Posted: September 13th, 2017

Task 2: Report – Nutrient Timing;

Task 2: Report – Nutrient Timing;

Choose either this Nutrient Timing title OR the Public Health report option – DO NOT DO BOTH!
Contents
1    This task is a report – not an essay    2
2    The Basics    2
3    Nutrient Timing    2
4    What to think about?    3
5    The formative opportunity – you do not have to do this!    3
6    Helpful advice!    4
Marking Criteria    6
Marking Example (in Turn It In):    7

1    This task is a report – not an essay
You are more likely to be asked to write a report in any job you might have – rather than an essay.
Writing a good report is an art form of sorts – you have plenty of automated formatting tools in MS Word to make a report look attractive and readable.
2    The Basics
2 500 (? 10%) words excluding references, titles and tables – but this DOES include in-text citations.
Due 12th January, 2015, 23:55 – Hand in:
1.    via Turn It In link (plagiarism check) and
2.    via a Moodle submission link
I take hand in dates/times seriously – you will need extenuating circumstances for late submissions to be accepted.
I take word counts and plagiarism seriously.
3    Nutrient Timing
Whilst how much and what you eat is still really important the issue of nutrient timing is attracting more and more attention.
Training is devised to bring about physiological changes in order to optimise performance. However, if the nutrients aren’t available for those physiological changes to take place, the training becomes a waste of time. It would be foolish to eat a huge amount of protein at two in the morning hoping it would provide the amino acids necessary for muscle repair and building during a training session later in the afternoon. Soon after eating your protein your body would be in positive nitrogen balance but by the time you had got to the afternoon you would be in negative nitrogen balance and the amino acids would not be available to repair and build your muscles.
There is a lot more talk these days about strength and conditioning training in all sports – and the whole point of strength and conditioning training is to improve performance. Again nutrient timing is critical to make the best of such training.
This report is designed to teach you about the importance of nutrient timing. You should talk about:
•    the physiological adaptations to training
•    a brief discussion of the additional dietary needs of an athlete in comparison to a non-athlete – for example the need for more macronutrients and micronutrients which should all be supplied as a result of increased energy requirements
•    and most importantly – how nutrient timing can be planned to optimise the physiological response to training – think about what to eat before training, during and after training.
I have provided an article designed for the American forces – it is obviously desirable to keep your forces in the best possible shape and at peak fitness. Do not base your report on this article – it is to give you some help in some of the approaches to investigate.
I’m not particularly interested in what to eat exactly but I am much more interested in why nutrient timing is so important – and what evidence there is to support claims.
And please note – this is not a report about carbohydrate loading although that could be mentioned briefly as it is one of the recognised nutrients timing strategies that has been used for many years.
4    What to think about?
•    This is an not an essay – it is a report –  a series of headings and subheadings to deliver well organised information in a chronological sequence
o    You need a title that reflects the content of your report
o    You need headings and subheadings
o    You need a table of contents
•    It needs to encourage the reader to read it – ie good to look at – avoid large blocks of text by using headings and subheadings.
•    It is a formal document and as such needs to be well-referenced with conventional formatting for in-text citations and the reference list at the end.
•    Information sources should be primarily from peer reviewed scientific publications – use texts for background/setting the scene and research papers/reviews for presenting current ideas/practises
•    Make sure images / diagrams from outside sources are properly referenced – if you want to use photos try and find copyright free – or use your own, or mine which I have made available at https://www.facebook.com/nutritionpics – if you have photos to add please do so but be aware they are available to anyone to use.
•    There should be an introduction and a summary / conclusion (as well as the bits in between)
•    Avoid using quotes – they are usually inappropriate and I will not be marking quotes unless really relevant and appropriate because they are not written by you – they are written by someone else.
•    Take notice of the marking criteria – see below
5    The formative opportunity – you do not have to do this!
I have provided a link for formative assessment of this report.
•    This formative submission is not formally marked
•    You submit and I review and give comments then send it back to you
•    According to course feedback:  Students who used it last year benefitted greatly
•    According to course feedback: Those who didn’t take advantage wished they had
There is a deadline – but you can submit as early as you like – if you are very early with this let me know by email to make sure I respond quickly. The reason for this deadline is to try and get you started – you only need an outline.
This is what I expect to see for the formative:
An outline of your document eg the table of contents – up to 3 levels – see Figure 1.
See the Youtube video  in the topic showing you how to set up automatic headings and table of contents.
This will show me the ‘shape’ of your document and the areas that you intend to cover.

Figure 1: Example Table of Contents showing 3 levels and a list of figures (ignore the language and the ‘heading 1’ etc text is just to show you what formatting I have used)
My comments will not tell you exactly what to write for obvious reasons – this is your work not mine.
My comments will give guidance and maybe cause you to ask further questions of yourself and how you are approaching your work.
6    Helpful advice!
•    Give yourself plenty of time – very few people can produce excellent work in a very short time
•    take advantage of the formative opportunity – it will help
•    if you know that you struggle with written work start as early as possible and contact me for support
o    if you ask me to tell you what to write about I cannot award you marks for identifying the important issues – see marking criteria
•    try and use the automated table of contents/headings tools in Microsoft Word – these will help you in your project write up and can save a lot of time as well as improving the appearance of your document – there is a short movie to help you with this
•    take notice of the marking criteria
•    One of the key aspects of writing a good report is making sure that you address the subject and do not get diverted into unnecessary / unrelated detail – stay focussed.
•    use the spell check and proof read carefully, get someone else to read it through – check the sense of your sentences.
•    don’t plagiarise – this is a serious offence in the final year
•    don’t rely on non-scientific sources of information – you are final year students and your written work should reflect this
•    don’t go over the word count – I will only mark 2 500 ? 10% – if you go over the word count I may not get as far as reading your conclusion/final discussion which means you cannot earn any marks for this section
•    submit on time!