Understanding physiology is important in the understanding the maintenance of homeostasis, and therefore health. Describe the importance of iodine in the diet, and how this contributes to the normal regulation of metabolic rate. Describe how this system contributes to the maintenance of homeostasis, listing some specific mechanisms. You should then discuss how these mechanisms become dysfunctional in the condition listed for your chosen body system. Please refer to the rubric provided to see where you need to focus, and use the percentage of marks allocated to estimate the number of words for each section. You should also consider using subheadings, as these will make it easier for the reader (the marker) to follow your argument, and this should help maintain a structure to your paper. Please ensure you use a proper sentence/paragraph format where each paragraph focuses on a single major topic, and this is supported by citations. If you have conflicting information, discuss this, and consider whether you find one of these sources more credible, and explain this to the reader. You should be able to divide your paper into 4 main sections; abstract; physiology; pathophysiology; conclusion. As the abstract summarises the entire paper very briefly, and the conclusion summarises your major findings, these sections should be written last, and do not need citations as they summarise your work. You should also include a brief introduction to the topic at the start of your physiology section. After this you should then discuss the mechanisms that are important in normal or “healthy” function of the system of interest. Then in the pathophysiology section you should discuss how the function of these mechanisms changes, resulting in disease or a disease-like state. If you need more information about writing an essay, please refer to the academic skills office materials, or contact the staff there. Use APA formatting for your paper, as per the academic skills office instructions. As this is a first-year essay, you can use your textbook as a starting point for your reference material. In addition to this, you should use some research papers (a good “rule of thumb” is a new reference for every 100 words written). A good place to start looking for papers that are more likely to be of good quality is PubMed, which is funded by the US Government, and run by their National Library of Medicine. Your final word count should be within 10% of the target given.
