Safety Sciences
Guidelines for Preparing a Written Report
One of the educational goals of the Department of Safety Sciences is to improve the writing skills of the students. Safety and health professionals are constantly required to prepare documents for the review of management. Being able to produce well-written materials is essential.
Much of the writing safety and health professionals have to produce has a special focus, such as preparing accident reports, laboratory materials, standard operating procedures, policies and procedures, and general reports. To assist students in these endeavors, Guidelines for Preparing a Written Report was developed.
The Department recommends that students obtain a copy of the American Psychological Association (APA) style book. The APA source can be found in the latest edition of Form and Style by Slade. Students are also encouraged to use the Writing Center in the Humphreys Building for assistance in constructing a paper.
Term Papers
HumanSubjects Research
| Term Papers |
Term Papers When a faculty member of the Department assigns a term paper, the expectations are that the paper will be a structured presentation with minimal errors. The assignment should contain:
Papers submitted to the faculty are to be:
The paper should be divided into three major areas: (1) introduction, (2) body, and (3) conclusion. Introduction: This last sentence is referred to as a thesis statement. A thesis statement is like an umbrella: the sentence covers and controls all aspects of the paper. The thesis acts as a launching pad for the body of the paper. Body: The writer can ensure the quality of a paper by checking over every sentence and asking if every sentence supports the thesis statement. If the sentence does not, the statement should be eliminated. A good paper will move from concept to concept with grace. A well-written document will have smooth transitions that help move from point to point. Conclusion: Some required writing will have a special focus, such as preparing laboratory reports, critiques of professional journals, and executive summaries. The format for special reports will be reviewed by the instructor making the assignment. In any type of paper, the writer is responsible for identifying the source of ideas or information taken from someone else. The failure to properly reference such data in a document constitutes plagiarism. Students should consider any of the following acts as plagiarizing:
There are two situations where reference citations are NOT needed:
For more information on plagiarism visit http://www.ucmo.edu/access/7.htm. There are many ways to assemble a term paper. In the SS&T Department, a completed term paper should consist of:
The body of the term paper should be double spaced with a one and one-half (1½) inch left margin. All other margins are one inch. A twelve point font is to be used with acceptable fonts including Helvetica, Swiss Roman, Universe, CG Times, Dutch Roman, Arial and Times New Roman. Format for title page, reference citations, and bibliographic entries are all detailed in APA (Writing Across the Curriculum, 2000). Appendix C contains an example of how term papers will be evaluated. |
| HumanSubjects Research |
Central is required by federal regulations (45 CFR 46.101 et seq) to review all proposed research involving human subjects conducted under the auspices of the institution (faculty, students, staff). Before engaging in such research, approval must be obtained from the Human Subjects Review Committee. The Human Subjects Review Committee reviews research projects when:
Engaging in research with human subjects without approval from the Human Subjects Review Committee puts the subject, researcher, and research at risk. This constitutes a violation of Central’s policy. Data from human subjects are not to be collected until written approval is received. Further information on this matter can be obtained from the Office of Sponsored Research and Projects. |
