Proposal

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8306881/

I select the article Persistent Misperceptions about Nicotine among US Physicians:

Results from a Randomized Survey Experiment to be the primary source. Published online on

July 5, 2021, it was co-written by Michelle T. Bover Manderski, Michael B. Steinberg, Olivia A.

Wackowski, Binu Singh, William J. Young, and Cristine D. Delnevo. In this article, a survey

experiment was conducted among randomly selected physicians to assess their reactions to

nicotine. By statistical inferences, it is concluded that misconception is popular among U.S.

physicians, and education on nicotine and tobacco should be prioritized. The possible audiences

are scholars in medicine studying more effective communications between patients and

physicians, and hospital authorities looking for more effective operation.

I plan to translate it into a lecture note, a concise note summarizing the main ideas and

key points of the lecture. Usually, this piece is popular among medical students taking a clinical

medicine course. I understand how stressful and frustrating going through every single slide and

memorizing it could be, so I wish a short lecture note would relieve the stress. The lecture note

will be much shorter than the original essay, with only the main ideas listed. By doing this

translation, I hope to be more proficient in taking notes and become a more effective learner.
 Translation

1. Background

 Many physicians and nurses believe nicotine to be carcinogenic.

 Many believe it directly causes cardiovascular disease (CVD), chronic obstructive

pulmonary disease (COPD), and cancer in a 2018 national survey

2. Survey Experiment Design

 A randomized survey experiment to assess the impact of question wording on

physicians' perceptions about nicotine

 Two versions of a question matrix

 one version specifying "nicotine on its own."

 Covered health outcomes such as birth defects, cardiovascular disease, cancer,

depression, and COPD

3. Results

 Physicians who received the version explicitly mentioning "nicotine on its own"

reported lower levels of misperceptions about nicotine causing health issues

 Question wording significantly influenced physicians' agreement that nicotine

directly contributes to birth defects, CVD, cancer, and COPD

4. Demographic Variances

 Female physicians were more likely to strongly agree that nicotine contributes to

birth defects and cancer

 Differences in perceptions were noted across medical specialties

 family physicians more likely to strongly agree about nicotine's

contribution to various health issues

 5. Implications

 The importance of question wording in survey research

 A significant proportion of physicians still held misperceptions about nicotine's

health effects

 The importance of improving physician education about tobacco and nicotine to

enhance patient-provider communication on these topics

6. Conclusion

 Question wording is crucial when measuring physician beliefs about nicotine

 Common misperceptions about the direct health effects of nicotine among

physicians suggest a need for enhanced education on tobacco and nicotine

Charlotte Du

Professor Evans

Writing 2

24 January 23, 2024

Reflective Essay
 In the Writing Project 1 assignment, I have chosen the article called Persistent

Misperceptions about Nicotine among US Physicians: Results from a Randomized Survey

Experiment as the primary source. It was published online on July 5, 2021, and written by

Michelle T. Bover Manderski, Michael B. Steinberg, Olivia A. Wackowski, Binu Singh, William

J. Young, and Cristine D. Delnevo. The article presents findings from a survey experiment

conducted among a randomly selected group of physicians to assess their perceptions of nicotine.

Through statistical analysis, the study concludes that misconceptions about nicotine are prevalent

among U.S. physicians, underscoring the need for prioritized education on nicotine and tobacco.

I translated this article into a concise lecture note that helps students study the content

more productively, and the reason is the clear and concise nature of lecture notes. Typically, if

the original essay is presented as a lecture, vast amounts of information will be delivered to

students while only several key points will appear on the test. It is extremely ineffective for

students to go through the lecture slides and memorize everything after class or before exams.

Nevertheless, a lecture note presents the information in a shorter, clearer, and more organized

format, allowing for more effective reviewing.

To integrate information from the original essay into my lecture note, I first wrote down

the whole structure of the essay--background, experiment design, results, implications, and

conclusion. Then, I started to add content to each section. For the sake of conciseness, original

contents from each section were paraphrased into one or two simple sentences according to their

main ideas. To this end, some information should be kept out of the note. For instance, for the

background information section, I did not include narrations about the prevalence of nicotine and

its various harms because students are already familiar with this piece of information. Benefits of

survey methods are also excluded for the same reason. What I included was the fact of dominant
misconception about nicotine among U.S. physicians and a piece of evidence to support it, which

lays the background for the whole essay. On top of that, I adopted the bulletin point format,

replacing paragraphs of words, to the good of better comprehension and less stress in reading.

The most challenging part of this translation assignment is the reading of the original

essay. Just like one must be attentive to lectures in case no important ideas that will appear on the

test will be missed, I must read the essay carefully to make a comprehensive note not missing

any test questions. However, the reading and translation process offer me new insights into

lecture notes. Admittedly, lecture notes are beneficial for students’ high scores. Nonetheless, they

prevent students from exploring further knowledge. This is due to the essential difference

between students(audience of lecture notes) and scholars in medicine(audience of the primary

source). In preparation of test, students would mostly just write down the experiment results, like

female physicians were more likely to strongly agree that nicotine contributes to birth defects

and cancer. When reviewing the notes, they will never think about the possible cause of those

results. On the contrary, medicine scholars reading the original essays will think carefully about

the possible reasons behind those results and even their further impacts. Their purpose is to draw

useful information from the original source to support their own research and make inferences.

Although it is understandable that students have limited time and energy to dig in, this test-

oriented genre will slowly deprive them of their academic interests and independent thinking.

Concerning further similar translations, there is something to be highlighted. First is the

identity and community. By definitions from Discourse Communities and Communities of

Practice, my discourse community is student, which means I prioritize high scores and do

everything to make my assimilation of knowledge more efficient. Therefore, there is no need for

me to behave like a scholar, considering extensively and trying to figure out every hidden
question. Second are useful skills for lecture note-taking: scholarly reading and graph analysis.

Inevitably, essays will be long and almost impossible to read word by word, so reading strategies

will be helpful. According to Reading Games by Karen Rosenberg, simply reading the abstract,

intro, section headings, and conclusions helps to capture the majority of the content without

devoting enormous time and energy, despite that some details may be overlooked. Graph analysis

enhances the understanding of content stated by Scout McCloud in Writing with Pictures:

Clarity, Persuasion, and Intensity.