Read this assignment very carefully. Incomplete or late submissions will be penalized points.
As you read in Ch. 2, the effects of caffeine on a developing fetus are still disputed with current recommendations to pregnant women being to avoid it or consume as little as possible. For this Discussion Board, please look online for stories related to this topic of caffeine and pregnancy and find a relevant story you can post a link to.
In your initial essay, briefly describe the story and its recommendations (if any) along with its justifications. Describe the source where you found this article and assess how valid and reliable the source may be. Does the article seem to have a lot of opinions? Or does it draw from facts? Who is quoted in the article and what are their credentials? It is best to select articles with few to no opinions from the writer and only facts attributable to research. The essay itself should be mostly journalistic reporting on the article with your opinions limited to the validity and reliability of the source.
When it is not possible to conduct experiments (which obviously cannot be done on human fetuses) to determine the effects of caffeine we have to rely on recommendations from experts. Critical thinking will play a role in which source we give the most credence.
I strongly recommend you compose (and save!) your essay in a Word document for a couple of reasons. Word will keep a running word count for you as well as help you catch any spelling or grammatical errors. Since each essay should reflect your best writing efforts, you will want this help. After composing the essay offline, copy and paste it into the text box that appears after you click “Reply” below. (Please do not attach files.) Students who compose their essay online are at risk of losing their work if their connection is interrupted or their computer crashes. So, please: compose offline.
You'll be making three posts altogether. Your first post is the description of the article in a minimum of 200 words and should include a link to the article. The deadline for this initial post is 11:59pm THURSDAY night. You'll then read three other student posts and make responses to them in posts of 75 words minimum, each. Response posts can examine the content of the article, the description by the student, or the background of its author(s). All three posts are necessary for full points.