Discussion: Public Health Programs
Enter graph with average sentence length and number of syllables; plot dot where the two lines intersect. Area where dot is plotted will give you the approximate grade level.
If a great deal of variability is found, putting more sample counts into the average is desirable (Discovery Education, 1995).
You also will want to consider visual readability. For example, fonts should be made larger and an appropriate amount of white space should be included when seniors are your target audience. Images are an important component of printed materials. They can be used instead of text to convey information.
After you have delivered your message, you need to evaluate your program for several reasons, including determining its effectiveness.
What Do You Think?
What are some communication methods that would work well with your culture? What images or phrases do you suggest? What communication channels would work well? Why would you recommend these? What methods, images, phrases, or channels would not work well and why?
Count the total number of syllables in the 100-word passage. If you do not have a hand counter available, an easy way is to simply place a mark above each syllable in the word, then, when you get to the end of the passage, count the number of marks and add 100.
Public Health Programs Public health efforts focus on health promotion and disease and injury prevention through research, community intervention, and education. To accomplish these goals, health promotion activities need to be delivered within a cultural context. One-size-fits-all health promotion programs fail to take into consideration that there are unique ideals and goals regarding health and various ways to initiate health behavior change. Health education and promotion programs for diverse populations are challenging, but to be successful, the cultural dimensions of the target audience must be considered.
Interventions for promoting health and disease prevention in any population require systematic planning. This organized effort requires an understanding of the culture of the target audience because culture is a strong force in the determinants of health and behavior change. Although the overall steps to program development are the same, distinct factors need to be taken into consideration when your audience is diverse. Planning models can be useful in this process.
You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.
Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.
Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.
The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.