Exam sample

This is a SAMPLE text for you to practice making and writing talking points. Remember, your talking points should be complete sentences that specify the objectives you want to meet or cover during your oral presentation. Talking points are not sentences taken directly from the text. For a text of this length, you should be able to prepare at least 20 talking points, although the minimum requirement is only 10. Once you have your talking points prepared, pick your 3 favorite talking points and write out your expanded versions.

SAMPLE ARTICLE

Overview

You may not think of asthma as a killer disease. Yet each year, nearly 500,000 Americans with asthma are hospitalized, and more than 4,000 die.

Asthma is a chronic condition that occurs when the main air passages of your lungs, the bronchial tubes, become inflamed. The muscles of the bronchial walls tighten and extra mucus is produced, causing your airways to narrow. This can lead to everything from minor wheezing to severe difficulty in breathing. In some cases, your breathing may be so labored that an asthma attack becomes life-threatening.

But asthma is a treatable condition, and most flare-ups and deaths can be prevented. In recent years, scientists have gained a better understanding of asthma's cause. New drugs have been developed to replace standard medications. Greater emphasis also is now put on managing your own condition, much as people manage their diabetes with insulin. Together, you and your doctor can work to gain control over your asthma, reduce the risk of severe attacks and help maintain a normal life.

Signs and Symptoms

Asthma signs and symptoms can range from mild to severe. You may experience only occasional episodes of asthma with moderate, short-lived symptoms such as wheezing. You might also cough and wheeze most of the time or find that your symptoms become much worse after exposure to an asthma trigger such as pollen, mold or tobacco smoke. In severe cases, an asthma attack leaves you gasping for air.

All asthma attacks give a warning. Learning to recognize warning signs and treating symptoms early can help prevent attacks or keep them from becoming worse.

Warning signs and symptoms for adults can include:

• Increased shortness of breath or wheezing
• Disturbed sleep caused by shortness of breath, coughing or wheezing
• Chest tightness or pain
• Increased need to use bronchodilators — medications that open up airways by relaxing the surrounding muscles
• A fall in peak flow rates as measured by a peak flow meter, a simple and inexpensive device that allows you to monitor your own lung function

Warning signs and symptoms for children may include:

• An audible whistling or wheezing when your child exhales
• Coughing, especially if the cough is frequent and occurs in spasms
• Waking at night with coughing or wheezing
• Shortness of breath, which may or may not occur when your child exercises
• A tight feeling in your child's chest

Causes

You're more likely to develop asthma if you have an inherited predisposition to the condition and are sensitive to allergens or irritants in your environment. In fact, the inflammation that causes asthma makes your airways overly sensitive to a wide range of environmental triggers.

Asthma can develop at any age. If you're younger than 30, your asthma is probably triggered by allergies. Many people older than 30 with asthma are also allergic to airborne particles.

For some people with asthma, particularly older adults, respiratory allergies don't seem to play a role. Instead, exposure to any irritant — such as a virus, cigarette smoke, cold air, and even emotional stress — can trigger wheezing.

In most cases though, asthma results from a combination of allergic and nonallergic responses. You may react to one or more of the following triggers:

• Allergens, such as pollen, cockroaches and molds.
• Air pollutants and irritants.
• Smoking and secondhand smoke.
• Respiratory infections, including the common cold.
• Physical exertion, including exercise.
• Cold air.
• Certain medications, including beta blockers, aspirin and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.
• Sulfites — preservatives added to some perishable foods.
• Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), a condition in which stomach acids back up into your esophagus. GERD may trigger an asthma attack or make an attack worse.
• Sinusitis.

Risk Factors

For reasons no one quite understands, the number of asthma cases has risen dramatically during the past decade, especially among children living in the inner city. Approximately 14 million Americans have asthma, including more than 6 million children.

In fact, asthma is the most common chronic illness of childhood. Among young children, asthma is more common in boys than in girls. But after puberty asthma becomes more common in girls.

Researchers have identified a number of factors that may increase your chances of developing asthma. These include:

• Living in a large urban area, especially the inner city, which may increase exposure to many environmental pollutants
• Exposure to secondhand smoke
• Exposure to occupational triggers, such as chemicals used in farming and hairdressing, and in paint, steel, plastics, and electronics manufacturing
• Having one or both parents with asthma
• Respiratory infections in childhood
• Low birth weight
• Obesity
• Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD)

When to Seek Medical Attention

Three key circumstances may lead you to talk to your doctor about asthma:

• If you think you have asthma. Wheezing, difficulty breathing, pain or tightening in your chest, or coughing without any other symptoms may all be signs and symptoms of asthma. Wheezing, especially, is a frequent symptom of asthma in children. Yet some children with asthma never wheeze. Instead, they have recurrent, spasmodic coughs that are often worse at night. If you or your children have frequent coughs that last more than a few days or any other signs or symptoms of asthma, see your doctor.
• If you know you have asthma. If you know you have asthma, talk to your doctor about ways to manage your condition. Working as a team, you and your doctor can develop a plan to help you control your signs and symptoms, prevent an attack or stop an attack in progress. Don't try to treat asthma yourself. Most asthma deaths result from a lack of proper treatment.
• If your medication isn't working. Sometimes your medications may not offer the relief you need. Be sure to contact your doctor right away if a prescribed dosage of medication doesn't work for you. In some cases you may not be using your metered dose inhaler correctly. Don't try to solve the problem by taking more medication though — overusing inhalers or taking too much medication can be dangerous.