| Course | MPH 503 Advocacy in Public Health Policy and Law |
|---|---|
| Week | 7 |
| Paper type | Media advocacy piece |
| Length | About 940 words, 5 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Chamberlain University |
| Program | Master of Public Health (MPH) |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for MPH 503 Week 7
Media Advocacy Piece: An Opinion Column for the Riverton Daily, Arguing That the Housing Code Should Protect Renters in July as It Does in January
Student Name
Chamberlain University
MPH 503: Advocacy in Public Health Policy and Law
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Media Advocacy Piece: An Opinion Column for the Riverton Daily, Arguing That the Housing Code Should Protect Renters in July as It Does in January
The Column, as Submitted
Headline: Our housing code keeps renters warm in January. It should keep them alive in July.
Last June, the window air conditioner in a second-floor apartment on the city's west side stopped working. The tenant, a retired bus driver of 74 who lived alone, left three messages for the building manager. Four days into an excessive heat warning, a neighbor knocked, heard nothing and called for help. Paramedics found the tenant on the floor. The thermostat read 97 degrees.
That death was one of nineteen last summer in Riverton homes where the cooling was missing or broken. Every one of them happened in a city whose housing code says something very clear about temperature, but only for half the year.
Under the code, a landlord must provide heat that keeps an apartment at 68 degrees. If a furnace breaks in January, the landlord has to fix it quickly, and a city inspector can make sure it happens. If the air conditioner breaks in July, when afternoons reach 110, the code says nothing at all. A tenant can complain, wait and hope.
That is the gap the city council can close this spring. A proposed amendment would require landlords to provide cooling that keeps at least one room in each rental unit at or below 82 degrees, and to repair it within three days during a heat warning. It would be enforced the same way as the heating rule.
This is not a new idea, and it is not a guess. In the Chicago heat wave of 1995, researchers compared people who died with neighbors who survived and found that having working air conditioning was one of the strongest protections against dying. Studies since have found the same thing. Heat kills people indoors, and cooling saves them.
Some landlords say the rule would cost too much. It is fair to ask. But the proposal covers one room, not a whole apartment. An efficient window unit sells locally for between $250 and $400, and the city's electric utility has offered rebates to landlords who install efficient units. The rule would not take effect until June, giving owners time to comply. Most landlords already keep their units cool; this rule protects the tenants of those who do not.
Others say people should buy their own air conditioners. Many do. But a tenant often cannot install a unit without the landlord's permission, cannot repair one the landlord owns and, if older or ill, may not be able to carry one up the stairs. The heating rule exists for the same reasons. We do not ask tenants to install their own furnaces.
The council's Housing and Neighborhoods Committee will hold a hearing on the amendment on 14 April at City Hall. If you live in Riverton, call your council member before then and ask for a yes vote. If you rent, tell the committee what last summer was like in your apartment. If you own rental property and already keep your units cool, say so; your voice may matter most of all.
Nineteen people died last summer in homes that should have been safe. The code already promises renters a safe temperature in winter. It is time it kept that promise in summer too.
The writer is a registered nurse and public health graduate student who lives in District 4.
Notes on the Frame
The column uses one frame, fairness of the existing rule: the code already guarantees a safe temperature in winter, and summer deserves the same. That frame was chosen over two alternatives. A public health frame, heat deaths as a population problem, would persuade readers who already care about public health and few others. A climate frame, rising temperatures and the need for adaptation, would bring in a debate many readers have already taken sides on. The fairness frame connects to a rule readers already accept and turns the question from whether the city should regulate landlords into why it regulates them only in winter. Media advocacy works by framing an issue around the policy change it requires rather than around individual behavior (Wallack & Dorfman, 1996), and the comparison with the heating rule does that in a sentence.
Evidence in Ordinary Language
The column cites research without jargon. The Chicago study is described as comparing people who died with neighbors who survived, which is what a case-control design is, and its finding is stated plainly (Semenza et al., 1996). A meta-analysis that placed home air conditioning near the top of the factors that protected people during heat waves supports the phrase "studies since have found the same thing" (Bouchama et al., 2007). No odds ratios or confidence intervals appear, because a general reader would skip them.
The Counterarguments
The column meets two counterarguments directly, cost and personal responsibility, because both will appear in letters to the editor within days. It concedes that the cost question is fair before answering it, which makes the answer more credible to readers who own property.
Placement and Timing
The column is timed for submission three weeks before the hearing, so readers have time to call council members, and is offered to the paper's opinion editor with the medical examiner's figures available for fact-checking.
References
Bouchama, A., Dehbi, M., Mohamed, G., Matthies, F., Shoukri, M., & Menne, B. (2007). Prognostic factors in heat wave-related deaths: A meta-analysis. Archives of Internal Medicine, 167(20), 2170-2176. https://doi.org/10.1001/archinte.167.20.ira70009
Semenza, J. C., Rubin, C. H., Falter, K. H., Selanikio, J. D., Flanders, W. D., Howe, H. L., & Wilhelm, J. L. (1996). Heat-related deaths during the July 1995 heat wave in Chicago. New England Journal of Medicine, 335(2), 84-90. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJM199607113350203
Wallack, L., & Dorfman, L. (1996). Media advocacy: A strategy for advancing policy and promoting health. Health Education Quarterly, 23(3), 293-317. https://doi.org/10.1177/109019819602300303
Reading the MPH 503 Week 7 instructions
Choose one outlet and one form, such as an opinion column or letter, and write within its length and style. Open with something a reader will remember, often a person or a scene, used with permission. Frame the issue so that it points to a policy and a decision maker rather than to individual behavior; this is the central skill of media advocacy. Explain the evidence in plain language without statistics a general reader would skip. Answer the objection readers are most likely to hold. End with a specific action and a date. After the piece, explain the framing choices you made, the audience you chose and why the evidence is presented the way it is.
Inside the MPH 503 Week 7 example
The sample column for the city daily begins with a retired bus driver whose window unit failed, who left three messages for the building manager and was found four days into a heat warning in a 97-degree apartment. It connects that death to the nineteen in homes without working cooling and contrasts the code's winter heat rule with its silence on summer. The Chicago study is described as comparing people who died with neighbors who survived. The column answers landlords' cost concern with local window unit prices and utility rebates, and ends by asking readers to call their council member before the 26 May vote. Notes explain the fairness frame and the plain language.
MPH 503 Week 7 rubric: what full points look like
Media pieces in this week lose marks when they are framed around individual responsibility, such as advice to check on elderly neighbors, which leaves the policy and the decision maker out of view. Others read like a paper, with citations and statistics a general reader would skip. Students also lose marks for ending without a specific action. Pieces score well when the opening is memorable, the frame points to a policy and a named body, the evidence is plain and accurate, the main objection is answered, the ending gives readers an action and a date and the notes explain the framing choices in terms of the course's ideas about media advocacy.
MPH 503 Week 7 help: mistakes that cost points
Writing for the public is a different skill from writing for a professor, and the framing choices matter as much as the facts. If you share your issue, your outlet and the decision you want to influence, we can help you choose an opening, frame the issue so it points to policy, put the evidence in plain language and end with an action readers can take. We can also help you write the notes that explain your framing. The story, the outlet, the argument and the final words of the column all remain your own. We can also check the piece against the outlet's word limit and submission guidelines before you send it.
Get a MPH-503 Week 7 example written to your instructions
Send the Week 7 instructions with the format and length your section requires and your issue, and a custom example is written to that form and returned inside 24 to 48 hours. The first one is free. Any real submission to an outlet stays yours to make.
More MPH 503 papers and MPH samples
- MPH 503 Week 1: Advocacy Ask Post
- MPH 503 Week 2: One-Page Policy Brief
- MPH 503 Week 3: Legal Authority Write-Up
- MPH 503 Week 4: Stakeholder and Power Map
- MPH 503 Week 5: Committee Testimony Draft
- MPH 503 Week 6: Coalition Strategy Write-Up
- MPH 503 Week 8: Advocacy Campaign Plan
- MPH 500 Week 7: Program Evaluation Plan
MPH 503 Week 7 questions, answered
How do I choose a frame?
By the audience you need rather than by the one you find most persuasive. The same evidence can be framed as fairness, as cost, as protecting children or as freedom of choice, and each reaches different readers. Public health writers reliably default to the frame that convinces public health people, which is the habit this assignment is designed to interrupt.
Is it acceptable to simplify the evidence?
Simplify, yes; change what it supports, no. That line is where the grading concentrates. A rate expressed as a comparison a reader already understands is good practice, while a hedged finding presented as settled is not, however small the shift looks. When in doubt, write the plainer sentence that stays true rather than the stronger one that does not.
Does the piece need citations?
Usually not in the body, since published opinion writing carries them rarely, but most sections require a reference list submitted alongside. Read the instructions on this point, since an otherwise strong piece losing marks for an absent reference page is a common and avoidable outcome. Where the outlet form allows links, follow whatever convention your assignment names.
Where can I find a free MPH 503 Week 7 sample paper?
The full opinion column arguing for a rental cooling standard, with notes on its framing choices, is on this page.
What frame does the MPH 503 Week 7 sample column use?
Fairness within the housing code: landlords must keep renters warm in January, so the code should protect them in July too.