Writing Assignment

IMPORTANT: Students were assigned the writing assignment below yesterday and were given yesterday and today to work on it. It is due on Monday. Please urge your students to be working on it!

Final Pathology Assignment: RAFT
In our unit on pathology, you have learned the process a medical examiner goes through from beginning to end. To show what you have learned, you must complete a RAFT writing assignment. RAFT stands for Role, Audience, Format, Topic. This helps you focus your writing.
ROLE: You will choose one of the following crime scenes to write about. You can also choose whether you will assume the role of the pathologist or the victim!
• Scenario 1: Susan Brown was found dead, face down in an alley and had appeared to be severely beaten and strangled.
• Scenario 2: John Stemson was found in his home, sitting on his couch, with several stab wounds, including a fatal one to his carotid artery
• Scenario 3: Bobby Wright, a bank teller, was shot in the chest and killed during a robbery gone bad
AUDIENCE: A student who has not taken forensic science class
FORMAT: Descriptive essay
TOPIC: The process of a death investigation from start to finish
In your paper, you must include the following:
• A description of what the pathologist would do at the death scene
• How time of death would be determined using the stages of decomposition and potassium in eye fluid
• What the manner, cause, and mechanism of death are and how you knew that
• What type of WOUNDS you expect to see based on the cause of death
• A description of the external examination—what are some things you should be looking for and why?
• A description from start to finish of the internal examination, starting with the Y-incision and ending with sewing the body back up.
• Tests you would do on the stomach contents and what information that would provide you
• A description of what biological samples would be taken from the body and the proper way for handling and packaging these samples.
Requirements:
• Your paper should be at least 8 substantial paragraphs supported with details from your notes, the autopsy reading, the videos we have watched, and the case studies you have worked on.
• This can be typed or handwritten, but should be neat
• Grammar, punctuation, and spelling are important
• You should use language a classmate would understand while still using forensics vocabulary
• DO NOT copy directly from your notes or readings—you will receive a ZERO. You must put everything in your own words