four” design principles in an effective manner (refer to
our reading on Blackboard).
• Organization: Each deliverable is organized in such a way so that readers can follow along.
• Clarity and precision: Each deliverable uses clear, precise language.
• Writing style and format: Cites sources correctly in APA style.
Submission
Submit your rough draft for peer review by 11:59PM by Thursday, April 2 at 11:59PM on Blackboard
(Discussion Post 11) in Microsoft Word (.doc, .docx) or PDF format.
Submit your rough draft for instructor review by 11:59PM on Sunday, April 5 on Blackboard (Writing
Activity 11) in Microsoft Word (.doc, .docx) or PDF format
Submit your “Final for Now” Community Health Profile and self-assessment memo by 11:59PM on
Sunday, April 12 in the Community Health Profile project on Blackboard. You can submit your work as
one document or upload multiple documents.