RHSC 581 – Writing to Enhance Practice

Student leafing through a book

Course Description

Rehabilitation practice comprises work with clients/patients, administration, education and research. While writing has always been core to these practice contexts, the use of text communications has increased substantially in recent years with increased use of the Internet in communication, a more litigious practice environment, more peer review and greater demands on practitioners to communicate results of their work and research in writing in many different forms.

This course enhances knowledge of writing in rehabilitation and examines the implications of writing processes for practice. It also further develops learners’ written skills and their ability to review others’ written work critically and constructively.

Course Objectives

Upon successful completion of the 3-credit course learners will be able to:

  1. Critique writing process approaches.
  2. Critique their own and others’ writing constructively.
  3. Differentiate types of writing in rehabilitation.
  4. Explain the impact of cultural and organizational influences on writing in rehabilitation, for different audiences (e.g., scholarly, consumer, health authorities and policy makers).
  5. Discuss the implications of intellectual property, copyright and authorship laws/conventions for writing in rehabilitation.
  6. Differentiate authorship requirements in rehabilitation publications.
  7. Write records, reports and articles that facilitate best practice and/or knowledge transfer.

Assignments

Each of the four modules requires the learners to participate in online discussions where they apply the concepts learned and build writers’ checklists to guide their critiques and writing assignments. In each module, there is also a writing assignment that requires the learners to experiment with the different types of writing in rehabilitation practice, such as narrative reports, executive summaries, general public information, book reviews, and structured abstracts.

Course Readings

There is no course textbook. Readings, such as journal articles and book chapters, are provided electronically to registered learners through the course website and UBC library.