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Ptsd

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Week 1 Assignment

IS498 Senior Research Paper

Grantham University

07 July 2014

Bradley S. Smelley

As a wounded warrior, coming home to recover from injuries and having to adjust to life not surrounded by the mental and physical demands of war was the hardest part of reintegrating into what most in this country know as a normal life. For combat soldiers like myself, we find a way with support and time, but for others it isn’t so easy. Their minds have taken what they have been through making them see and feel aspects of war where there isn’t. History shows us that this has been going on many wars ago with many different names, but with new technology and medical advancements we can look further into the minds of those affected and see what can be done to help suffering from what is now known as Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD).

Now, as a retired wounded warrior with 20 years of service, I work at the Nashville Veterans Affair (VA) in the IT department, but get to help those that are retired, wounded, and/or those effected with PTSD on a daily basis. This is the reason for my choosing the following as my research paper topic; The effects of PTSD on returning combat veterans and how to effectively reintegrate them back into society.

Before choosing this topic, I had to understand and apply the first few areas of the major tasks in how to write a research paper. The other tasks will be used as my paper progresses through the stages.

The first task is to Start the writing process by understand the writing assignment given. In doing this, I needed to read over everything a few times, highlight important details and phrases, address prompts given to me in various ways, categorize ideas, and ask any and all questions I may have.

Secondly, Prewriting (Invention) consists of either the textbook formula of stating a thesis, writing an outline, writing the first draft, and revising or I can ask myself questions pertaining to how I feel I can bring a subject to life, brainstorming my ideas and getting opinions from others and resources, speak my opinions out loud, summarize my ideas into a few sentences, point out the major points, write my draft, and insert information as it is needed in the areas it is needed.

If needed, Writer’s block/ Writer’s Anxiety can be overcome by trying invention strategies, choose an area of the topic that peaks interest, reread the assignment to insure it is understood, calm yourself and focus on what is at hand, exercise if needed, breath, believe in yourself with positivity, and/or share ideas with a friend.

Creating a thesis statement is next. In this section I need to state the fact, define the meaning of the topic, explain the seriousness of my topic, and describe a plan of action while using the six journalistic questions.

Following that, Developing an Outline is needed. An effective outline will need to be created entailing structured parallelism of the heading and subheadings, coordination of the significance of the headings and subheadings, subordination of general headings and specific subheadings, and division of headings with a minimum of two.

Reverse Outlining can be used next to help with confining main ideas into shorter to the point sentences. Brief notes and paragraph topics are used as references for future study or class discussions following the logic of the paper.

Next, Audience Analysis helps accommodate all those that might read my paper and be able to nurture their needs and expectations in all stages of my paper. In the development stage, I need to accommodate a technical expert, a secondary author, my instructor, and myself. In the reading stage my primary secondary, and shadow audiences will need to be engaged. In the final action stage, Those that my paper will affect with its contents need to be able to understand my point and information given.

Finally, Proofreading is about correcting any mistakes before submitting my paper to my audience.

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