Help with a paper on SIDS

[RainDreamer, BSN, RN]

We have a group presentation next week on SIDS. A paper is also included in this project. The guidelines for the paper are so broad, and that's causing me problems! I don't know where to start and don't really know what all to include in it. It has to be 5-8 pages. Cover: incidence and prevalence, critical facts, relationship to Healthy People 2010 Objectives. That's it! I have all my sources here.... have tons of information, but just have no idea where to start!

I need a thesis statement, right? I'll talk about the incidence, prevalence, Healthy People 2010, risk factors, and ways to help prevent it. Tons of information, just not sure how to condense that down into a thesis statement.

There's only 3 people in our group. I'm doing the paper, another person is doing the story board, and the other person is doing the power point presentation. We're meeting tomorrow afternoon and I'd like to have a rough draft to take with me tomorrow. Why did I wait until now to get started? :stone

Any ideas on how I should structure the paper? I hate not having some kind of outline or guidelines to go by! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

[stressgal, RN]

You may well have your paper started by now, but here's my two cents. When I find it hard to get focused on a paper I break it down into segments.

First tackle the cover page and reference page, you'll then have 2 pages completed. When doing the reference page I also type up my in text references, that way I can place those in while I work. Copy and paste is my best friend. I would then put a big heading for each topic you know you need to cover. Then I organize my resources and type under the appropriate heading. At this time I am just putting down info and ideas, not trying to format the paragraph. Once I have all of the info on paper, I remove my headings and format the paragraphs. I am able to cut and paste, moving the info around so it is cohesive. Only after the paper is written do I write the opening paragraph and closing paragraph. I find it nearly impossible to write a good thesis statement when I do not have the rest of the paper completed. This works for me, hope it helps!

[RainDreamer, BSN, RN]

stressgal - Thanks so much!! I got the paper done last night and *whew*, what a relief! I just hate it when I have no guidelines or structure to go by. I think I spent more time trying to figure out how to organize it than to actually write it! It takes me forever to get started but once I get going I just zip through it. Gosh, what a depressing subject to write about though, so sad. We have our presentation on Wed. and will be quite a relief once that's over!

Thanks again!