Title: Immune System Discussion (Not required but interesting) (Module Four information)
Course: BIO 160 RTZ > Section: Module 4 Chapters 10 to 13, 14, 15 and 16 (Weeks Ten, Eleven and Twelve)

Thinking scientifically about medicine: should you take drugs or diet supplements to treat the common cold?

After you have become familiar with some of the issues surrounding treatment of the common cold with drugs and herbal supplements, I would like you to write a short persuasive essay addressing the following issue: If you were a health provider, how would you recommend a patient treat his or her cold? What is the role of antibiotics? Herbal supplements? Over-the-counter remedies? Chicken soup? If you propose the use of a certain compound to treat a cold, please provide references for why you feel this treatment will be effective.

Background Reading:

- http://www.commoncold.org/
- http://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/understanding-common-cold-treatment
- http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/commoncold.html

You are also encouraged to conduct your own research on the topic and include the new references you have found in the references cited section of your essay. Please use the materials that you read to inform your position for this essay. After you have decided what you want to say, cite the references (both the ones provided and the ones you found on your own, as appropriate) to support your position. Be sure to give citations (in APA format) where appropriate, and please consider the essay an opportunity to place the material into a new synthesis that reflects your thoughts and is written entirely in your own words. As a reminder: A student must provide a reference for any information that is not common knowledge.  This includes specific information that is known by the student, but is not known by the general population. Use of direct quotes is strongly discouraged in a short essay. The essay assignments are best completed by (a) reading source material to obtain facts (scientific knowledge) and (b) using these facts (with attribution) to support your own opinion and ideas, using your own voice. The most appropriate way to cite source material is to completely reword the idea or concept and give the author(s) credit in the text.