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How to build a fact-based, thesis-driven paper Recognizing patterns in reading and then writing your own

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Finding a topic Hot spot in the news: Ebola in West Africa Subject: pandemic Topic: Ebola https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNiH18JNmqA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNiH18JNmqA (7-min. video by Bryce Plank of The Daily Conversation, a mini-documentary series)

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Fishing for a thesis Key word: fear; the general public is afraid of Ebola spreading and reaching them. Controversy: U.S. health workers returning from West Africa and whether they should be forcibly quarantined even if they are symptom-free. Panicked calls to shut down our borders to anyone coming from West Africaor from Africa. Will this solve the problem?

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Ebola cases in U.S. Thomas Duncan traveling from Liberia, died in Texas. Dr. Craig Spencer, treating Ebola patients in Liberia. Nina Pham, nurse working in Texas hospital Ebola unit. Dr. Kent Brantly, missionary working in Liberia.

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Kaci Hickox, nurse working in Sierra Leone, was detained and forced into quarantine although asymptomatic (symptom-free) of Ebola. She challenged an ad hoc quarantine policy of 21 days in isolation. Counter to facts from the Center for Disease Control, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie enforced the quarantine.

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CDC Information about Ebola Ebola is a rare and deadly disease caused by infection with a strain of Ebola virus. The 2014 Ebola epidemic is the largest in history, affecting multiple countries in West Africa. The risk of an Ebola outbreak affecting multiple people in the U.S. is very low. (Source: cdc.gov)cdc.gov What you need to know:Ebola is spread through direct contact with blood and body fluids of a person infected by and already showing symptoms of Ebola. Ebola is not spread through the air, water, food, or mosquitoes.

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Find an anchor source Ebola and the Epidemics of the Past (WSJ, Oct. 19, 2014) by David Oshinsky, NYU School of Medicine and author of Polio: An American Storyhow the polio terror gripped the nation and how the oral Sabin vaccine was internationally adopted. http://online.wsj.com/articles/ebola-and-the-epidemics-of-the-past-1413572106 http://online.wsj.com/articles/ebola-and-the-epidemics-of-the-past-1413572106

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Authors key points Although modern medicine stopped diseases like smallpox, the general public does not trust authorities with containing the spread of Ebola. And current standards of nutrition, clean water, food and drug regulation have advanced longevity and quality of life. In the 1870s, one infant in five born in New York City died in the first year of life. Among those fortunate enough to reach adulthood, a quarter did not live to see 30.

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Historical perspective Vaccines for formerly deadly childhood diseases such as measles, mumps, chickenpox, whooping cough. Recent pandemics: HIV/AIDS, SARS, Avian flu. Although Ebola has existed in rural villages, it has now reach densely populated cities, an unending source of human hosts to keep the virus alive and replicating.

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Public misperceptions of Ebola Big gap or disconnect between public health officials and the public at large. Because both information and misinformation can spread instantly through mass media, especially the Internet, public fear of Ebola is rampant. U.S. opinion polls show that the majority of Americans favor a travel ban for West Africans coming to the U.S. even though public health experts oppose the ban.

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Influenza pandemic of 1918-1919. One in four Americans got sick and half a million died.

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Children receiving inoculations against polioand cholera.

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Poultry inspections in Vietnam to prevent avian fluwearing face masks on Hong Kong mass transit to avoid SARS, severe acute respiratory syndrome.

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Training for Doctors Without Borders mission to West Africa, in HazMat (hazardous materials) protective gear.

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What public health experts propose Public education on Ebola and how pandemics work geometrical progression of a spreading disease that knows no political borders. No travel ban or shutting down borders. Immediate aid to West Africa to contain Ebola: sending health workers abroad and welcoming them back without quarantine if they are symptom-free. Multilateral, global support to contain Ebola before it spreads to densely populated areas in Africa and Asia.

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Parable of the pond: If a dangerous growth doubles in size each day and if your pond is half-covered with this growth, how much time do you have left to stop it?

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Analogy: making correspondences An analogy is like a picture using words: comparing two things and pointing out similarities. The spread of an epidemic is like a lily pad in a pond both start small but grow geometrically. If we understand geometrical progression, we would act immediately to contain Ebola because a pandemic knows no boundariesit is everyones problem.

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It is no coincidence that analogy questions are common in the LSATpracticing law requires abstract, conceptual thinking. Facts + analogy demonstrate a high level of critical thinking. Advisory: avoid faulty analogies; for example, Employees are like nails. Just as nails must be hit in the head in order to make them work, so must employees.

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Rewind and review Pandemics: Public Health Policy to Contain Ebola Thesis: Now that Ebola is a rapidly spreading pandemic, we must act immediately, sending aid and health workers to West Africa; and to combat fear, we need public education, raising awareness of pandemics and supporting science-based policy.

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Rewind and review, cont. Note that the title indicates the subject and topic. And that the thesis states a position or proposalthat a reader can agree or disagree with. Also, that the scope and focus of the paper is on public health policy and public perceptions and fears, not on the deep background and technicalities of the disease.

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Questions If Ebola is occurring in West Africa, why is it our problem? Why not shut down U.S. borders to keep out Ebola? If West African countries such as Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Mali are very poor with few doctors or nurses, why should we spend any tax money on them?

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Questions, cont. Do we trust what U.S. public health experts say? Do we trust the U.S. government? Why or why not? Do we have any individual responsibility for Ebola? What is the relationship between citizens and their government? What is the compact between the two?

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Questions, cont. Do we care about Ebola? Does it matter? What are the stakes? Consequences?