6.1: Infection Cycle
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
- Describe the infection cycle
- Identify the different stages of infection
- Explain the two responses the body has as defense mechanisms against infection
Nurses are on the front lines of infection control , which is the discipline of stopping or preventing the spread of infectious agents, and play an essential role in the prevention of infectious diseases. It is crucial for nurses to understand how infectious diseases spread to ensure vigilance and perform proactive initiatives to prevent and control infections. Microorganisms play a major role in the transmission of diseases. By understanding the conditions that foster the spread of infection, nurses can implement evidence-based interventions to break the cycle and stop the chain of infection . The process of infection control includes handwashing, environmental sanitizing, proper waste management, and adherence to isolation precautions. The main goal of infection prevention for nurses is to prevent the transmission of diseases. Nurses must understand how infections occur and how infection-prevention protocols work to prevent such infections. In doing so, they will ultimately protect themselves and their patients against exposure to infectious agents. Such knowledge includes an understanding of the infection cycle, how and why infections manifest, use of personal protective equipment (PPE) and sterile technique , and the most effective ways to control infections. While proper handwashing is a critical component of infection prevention, there are a number of other ways that nurses can stem the spread of infection and protect themselves and their patients.
An infection that has developed within a healthcare setting is called a healthcare-associated infection (HAI) . HAIs can develop from contact within the healthcare setting or as a result of healthcare interventions that take place outside of a healthcare setting. HAIs can spread rapidly and are a serious threat to nurses, patients, families, and the overall hospital system. Patients who develop any infection are at risk for prolonged hospital stays, long-term complications, and/or death, but HAIs are specifically dangerous as they are typically resistant to bacterial treatment and spread rapidly to often immunocompromised hospitalized patients. In the 2021 National and State Healthcare-Associated Infections Progress Report, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that each day approximately one in thirty-one U.S. hospital patients will contract an infection associated with their health care (CDC, 2022).
The Infection Cycle
In order for an infection to spread from one individual to another and cause disease, six specific phases must occur. This process is known as the chain of infection , and it only results in infection if all six links of the chain are present and intact (Figure 6.2). The six links are a causative agent, a source, a means of exit from the body, a method of spread, a way into the body, and a susceptible host . This chain can occur from a direct transmission between a current and future host or through a more complex pathway where transmission results from multiple intermediate hosts. If, at any time, one of the links breaks, the spread of the infection will halt. In order to break the chain, it is important for nurses to understand how the sequence and function of each link in the chain operates.
 Their presence as the “causative agent” is the first step in the chain of infection. The term microorganism encompasses different life-forms with individual and unique sizes and characteristics. The most common types of microorganisms are bacteria , viruses, and fungi. They are found in all elements of life, including water, soil, air, and the human body. Not all microorganisms that live on the human body cause negative outcomes, and certain bacteria are beneficial to human health and well-being. Still, certain microorganisms can cause severe infection, spoil food, and destroy other materials.
Normal Flora
The community of microorganisms that can live on another living organism or inanimate object without causing any diseases or complications is called normal flora . From the moment of birth, humans are colonized with normal flora by passage through the birth canal. This normal flora helps to prevent individuals from becoming colonized with more dangerous bacteria, which could result in infection. There are two groups of normal flora.
- Resident flora is predominantly present in a particular area of the body and cannot typically be removed with standard hand hygiene. When disturbed, it re-establishes itself harmlessly in deep layers of skin.
- Transient flora includes microorganisms that are acquired by contact with objects or another person. These microbes can be nonpathogenic or pathogenic. Handwashing is effective in removing these microbes.
Infectious Agent
A pathogen is defined as any type of microorganism that causes disease to its host. Pathogens are also referred to as infectious agents, because they cause infections within the body. Pathogens are comprised of viruses, bacteria, fungi, protozoa, worms, or prions. Temperature, moisture, pH levels, oxygen, and access to water are all factors that contribute to a pathogen’s ability to grow.
Bacteria are single-celled organisms that can live in or on people’s bodies. Certain bacteria are beneficial to humans and can help digest food or enhance the immune system. However, when bacteria cause an infection, antibiotics can be used to either kill the bacteria or prevent their multiplication. Viruses, by contrast, do not have cells of their own; they are built from short sequences of either DNA or RNA that are required for the virus to reproduce. Viruses invade healthy cells that they establish as a host and then begin to multiply from within those cells. Their mode of replication occurs as a burst of thousands of particles from a single virus over a short period of time. Outside of a healthy host cell, viruses are dormant and unable to reproduce due to a lack of materials. Antibiotics do not work to kill viruses, but antivirals may be available to lessen the severity of symptoms. Treatments such as antipyretics, throat lozenges, and saline spray can be provided to support symptom management and support the patient's immune system as they work to fight an active infection. Vaccinations are an excellent example of a tool available to help prepare the immune system to recognize and fight a viral infection by providing passive immunity.
Normal flora can become a pathogen if it presents itself in a region of the body where it is not typically found. For example, multiple bacteria found in the bowels are harmless within that environment, but they can cause an infection if present in the urinary tract. The body’s extreme response to widespread infection, called sepsis , is the outcome of an inappropriate immune response to an infection that results in function failure in multiple organ systems within the body. Severe complications to organs may occur if untreated, which can ultimately lead to death.
Reservoir
All infectious disease agents require a host species to flourish. The reservoir is the habitat or source of the pathogen. The reservoir can be viewed as the pathogen’s home, providing a place for the pathogen to survive, grow, and multiply. Most pathogens thrive within a warm, moist, and dark environment. This is why the human body is the most common reservoir for pathogens. Additionally, animals, insects, food, water, and environmental surfaces can all be reservoirs for pathogens.
Human reservoirs may or may not show signs and symptoms of infection or illness. A carrier is a person who does not display any signs of infection but can still transmit the pathogen to other people. Asymptomatic carriers have the pathogen, but do not display any symptoms. Many times, they do not know they have the pathogen and unintentionally contribute to the spread of infection throughout a given population. But pathogens do not only travel from human carriers to other humans. People can also become infected from pathogens that have animal reservoirs. Most of these pathogens are transmitted between animals, but a human may become an accidental host. The term zoonosis refers to an infectious disease that can naturally transmit from animal to human. Common examples of zoonotic diseases include Yersinia pestis from rodents, Bacillus anthracis from sheep, ZIKA from mosquitos, and Flaviviridae from birds. Environmental matter, such as water and soil, can also act as a reservoir for certain infectious agents. The agents that cause tetanus ( Clostridium tetani ) and botulism ( Clostridium botulinum ) can survive for years within soil and remain infectious for humans. So, whether a pathogen comes from a human or animal reservoir or from environmental matter, it can still cause disease once it is transmitted.
Portal of Exit
For an infection to spread, a pathogen must leave its existing reservoir. The portal of exit is the path by which the pathogen leaves the reservoir; in the case of humans, the most frequent route is through bodily fluids or coughing/sneezing. The body’s natural response is to remove a pathogen and attempt to expel it. The portal of exit usually corresponds to the localized site of the pathogen. Examples of this include the influenza virus, which exits the respiratory tract through coughing and sneezing, or Clostridioides difficile in the gastrointestinal tract, which exits through stool. Broken skin—such as wounds, abrasions, bites—can serve as a portal of exit for pathogens through blood and purulent drainage, which is commonly known as pus, and appears as thick white, yellow, or brown fluid. Blood-borne pathogens can transmit from mother to fetus by crossing the placenta.
Methods of Transmission
The method that a pathogen uses to spread from one host to another is called transmission . The most frequent mode of transmission of pathogens is through contact, either direct or indirect (Figure 6.3).
- A process called direct transmission occurs when a pathogen transfers directly from an infected person. The pathogen can be passed from person to person through direct transmission. This mode of transmission can occur during any physical contact with a patient, including activities such as bathing, changing dressings, drawing blood, turning, and activities of daily living.
- A process called indirect transmission occurs when a pathogen is spread to a new host through an intermediary such as the air, food, water, animals, or objects. Certain pathogens can live only a few minutes outside of a host while others can live for years in the proper environment. Indirect transmission can occur in a hospital from, for example, ineffective hand hygiene, improper cleaning of medical equipment, and failure to change gloves between patients. Other forms of indirect transfer from within a hospital include equipment that is transferred from one patient’s room to another, such as medication carts, vitals machines, and glucose monitors. These items require extra care when cleaning.
- A process called droplet transmission occurs when a pathogen travels through a spray of water droplets that are released when an infected person coughs, sneezes, or talks.  Due to their larger size (> 5 µm), droplets are propelled only a short distance through the air and do not remain suspended, so droplet spread is classified as direct transmission and does not require an intermediary. Examples of diseases that transmit through droplets include influenza, rubella, pertussis, and meningococcal infection.
- A process called airborne transmission occurs when pathogens are carried by dust or the nuclei of an evaporated droplet and remain suspended in the air. Because of their small size (5 µm or smaller), these nuclei can remain suspended in the air for long durations of time, float considerable distances, and potentially infect large groups of people. For instance, SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus transmission can occur in a room in which an infected person had previously been, because the virus remains suspended in the air. Because airborne transmission occurs through the inhalation of the pathogen by a susceptible host, healthcare facilities need to put into place special air-handling processes, such as negative pressure, to prevent infection.
- A process called vector transmission occurs when blood-feeding arthropods infect animals or humans. Examples of blood-feeding arthropods are fleas, ticks, and mosquitos. Commonly known vector-borne diseases include malaria, Lyme disease, and West Nile virus.
Portal of Entry
The site through which a pathogen enters the susceptible host is called the portal of entry (Table 6.1). Commonly, pathogens enter a new host using the same portal of exit utilized to leave the reservoir . For example, if the pathogen is transmitted from the respiratory tract through a sneeze or cough, then the portal of entry would also be the respiratory tract of the new host from inhalation of the droplets or touching a surface contaminated with the droplet and touching a mucous membrane . In healthcare settings, wounds, surgical sites, intravenous access sites, and indwelling catheters can all provide a portal of entry for pathogens.
| Portal of Entry | Description |
|---|---|
| Mucosal | Through the eyes or nose |
| Respiratory | Through the respiratory tract |
| Genitourinary | Through the urinary tract |
| Cutaneous | Through wounds or abrasions |
| Gastrointestinal | Though the intestinal tract |
Susceptible Host
The final link in the chain of infection is a susceptible host , the organism or person at risk for infection. The degree to which a host is at risk is dependent on their immunity and ability to resist or limit susceptibility. A host may have specific immunity to a particular pathogen through protective antibodies. The antibodies may have developed as a response to a previous infection, toxin, or vaccine. Factors that increase susceptibility include age, chronic illnesses, a compromised immune system, or immune deficiency.
Age is a nonmodifiable risk factor. As adults age, their functional immunity declines, which increases their susceptibility to infection. Older adults are more prone to developing an infection due to multiple factors: the immune system no longer functions as optimally or vigorously; they may experience cognitive impairments, which could make them less likely to comply with necessary hygiene practices; and they are more likely to be diagnosed with comorbidities, such as diabetes, heart failure, or rental insufficiency, all of which can affect the body’s ability to fight infections.
As individuals age, their lifestyles typically change as well. Nutritional intake can decrease, reducing protein, vitamins, and electrolytes. This can lead to a decrease in body mass, which increases susceptibility to infections.
The National Institute on Aging recommends vaccination as the number one way to prevent infections in an aging population. The Institute also seeks to reduce the number of infections by promoting healthy aging. This entails remaining active and continuing modified physical activity, enjoying proper nutrition, and maintaining regular and routine appointments with health providers (National Institute on Aging, 2022).
Stages of Infection
All infections progress through a predictable course of four stages (Figure 6.4). Each pathogen can produce distinct and diverse symptoms. An individual’s immune response to the pathogen will determine the length and intensity of each stage and account for variability seen between one individual and another.
Incubation Period
The stage of infection known as the incubation period begins once a pathogen successfully enters a new host. During the incubation period, a person does not show signs and symptoms of an infection because there are not enough pathogens to cause symptoms. The person therefore does not suspect they have been infected. One example is the common cold. The patient feels healthy for one to three days, but then starts to demonstrate symptoms of illness once the level of pathogen has increased in their system. Despite being asymptomatic those first few days, pathogens are continually multiplying and can still be spread to other hosts. Because of this, the longer the incubation period is, the more likely a person is to be unknowingly spreading infection to other people. The incubation period can vary in time from as little as one day, as with the influenza virus, to two to three months, as with the hepatitis B virus. It can even last years, as with the human immunodeficiency virus.
Prodromal Stage
The stage of infection called the prodromal period begins at the initial appearance of mild or vague symptoms. These symptoms arise as a result of activation of the immune system and typically present as fever , pain, soreness, or inflammation. Symptoms at this stage are often too general to indicate a specific disease. Referring to the patient exposed to the common cold, after one to three days of feeling healthy, they may then have symptoms such as a headache, scratchy throat, and watery eyes. Though present, these symptoms are nonspecific and could be associated with a variety of other illnesses. This stage can vary in its duration, but it is typically shorter than the incubation period.
Illness
The illness period stage of infection begins when a person experiences the specific signs and symptoms of a certain disease. This period represents the peak of the infection, and it is during this time that a person is highly contagious. In this stage, our patient who was exposed to the common cold will start to show specific symptoms such as mild hacking cough, sneezing, achy muscles and bones, and low grade fever. If the individual’s immune system (with or without medical intervention) is able to combat the pathogens, a period of decline in the pathogens begins. The infection begins to weaken, and symptoms decrease.
Convalescent Period
The final stage of infection is the convalescent period . This is the stage where recovery and healing begin. Closing out our example of the patient who has the common cold, the patient’s symptoms will fade, and the patient will report feeling back to baseline. During this time, a person is gradually able to return to their normal functions; some infections, however, can result in permanent damage from which the body is unable to repair and recover.
Body’s Natural Defense Mechanism Against Infection
The human body’s immune system provides a mechanism for staying healthy through protection against harmful pathogens. An immune response can be classified as either nonspecific, meaning it targets pathogens in a nonspecific, less effective manner, or specific, which allows for a high level of adaptation and effectiveness. Nonspecific immunity includes physical, chemical, and cellular defenses that are classified as either primary or secondary. Secondary defenses are broken down further into inflammatory and immune responses. Specific defense would be antibodies from the immune system targeting a specific antigen that they are designed to identify and destroy.
Primary Defenses
Primary defense barriers prevent pathogens from entering the body through structural barriers, destroy them once they have entered the body, or flush them out of the body (Table 6.2). These barriers are not triggered as a response to pathogens but instead serve as a continuous first line of defense against infection.
| Defense | Description |
|---|---|
| Skin | The skin provides a highly effective physical barrier to infection. The top layer of skin, the epidermis, is made up of cells containing keratin, which makes the skin surface mechanically tough. If skin integrity is compromised due to injury, such as abrasions, cuts, incisions, or burns, the barrier is breached, which creates a portal of entry. |
| Mucous membranes | The mucous membranes that line the nose, mouth, lungs, and digestive and urinary tracts are coated with secretions that aid in fighting against potential pathogens. The nares, trachea, and bronchi are coated with mucous membranes that trap pathogens. Coughing and sneezing allow pathogens to be forcibly expelled from the body. |
| Stomach | The acidic environment of the stomach destroys pathogens that enter the digestive tract. Normal peristalsis—the muscles moving food through the digestive tract—as well as vomiting and diarrhea work to remove pathogens that enter the tract. Additionally, the natural flora of the body, specifically in the gastrointestinal system, serves as a defense mechanism. |
| Eyelashes and eyelids | These structures provide a physical and mechanical barrier from dust and airborne microorganisms through blinking; tears wash away organisms. |
| Cilia | Housed in the nares, cilia move a layer of mucus that covers the airways. This mucus traps pathogens, preventing them from reaching the lungs. |
Inflammatory Response
Pathogens that are not stopped by primary mechanisms and are able to enter the body trigger a second set of defenses. Nonspecific, innate immune responses work to recognize and eliminate pathogens.
One of the first responses that occurs when a pathogen breaches the nonspecific innate immune system is an inflammatory response . This response can entail an area of the body by swelling, turning red, feeling hot, having pain, or losing function. Although inflammation is often perceived as a negative consequence that results from injury, it actually establishes a physical barrier against infection. The process of inflammation aids in the recruitment of cellular defenses, which remove pathogens and damaged cells while initiating repair mechanisms.
The process of inflammation is triggered when damaged cells release histamines and other chemicals. The rise in histamines increases the permeability of the blood vessels, which results in additional blood flow to the area. This additional blood flow manifests as localized warmth and redness. Because the blood vessels are more permeable, fluid leaks from them and accumulates in surrounding tissue, resulting in swelling at the site. The swelling places pressure on nerve endings, resulting in pain.
The cognitive skill of recognizing cues requires the nurse to collect patient data from health assessments, the environment, and health records, and identify abnormal findings.
A nurse assessing a patient who has a suspected infection will consider findings related to an inflammatory process, such as increased body temperature, heat at the site, redness, or swelling. Additional assessment data gathered should include physical history, degree of pain, loss of function, and lab levels that indicate infection, such as an increased white blood cell count.
A fever can be one of the body’s responses to pathogens that cause inflammation; it is defined as a rise in core body temperature and is a component of the inflammatory response extended past the localized site. A low-grade fever is a natural immune response and defense mechanism; many providers will not initiate pharmacological interventions until it rises above 102°F (38.9°C). After all, a fever enhances the nonspecific immune defenses by stimulating an increase in white blood cells (WBCs). WBCs are produced in the bone marrow and are an essential part of the immune system as their function is to find, fight, and destroy infection within the body. If WBCs are elevated, this can indicate an immune response from the body and demonstrate actively fighting a disease. The rise in temperature can also prevent the growth of many pathogens and can trigger specific immune responses.
Immune Response
In contrast to a nonspecific immune response, specific acquired immunity occurs when an individual’s immune system acquires antibodies from a different source. In other words, this type of immunity provides a targeted response to a specific pathogen and can be acquired either actively or passively. The main function of the immune system is to recognize self from nonself and initiate a response accordingly. An antigen is anything the immune system recognizes as a foreign object or substance and subsequently initiates formation of antibodies. Immunoglobulins, or antibodies , are proteins created in the body in response to an antigen in order to fight the identified substance or toxin.
When a pathogen enters the body and active immunity occurs, antibodies form to help protect the body from that pathogen. In subsequent invasions from that same pathogen, the body is able to respond rapidly to the antigen. Active immunity can be acquired through infection, such as with chicken pox, or artificially, through immunizations. The result of antibodies being passed from one person to another is passive immunity . This can occur naturally through the placenta or breastfeeding, or it can occur artificially through injections of serums or blood products that contain antibodies.
As part of its mission to promote health and prevent disease, the CDC publishes written recommendations for vaccinating U.S. children and adults.


5.2.2: Case Administration; Creditors’ Claims; Debtors’ Exemptions and Dischargeable Debts; Debtor’s Estate
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Learning Objectives
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
- Understand the basic procedures involved in administering a bankruptcy case.
- Recognize the basic elements of creditors’ rights under the bankruptcy code.
- Understand the fundamentals of what property is included in the debtor’s estate.
- Identify some of the debtor’s exemptions—what property can be kept by the debtor.
- Know some of the debts that cannot be discharged in bankruptcy.
- Know how an estate is liquidated under Chapter 7.
Case Administration (Chapter 3 of the Bankruptcy Code)
Recall that the purpose of liquidation is to convert the debtor’s assets—except those exempt under the law—into cash for distribution to the creditors and thereafter to discharge the debtor from further liability. With certain exceptions, any person may voluntarily file a petition to liquidate under Chapter 7. A “person” is defined as any individual, partnership, or corporation. The exceptions are railroads and insurance companies, banks, savings and loan associations, credit unions, and the like.
For a Chapter 7 liquidation proceeding, as for bankruptcy proceedings in general, the various aspects of case administration are covered by the bankruptcy code’s Chapter 3. These include the rules governing commencement of the proceedings, the effect of the petition in bankruptcy, the first meeting of the creditors, and the duties and powers of trustees.
Commencement
The bankruptcy begins with the filing of a petition in bankruptcy with the bankruptcy court.
Voluntary and Involuntary Petitions
The individual, partnership, or corporation may file a voluntary petition in bankruptcy; 99 percent of bankruptcies are voluntary petitions filed by the debtor. But involuntary bankruptcy is possible, too, under Chapter 7 or Chapter 11. To put anyone into bankruptcy involuntarily, the petitioning creditors must meet three conditions: (1) they must have claims for unsecured debt amounting to at least $13,475; (2) three creditors must join in the petition whenever twelve or more creditors have claims against the particular debtor—otherwise, one creditor may file an involuntary petition, as long as his claim is for at least $13,475; (3) there must be no bona fide dispute about the debt owing. If there is a dispute, the debtor can resist the involuntary filing, and if she wins the dispute, the creditors who pushed for the involuntary petition have to pay the associated costs. Persons owing less than $13,475, farmers, and charitable organizations cannot be forced into bankruptcy.
The Automatic Stay
The petition—voluntary or otherwise—operates as a stay against suits or other actions against the debtor to recover claims, enforce judgments, or create liens (but not alimony collection). In other words, once the petition is filed, the debtor is freed from worry over other proceedings affecting her finances or property. No more debt collection calls! Anyone with a claim, secured or unsecured, must seek relief in the bankruptcy court. This provision in the act can have dramatic consequences. Beset by tens of thousands of products-liability suits for damages caused by asbestos, UNR Industries and Manville Corporation, the nation’s largest asbestos producers, filed (separate) voluntary bankruptcy petitions in 1982; those filings automatically stayed all pending lawsuits.
First Meeting of Creditors
Once a petition in bankruptcy is filed, the court issues an order of relief, which determines that the debtor’s property is subject to bankruptcy court control and creates the stay. The Chapter 7 case may be dismissed by the court if, after a notice and hearing, it finds that among other things (e.g., delay, nonpayment of required bankruptcy fees), the debts are primarily consumer debts and the debtor could pay them off—that’s the 2005 act’s famous “means test,” discussed in Section 13.3.
Assuming that the order of relief has been properly issued, the creditors must meet within a reasonable time. The debtor is obligated to appear at the meeting and submit to examination under oath. The judge does not preside and, indeed, is not even entitled to attend the meeting.
When the judge issues an order for relief, an interim trustee is appointed who is authorized initially to take control of the debtor’s assets. The trustee is required to collect the property, liquidate the debtor’s estate, and distribute the proceeds to the creditors. The trustee may sue and be sued in the name of the estate. Under every chapter except Chapter 7, the court has sole discretion to name the trustee. Under Chapter 7, the creditors may select their own trustee as long as they do it at the first meeting of creditors and follow the procedures laid down in the act.
Trustee’s Powers and Duties
The act empowers the trustee to use, sell, or lease the debtor’s property in the ordinary course of business or, after notice and a hearing, even if not in the ordinary course of business. In all cases, the trustee must protect any security interests in the property. As long as the court has authorized the debtor’s business to continue, the trustee may also obtain credit in the ordinary course of business. She may invest money in the estate to yield the maximum, but reasonably safe, return. Subject to the court’s approval, she may employ various professionals, such as attorneys, accountants, and appraisers, and may, with some exceptions, assume or reject executory contracts and unexpired leases that the debtor has made. The trustee also has the power to avoid many prebankruptcy transactions in order to recover property of the debtor to be included in the liquidation.
Creditors’ Claims, the Debtor, and the Estate (Chapter 5 of the Bankruptcy Code)
We now turn to the major matters covered in Chapter 5 of the bankruptcy act: creditors’ claims, debtors’ exemptions and discharge, and the property to be included in the estate. We begin with the rules governing proof of claims by creditors and the priority of their claims.
Claims and Creditors
A claim is defined as a right to payment, whether or not it is reduced to judgment, liquidated, unliquidated, fixed, contingent, matured, unmatured, disputed, undisputed, legal, equitable, secured, or unsecured. A creditor is defined as a person or entity with a claim that arose no later than when the court issues the order for relief. These are very broad definitions, intended to give the debtor the broadest possible relief when finally discharged.
Proof of Claims
Before the trustee can distribute proceeds of the estate, unsecured creditors must file a proof of claim, prima facie evidence that they are owed some amount of money. They must do so within six months after the first date set for the first meeting of creditors. A creditor’s claim is disallowed, even though it is valid, if it is not filed in a timely manner. A party in interest, such as the trustee or creditor, may object to a proof of claim, in which case the court must determine whether to allow it. In the absence of objection, the claim is “deemed allowed.” The court will not allow some claims. These include unenforceable claims, claims for unmatured interest, claims that may be offset by debts the creditor owes the debtor, and unreasonable charges by an insider or an attorney. If it’s a “no asset” bankruptcy—most are—creditors are in effect told by the court not to waste their time filing proof of claim.
Claims with Priority
The bankruptcy act sets out categories of claimants and establishes priorities among them. The law is complex because it sets up different orders of priorities.
First, secured creditors get their security interests before anyone else is satisfied, because the security interest is not part of the property that the trustee is entitled to bring into the estate. This is why being a secured creditor is important (as discussed in Chapter 11 and Chapter 12). To the extent that secured creditors have claims in excess of their collateral, they are considered unsecured or general creditors and are lumped in with general creditors of the appropriate class.
Second, of the six classes of claimants (see Figure 13.3), the first is known as that of “ priority claims .” It is subdivided into ten categories ranked in order of priority. The highest-priority class within the general class of priority claims must be paid off in full before the next class can share in a distribution from the estate, and so on. Within each class, members will share pro rata if there are not enough assets to satisfy everyone fully. The priority classes, from highest to lowest, are set out in the bankruptcy code (11 USC Section 507) as follows:
(1) Domestic support obligations (“DSO”), which are claims for support due to the spouse, former spouse, child, or child’s representative, and at a lower priority within this class are any claims by a governmental unit that has rendered support assistance to the debtor’s family obligations.
(2) Administrative expenses that are required to administer the bankruptcy case itself. Under former law, administrative expenses had the highest priority, but Congress elevated domestic support obligations above administrative expenses with the passage of the BAPCPA. Actually, though, administrative expenses have a de facto priority over domestic support obligations, because such expenses are deducted before they are paid to DSO recipients. Since trustees are paid from the bankruptcy estate, the courts have allowed de facto top priority for administrative expenses because no trustee is going to administer a bankruptcy case for nothing (and no lawyer will work for long without getting paid, either).
(3) Gap creditors . Claims made by gap creditors in an involuntary bankruptcy petition under Chapter 7 or Chapter 11 are those that arise between the filing of an involuntary bankruptcy petition and the order for relief issued by the court. These claims are given priority because otherwise creditors would not deal with the debtor, usually a business, when the business has declared bankruptcy but no trustee has been appointed and no order of relief issued.
(4) Employee wages up to $10,950 for each worker, for the 180 days previous to either the bankruptcy filing or when the business ceased operations, whichever is earlier (180-day period).
(5) Unpaid contributions to employee benefit plans during the 180-day period, but limited by what was already paid by the employer under subsection (4) above plus what was paid on behalf of the employees by the bankruptcy estate for any employment benefit plan.
(6) Any claims for grain from a grain producer or fish from a fisherman for up to $5,400 each against a storage or processing facility.
(7) Consumer layaway deposits of up to $2,425 each.
(8) Taxes owing to federal, state, and local governments for income, property, employment and excise taxes. Outside of bankruptcy, taxes usually have a higher priority than this, which is why many times creditors—not tax creditors—file an involuntary bankruptcy petition against the debtor so that they have a higher priority in bankruptcy than they would outside it.
(9) Allowed claims based on any commitment by the debtor to a federal depository institution to maintain the capital of an insured depository institution.
(10) Claims for death or personal injury from a motor vehicle or vessel that occurred while the debtor was legally intoxicated.
Third through sixth (after secured creditors and priority claimants), other claimants are attended to, but not immediately. The bankruptcy code (perhaps somewhat awkwardly) deals with who gets paid when in more than one place. Chapter 5 sets out priority claims as just noted; that order applies to all bankruptcies. Chapter 7, dealing with liquidation (as opposed to Chapter 11 and Chapter 13, wherein the debtor pays most of her debt), then lists the order of distribution . Section 726 of 11 United States Code provides: “Distribution of property of the estate. (1) First, in payment of claims of the kind specified in, and in the order specified in section 507…” (again, the priority of claims just set out). Following the order specified in the bankruptcy code, our discussion of the order of distribution is taken up in Section 13.3.
Debtor’s Duties and Exemptions
The act imposes certain duties on the debtor, and it exempts some property that the trustee can accumulate and distribute from the estate.
Debtor’s Duties
The debtor, reasonably enough, is supposed to file a list of creditors, assets, liabilities, and current income, and a statement of financial affairs. The debtor must cooperate with the trustee and be an “honest debtor” in general; the failure to abide by these duties is grounds for a denial of discharge.
The individual debtor (not including partnerships or corporations) also must show evidence that he or she attended an approved nonprofit budget and counseling agency within 180 days before the filing. The counseling may be “an individual or group briefing (including a briefing conducted by telephone or on the Internet) that outline[s] the opportunities for available credit counseling and assisted such individual in performing a related budget analysis.” 11 United States Code, Section 109(h). In Section 111, the 2005 act describes who can perform this counseling, and a host of regulations and enforcement mechanisms are instituted, generally applying to persons who provide goods or services related to bankruptcy work for consumer debtors whose nonexempt assets are less than $150,000, in order to improve the professionalism of attorneys and others who work with debtors in, or contemplating, bankruptcy. A debtor who is incapacitated, disabled, or on active duty in a military zone doesn’t have to go through the counseling.
Debtor’s Exemptions
The bankruptcy act exempts certain property of the estate of an individual debtor so that he or she will not be impoverished upon discharge. Exactly what is exempt depends on state law.
Notwithstanding the Constitution’s mandate that Congress establish “uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies,” bankruptcy law is in fact not uniform because the states persuaded Congress to allow nonuniform exemptions. The concept makes sense: what is necessary for a debtor in Maine to live a nonimpoverished postbankruptcy life might not be the same as what is necessary in southern California. The bankruptcy code describes how a person’s residence is determined for claiming state exemptions: basically, where the debtor lived for 730 days immediately before filing or where she lived for 180 days immediately preceding the 730-day period. For example, if the debtor resided in the same state, without interruption, in the two years leading up to the bankruptcy, he can use that state’s exemptions. If not, the location where he resided for a majority of the half-year preceding the initial two years will be used. The point here is to reduce “exemption shopping”—to reduce the incidences in which a person moves to a generous exemption state only to declare bankruptcy there.
Unless the state has opted out of the federal exemptions (a majority have), a debtor can choose which exemptions to claim. These are the states that allow residents to chose either federal or state exemptions (the other states mandate the use of state exemptions only): Arkansas, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin. There are also some exemptions not included in the bankruptcy code: veteran’s, Social Security, unemployment, and disability benefits are outside the code, and alimony payments are also exempt under federal law. The federal exemptions can be doubled by a married couple filing together.
Here are the federal exemptions: 11 United States Code, Section 522.
Homestead:
- Real property, including mobile homes and co-ops, or burial plots up to $20,200. Unused portion of homestead, up to $10,125, may be used for other property.
Personal Property:
- Motor vehicle up to $3,225.
- Animals, crops, clothing, appliances and furnishings, books, household goods, and musical instruments up to $525 per item, and up to $10,775 total.
- Jewelry up to $1,350.
- $1,075 of any property, and unused portion of homestead up to $10,125.
- Health aids.
- Wrongful death recovery for person you depended upon.
- Personal injury recovery up to $20,200 except for pain and suffering or for pecuniary loss.
- Lost earnings payments.
Pensions:
- Tax exempt retirement accounts; IRAs and Roth IRAs up to $1,095,000 per person.
Public Benefits:
- Public assistance, Social Security, Veteran’s benefits, Unemployment Compensation.
- Crime victim’s compensation.
Tools of Trade:
- Implements, books, and tools of trade, up to $2,025.
Alimony and Child Support:
- Alimony and child support needed for support.
Insurance:
- Unmatured life insurance policy except credit insurance.
- Life insurance policy with loan value up to $10,775.
- Disability, unemployment, or illness benefits.
- Life insurance payments for a person you depended on, which you need for support.
In the run-up to the 2005 changes in the bankruptcy law, there was concern that some states—especially Florida The Florida homestead exemption is “[r]eal or personal property, including mobile or modular home and condominium, to unlimited value. Property cannot exceed: 1/2 acre in a municipality, or 160 acres elsewhere.” The 2005 act limits the state homestead exemptions, as noted. —had gone too far in giving debtors’ exemptions. The BAPCPA amended Section 522 to limit the amount of equity a debtor can exempt, even in a state with unlimited homestead exemptions, in certain circumstances. (Section 522(o) and (p) set out the law’s changes.)
Secured Property
As already noted, secured creditors generally have priority, even above the priority claims. That’s why banks and lending institutions almost always secure the debtor’s obligations. But despite the general rule, the debtor can avoid certain types of security interests. Liens that attach to assets that the debtor is entitled to claim as exempt can be avoided to the extent the lien impairs the value of the exemption in both Chapter 13 and Chapter 7. To be avoidable, the lien must be a judicial lien (like a judgment or a garnishment), or a nonpossessory, non-purchase-money security interest in household goods or tools of the trade.
Tax liens (which are statutory liens, not judicial liens) aren’t avoidable in Chapter 7 even if they impair exemptions; tax liens can be avoided in Chapter 13 to the extent the lien is greater than the asset’s value.
Dischargeable and Nondischargeable Debts
The whole point of bankruptcy, of course, is for debtors to get relief from the press of debt that they cannot reasonably pay.
Dischargeable Debts
Once discharged, the debtor is no longer legally liable to pay any remaining unpaid debts (except nondischargeable debts) that arose before the court issued the order of relief. The discharge operates to void any money judgments already rendered against the debtor and to bar the judgment creditor from seeking to recover the judgment.
Nondischargeable Debts
Some debts are not dischargeable in bankruptcy. A bankruptcy discharge varies, depending on the type of bankruptcy the debtor files (Chapter 7, 11, 12, or 13). The most common nondischargeable debts listed in Section 523 include the following:
- All debts not listed in the bankruptcy petition
- Student loans—unless it would be an undue hardship to repay them (see Section 13.6, In re Zygarewicz )
- Taxes—federal, state, and municipal
- Fines for violating the law, including criminal fines and traffic tickets
- Alimony and child support, divorce, and other property settlements
- Debts for personal injury caused by driving, boating, or operating an aircraft while intoxicated
- Consumer debts owed to a single creditor and aggregating more than $550 for luxury goods or services incurred within ninety days before the order of relief
- Cash advances aggregating more than $825 obtained by an individual debtor within ninety days before the order for relief
- Debts incurred because of fraud or securities law violations
- Debts for willful injury to another’s person or his or her property
- Debts from embezzlement
This is not an exhaustive list, and as noted in Section 13.3, there are some circumstances in which it is not just certain debts that aren’t dischargeable: sometimes a discharge is denied entirely.
Reaffirmation
A debtor may reaffirm a debt that was discharged. Section 524 of the bankruptcy code provides important protection to the debtor intent on doing so. No reaffirmation is binding unless the reaffirmation was made prior to the granting of the discharge; the reaffirmation agreement must contain a clear and conspicuous statement that advises the debtor that the agreement is not required by bankruptcy or nonbankruptcy law and that the agreement may be rescinded by giving notice of rescission to the holder of such claim at any time prior to discharge or within sixty days after the agreement is filed with the court, whichever is later.
A written agreement to reaffirm a debt must be filed with the bankruptcy court. The attorney for the debtor must file an affidavit certifying that the agreement represents a fully informed and voluntary agreement, that the agreement does not impose an undue hardship on the debtor or a dependent of the debtor, and that the attorney has fully advised the debtor of the legal consequences of the agreement and of a default under the agreement. Where the debtor is an individual who was not represented by an attorney during the course of negotiating the agreement, the reaffirmation agreement must be approved by the court, after disclosures to the debtor, and after the court finds that it is in the best interest of the debtor and does not cause an undue hardship on the debtor or a dependent.
Property Included in the Estate
When a bankruptcy petition is filed, a debtor’s estate is created consisting of all the debtor’s then-existing property interests, whether legal or equitable. In addition, the estate includes any bequests, inheritances, and certain other distributions of property that the debtor receives within the next 180 days. It also includes property recovered by the trustee under certain powers granted by the law. What is not exempt property will be distributed to the creditors.
The bankruptcy code confers on the trustee certain powers to recover property for the estate that the debtor transferred before bankruptcy.
One such power (in Section 544) is to act as a hypothetical lien creditor. This power is best explained by an example. Suppose Dennis Debtor purchases equipment on credit from Acme Supply Company. Acme fails to perfect its security interest, and a few weeks later Debtor files a bankruptcy petition. By virtue of the section conferring on the trustee the status of a hypothetical lien creditor, the trustee can act as though she had a lien on the equipment, with priority over Acme’s unperfected security interest. Thus the trustee can avoid Acme’s security interest, with the result that Acme would be treated as an unsecured creditor.
Another power is to avoid transactions known as voidable preferences—transactions highly favorable to particular creditors. 11 United States Code, Section 547. A transfer of property is voidable if it was made (1) to a creditor or for his benefit, (2) on account of a debt owed before the transfer was made, (3) while the debtor was insolvent, (4) on or within ninety days before the filing of the petition, and (5) to enable a creditor to receive more than he would have under Chapter 7. If the creditor was an “insider”—one who had a special relationship with the debtor, such as a relative or general partner of the debtor or a corporation that the debtor controls or serves in as director or officer—then the trustee may void the transaction if it was made within one year of the filing of the petition, assuming that the debtor was insolvent at the time the transaction was made.
Some prebankruptcy transfers that seem to fall within these provisions do not. The most important exceptions are (1) transfers made for new value (the debtor buys a refrigerator for cash one week before filing a petition; this is an exchange for new value and the trustee may not void it); (2) a transfer that creates a purchase-money security interest securing new value if the secured party perfects within ten days after the debtor receives the goods; (3) payment of a debt incurred in the ordinary course of business, on ordinary business terms; (4) transfers totaling less than $600 by an individual whose debts are primarily consumer debts; (5) transfers totaling less than $5,475 by a debtor whose debts are not primarily consumer debts; and (6) transfers to the extent the transfer was a bona fide domestic support obligation.
A third power of the trustee is to avoid fraudulent transfers made within two years before the date that the bankruptcy petition was filed. 11 United States Code, Section 548. This provision contemplates various types of fraud. For example, while insolvent, the debtor might transfer property to a relative for less than it was worth, intending to recover it after discharge. This situation should be distinguished from the voidable preference just discussed, in which the debtor pays a favored creditor what he actually owes but in so doing cannot then pay other creditors.
Key Takeaway
A bankruptcy commences with the filing of a petition of bankruptcy. Creditors file proofs of claim and are entitled to certain priorities: domestic support obligations and the costs of administration are first. The debtor has an obligation to file full and truthful schedules and to attend a credit counseling session, if applicable. The debtor has a right to claim exemptions, federal or state, that leave her with assets sufficient to make a fresh start: some home equity, an automobile, and clothing and personal effects, among others. The honest debtor is discharged of many debts, but some are nondischargeable, among them taxes, debt from illegal behavior (embezzlement, drunk driving), fines, student loans, and certain consumer debt. A debtor may, after proper counseling, reaffirm debt, but only before filing. The bankruptcy trustee takes over the nonexempt property of the debtor; he may act as a hypothetical lien creditor (avoiding unperfected security interests) and avoid preferential and fraudulent transfers that unfairly diminish the property of the estate.
Exercises
- What is the automatic stay, and when does it arise?
- Why are the expenses of claimants administering the bankruptcy given top priority (notwithstanding the nominal top priority of domestic support obligations)?
- Why are debtor’s exemptions not uniform? What sorts of things are exempt from being taken by the bankruptcy trustee, and why are such exemptions allowed?
- Some debts are nondischargeable; give three examples. What is the rationale for disallowing some debts from discharge?
- How does the law take care that the debtor is fully informed of the right not to reaffirm debts, and why is such care taken?
- What is a hypothetical lien creditor? What is the difference between a preferential transfer and a fraudulent one? Why is it relevant to discuss these three things in the same paragraph?


10.7: Critical Thinking and Research Applications
Using Sources Overview
At this point in your project, you are preparing to move from the research phase to the writing phase. You have gathered much of the information you will use, and soon you will be ready to begin writing your draft. This section helps you transition smoothly from one phase to the next. One of the challenges of writing an essay using sources is successfully integrating your ideas with the material from your sources. Your essay must explain what you think, or it will read like a disconnected string of facts and quotations. However, you also need to support your ideas with research or they will seem insubstantial. How do you strike the balance?
Balancing your own ideas with sources’ ideas involves synthesizing the information from those sources so that you can blend multiple source ideas into your own idea structure that supports your thesis. Beginning writers sometimes attempt to transform a pile of note cards into a formal research paper without any intermediary step. This approach presents problems. The writer’s original question may be buried in a flood of disconnected details taken from research sources. The first draft may present redundant or contradictory information. Worst of all, the writer’s ideas and voice may be lost.
An effective research paper focuses on the writer’s ideas—from the question that sparked the research process to how the writer answers that question based on the research findings. Before beginning a draft, or even an outline, good writers pause and reflect. They ask themselves questions such as the following:
- How has my thinking changed based on my research? What have I learned?
- Now that I've read all of this information, what might my working thesis be?
- How does the information in my sources mesh with my research questions and help me answer those questions? Have any additional important questions or subtopics come up that I will need to address in my paper?
- How do my sources contradict or complement each other? What ideas or facts recur in multiple sources?
- Where do my sources disagree with each other, and why?
In this section, you will reflect on your research and review the information you have gathered. You will determine what you now think about your topic. You will synthesize, or put together, different pieces of information that help you answer your research questions. Finally, you will determine the organizational structure that works best for your paper and begin planning your outline.
Selecting Useful Information
At this point in the research process, you have gathered information from a wide variety of sources. Now it is time to think about how you will use this information as a writer. When you conduct research, you keep an open mind and seek out many promising sources. You take notes on any information that looks like it might help you answer your research questions. Often, new ideas and terms come up in your reading, and these, too, find their way into your notes. You may record facts or quotations that catch your attention even if they did not seem immediately relevant to your research question. By now, you have probably amassed an impressively detailed collection of notes.
You will not use all of your notes in your paper.
Good researchers are thorough. They look at multiple perspectives, facts, and ideas related to their topic, and they gather a great deal of information. Effective writers, however, are selective. They determine which information is most relevant and appropriate for their purpose. They include details that develop or explain their ideas—and they leave out details that do not. The writer, not the pile of notes, is the controlling force. The writer shapes the content of the research paper.
As Miguel reviewed his research notes, he realized that some of the information was not especially useful for his purpose. His notes included several statements about the relationship between soft drinks that are high in sugar and childhood obesity—a subtopic that was too far outside of the main focus of the paper. Jorge decided to cut this material.
Writing at Work
When you create workplace documents based on research, selectivity remains important. A project team may spend months conducting market surveys to prepare for rolling out a new product, but few managers have time to read the research in its entirety. Most employees want the research distilled into a few well-supported points. Focused, concise writing is highly valued in the workplace.
Identify Information That Helps Answer your Research Question
The process of writing informally, such as doing a little free writing without looking at any of your notes, can help you see how you might begin to pull together what you have learned from your research. It also will likely lead to a working thesis, which is an answer to your overarching research question. Do not feel anxious, however, if you still have trouble seeing the big picture. Systematically looking through your notes will help you.
If you haven't used a pre-organization strategy, such as a mind map, begin by identifying the notes that clearly answer your research question. Mark or group these, either physically or using the cut-and-paste function in your word-processing program.
If you did create a mind map and have identified themes, create a word processing document with these themes as headers. Place the relevant notes under the appropriate header in the document.
As you identify the crucial details that support your thesis, make sure you analyze them critically. Ask the following questions to focus your thinking:
- Is this detail from a reliable, high-quality source? Is it appropriate for me to cite this source in an academic paper? The support for your thesis should come from reliable, reputable sources. If most of the details that support your thesis are from less-reliable sources, you may need to do additional research or modify your thesis. However, if you chose suitable and trustworthy sources in the first place, this should not be a problem.
- What personal biases or experiences might affect the way I interpret this information? No researcher is 100 percent objective. We all have personal opinions and experiences that influence our reactions to what we read and learn. Good researchers are aware of this human tendency. They keep an open mind when they read opinions or facts that contradict their beliefs.
- Is the link between this information and my thesis obvious—or will I need to explain it to my readers? Remember, you have spent more time thinking and reading about this topic than your audience. Some connections might be obvious to both you and your readers. More often, however, you will need to provide the analysis or explanation that shows how the information supports your thesis. As you read through your notes, jot down ideas you have for making those connections clear.
Tip
It can be tempting to ignore information that does not support your thesis or that contradicts it outright. However, such information is important. At the very least, it gives you a sense of what has been written about the issue. More importantly, it can help you question and refine your own thinking so that writing your research paper is a true learning process.
Find Connections between Your Sources
Finding connections between your sources is the beginning of synthesizing information. Watch the following video to give you an idea of what synthesis is.
Synthesizing Information . Provided by: GCFLearnFree.org. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License.
As you find connections between your ideas and information in your sources, also look for information that connects your sources. Do most sources seem to agree on a particular idea? Are some facts mentioned repeatedly in many different sources? What key terms or major concepts come up in most of your sources regardless of whether the sources agree on the finer points? Identifying these connections will help you identify important ideas to discuss in your paper.
Look for subtler ways your sources complement one another, too. Does one author refer to another’s book or article? How do sources that are more recent build upon the ideas developed in earlier sources?
Be aware of any redundancies in your sources. If you have amassed solid support from a reputable source, such as a scholarly journal, there is no need to cite the same facts from an online encyclopedia article that is many steps removed from any primary research. If a given source adds nothing new to your discussion and you can cite a stronger source for the same information, use the stronger source.
Determine how you will address any contradictions found among different sources. For instance, if one source cites a startling fact that you cannot confirm anywhere else, it is safe to dismiss the information as unreliable. However, if you find significant disagreements among reliable sources, you will need to review them and evaluate each source. Which source presents a sounder argument or more solid evidence? It is up to you to determine which source is the most credible and why.
Finally, do not ignore any information simply because it does not support your thesis. Carefully consider how that information fits into the big picture of your research. You may decide that the source is unreliable or the information is not relevant, or you may decide that it is an important point you need to bring up. What matters is that you give it careful consideration. The following video addresses some ways to connect and synthesize your sources.
Strategies for Synthesis. Provided by: Dr. Mary Lourdes Silva. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License.
One of the strategies the video mentions is visual in nature. A related way to organize your sources (once you've identified which ones you'll use) is to bring out your mind map again and write down the author of the source you will use in each topic/theme bubble. When you're done, the same source will likely appear in multiple bubbles. Some bubbles will have multiple sources; others will have one. Some may have none, which means you either need to do a little more research or decide whether you want to include that subtopic or eliminate it. See the following sample mind map (on a different topic) once he has organized his sources in this way.
Synthesizing and Organizing Information
By now your thinking on your topic is taking shape. You have a sense of what major ideas to address in your paper, what points you can easily support, and what questions or subtopics might need a little more thought. In short, you have begun the process of synthesizing information—that is, of putting the pieces together into a coherent whole.
It is normal to find this part of the process a little difficult. Some questions or concepts may still be unclear to you. You may not yet know how you will tie all of your research together. Synthesizing information is a complex, demanding mental task, and even experienced researchers struggle with it at times. A little uncertainty is often a good sign! It means you are challenging yourself to work thoughtfully with your topic instead of simply restating the same information.
Use Your Research Questions to Synthesize Information
You have already considered how your notes fit with your working thesis. Now, take your synthesis a step further. Analyze how your notes relate to your major research question and the sub-questions you identified. Organize your notes with headings that correspond to those questions. As you proceed, you might identify some important subtopics that were not part of your original plan, or you might decide that some questions are not relevant to your paper.
Categorize information carefully and continue to think critically about the material. Ask yourself whether the sources are reliable and whether the connections between ideas are clear.
Remember, your ideas and conclusions will shape the paper. They are the glue that holds the rest of the content together. As you work, begin jotting down the big ideas you will use to connect the dots for your reader. (If you are not sure where to begin, try answering your major research question and sub-questions. Add and answer new questions as appropriate.) You might record these big ideas on sticky notes or type and highlight them within an electronic document.
Use Your Mind Map to Synthesize Information
If you used a mind map, edited it to represent to add and delete and themes you discovered or eliminated while reading your research, and wrote down which sources "map" to which topics, you can also use it to identify the types of connections between your sources. This is a key step in synthesis.
In order to do this, you want to think about logical connections (see the chart in "Clause Joining "). Think about which logical relationship connects the points of view or ideas of the sources that appear in each bubble. For instance, you may have two sources that agree about a topic, but one that disagrees or brings in some other type of viewpoint. Place a representative symbol for each connection on your mind map so that you can translate that into your writing when you draft each section. For instance, Miguel might place a plus ("+") sign between the two sources that agree about a topic but place a minus ("-") sign next to the source that disagrees. See his amended mind map, below.
Miguel looked back on the list of research questions that he had written down earlier. He also reviewed his bubble map, and he began a rough outline for his paper.
Exercise 1
Choose the strategies from above that you believe will work best for you based on your dominant learning style, identified in Chapter 1, " Understanding Yourself as a Learner ." Use those strategies to a) organize your research and b) connect your research to help you answer your research question. After completing Exercise 2, decide and take notes about whether the strategies were effective for you and what you might do differently next time.
Exercise 2
Apply the strategies you identified in Exercise 1 to your research planning, and then create an outline that answers our research question.
You may be wondering how your ideas are supposed to shape the paper, especially since you are writing a research paper based on your research. Integrating your ideas and your information from research is a complex process, and sometimes it can be difficult to separate the information from the ideas.
Some paragraphs in your paper will consist mostly of details from your research. That is fine, as long as you explain what those details mean or how they are linked. You should also include sentences and transitions that show the relationship between different facts from your research by grouping related ideas or pointing out connections or contrasts. Go back and review the connections between your sources if you need to. The result is that you are not simply presenting information; you are synthesizing, analyzing, and interpreting it.
One main method of synthesizing source information with your own ideas is to offer your own comments and insights about others’ ideas that you have included from your research. Once you have analyzed the texts involved in your research and taken notes, you must turn to the task of writing your essay. The goal is here is not simply to summarize your findings. Critical writing requires that you communicate your analysis, synthesis, and evaluation of those findings to your audience .
Re-evaluate Your Working Thesis
A careful analysis of your notes will help you reevaluate your working thesis and determine whether you need to revise it. Remember that your working thesis was the starting point—not necessarily the end point—of your research. You should revise your working thesis if your focus changed based on what you read. Even if your sources generally confirmed your preliminary thinking on the topic, it is still a good idea to tweak the wording of your thesis so that it is a little more specific.
Miguel realized that his working thesis oversimplified the issues. He still believed that the media was exaggerating the benefits of low-carb diets. However, his research led him to conclude that these diets did have some advantages. Miguel revised his thesis to read: Although following a low-carbohydrate diet can benefit some people, these diets are not necessarily the best option for everyone who wants to lose weight or improve their health.
Plan How to Organize Your Paper
The final step to complete before beginning your draft is to choose an organizational structure. For some assignments, this may be determined by the instructor’s requirements. For instance, if you are asked to explore the impact of a new communications device, a cause-and-effect structure is obviously appropriate. In other cases, you will need to determine the structure based on what suits your topic and purpose. For more information about the structures used in writing, see Chapter 4.
The purpose of Miguel’s paper was primarily to persuade. With that in mind, he planned the following outline.
Review the organizational structures discussed in this section and in Chapter 9 . Working with the notes you organized earlier, follow these steps to begin planning how to organize your paper.
1. Create an outline that includes your thesis, major subtopics, and supporting points.
2. The major headings in your outline will become sections or paragraphs in your paper. Remember that your ideas should form the backbone of the paper. For each major section of your outline, write out a topic sentence stating the main point you will make in that section.
3. As you complete step 2, you may find that some points are too complex to explain in a sentence. Consider whether any major sections of your outline need to be broken up, and jot down additional topic sentences as needed.
4. Review your notes and determine how the different pieces of information fit into your outline as supporting points.
Collaboration:
Please share the outline you created with a classmate. Examine your classmate's outline and see if any questions come to mind or if you see any area that would benefit from an additional point or clarification. Return the outlines to each other and compare observations.
Writing at Work
The structures described in this section and Chapter 9 can also help you organize information in different types of workplace documents. For instance, medical incident reports and police reports follow a chronological structure. If the company must choose between two vendors to provide a service, you might write an e-mail to your supervisor comparing and contrasting the choices. Understanding when and how to use each organizational structure can help you write workplace documents efficiently and effectively.
Contributors and Attributions
- Adapted from College Writing . Authored by: Susan Oaks. Provided by: Lumen Learning. License: CC-BY-NC 4.0.
- Adapted from Writing for Success . Provided by: The Saylor Foundation. License: CC-NC-SA 3.0 .


3.4: What Is Research Writing?
Research = the physical process of gathering information + the mental process of deriving the answer to your question from the information you gathered.
Research writing = the process of sharing the answer to your research question along with the evidence on which your answer is based, the sources you used, and your own reasoning and explanation .
The essential components or building blocks of research writing are the same no matter what kind of question you are answering or what kind of reader you are assuming as you share your answer.
The Essential Building Blocks of Research Writing
-
Do real research
- Begin from a question to which you don’t know the answer and that can’t be answered just by going to the appropriate reference source. That is, begin from a research question, not a homework question.
- Decide what kind of information or data will be needed in order to build the answer to the question.
- Gather information and/or collect data.
- Work with the information/data to derive or construct your answer.
This is the research process , and it happens before you begin to write your paper. No research, no research writing, so don’t shortchange this part of the process.
-
Create a one-sentence answer to your research question.
- This will be the thesis statement/main point/controlling idea of your research paper.
-
Share your answer to research questions in a way that make it believable, understandable, and usable for your readers.
To do this
- Include plentiful and well-chosen examples from the data/information you gathered
- Indicate the validity of your data by accurately reporting your research method (field or lab research)
- Indicate the quality of your information by accurately citing your sources (source-based research)
- Provide the reasoning and explanation that will let your readers completely understand how the evidence adds up to your answer.
Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\)


9.0: Introduction
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A human, as well as every sexually reproducing organism, begins life as a fertilized egg (embryo) or zygote. Trillions of cell divisions subsequently occur in a controlled manner to produce a complex, multicellular human. In other words, that original single cell is the ancestor of every other cell in the body. Once a being is fully grown, cell reproduction is still necessary to repair or regenerate tissues. For example, new blood and skin cells are constantly being produced. All multicellular organisms use cell division for growth and the maintenance and repair of cells and tissues. Cell division is tightly regulated, and the occasional failure of regulation can have life-threatening consequences. Single-celled organisms use cell division as their method of reproduction.


1.1: Likelihood
Introduction
Probability models and techniques permeate many important areas of modern life. A variety of types of random processes, reliability models and techniques, and statistical considerations in experimental work play a significant role in engineering and the physical sciences. The solutions of management decision problems use as aids decision analysis, waiting line theory, inventory theory, time series, cost analysis under uncertainty — all rooted in applied probability theory. Methods of statistical analysis employ probability analysis as an underlying discipline.
Modern probability developments are increasingly sophisticated mathematically. To utilize these, the practitioner needs a sound conceptual basis which, fortunately, can be attained at a moderate level of mathematical sophistication. There is need to develop a feel for the structure of the underlying mathematical model, for the role of various types of assumptions, and for the principal strategies of problem formulation and solution.
Probability has roots that extend far back into antiquity. The notion of “chance” played a central role in the ubiquitous practice of gambling. But chance acts were often related to magic or religion. For example, there are numerous instances in the Hebrew Bible in which decisions were made “by lot” or some other chance mechanism, with the understanding that the outcome was determined by the will of God. In the New Testament, the book of Acts describes the selection of a successor to Judas Iscariot as one of “the Twelve.” Two names, Joseph Barsabbas and Matthias, were put forward. The group prayed, then drew lots, which fell on Matthias.
Early developments of probability as a mathematical discipline, freeing it from its religious and magical overtones, came as a response to questions about games of chance played repeatedly. The mathematical formulation owes much to the work of Pierre de Fermat and Blaise Pascal in the seventeenth century. The game is described in terms of a well defined trial (a play); the result of any trial is one of a specific set of distinguishable outcomes. Although the result of any play is not predictable, certain “statistical regularities” of results are observed. The possible results are described in ways that make each result seem equally likely. If there are N such possible “equally likely” results, each is assigned a probability 1/ N .
The developers of mathematical probability also took cues from early work on the analysis of statistical data. The pioneering work of John Graunt in the seventeenth century was directed to the study of “vital statistics,” such as records of births, deaths, and various diseases. Graunt determined the fractions of people in London who died from various diseases during a period in the early seventeenth century. Some thirty years later, in 1693, Edmond Halley (for whom the comet is named) published the first life insurance tables. To apply these results, one considers the selection of a member of the population on a chance basis. One then assigns the probability that such a person will have a given disease. The trial here is the selection of a person, but the interest is in certain characteristics. We may speak of the event that the person selected will die of a certain disease– say “consumption.” Although it is a person who is selected, it is death from consumption which is of interest. Out of this statistical formulation came an interest not only in probabilities as fractions or relative frequencies but also in averages or expectatons. These averages play an essential role in modern probability.
We do not attempt to trace this history, which was long and halting, though marked by flashes of brilliance. Certain concepts and patterns which emerged from experience and intuition called for clarification. We move rather directly to the mathematical formulation (the “mathematical model”) which has most successfully captured these essential ideas. This is the model, rooted in the mathematical system known as measure theory, is called the Kolmogorov model , after the brilliant Russian mathematician A.N. Kolmogorov (1903-1987). Kolmogorov succeeded in bringing together various developments begun at the turn of the century, principally in the work of E. Borel and H. Lebesgue on measure theory. Kolmogorov published his epochal work in German in 1933. It was translated into English and published in 1956 by Chelsea Publishing Company.
Outcomes and events
Probability applies to situations in which there is a well defined trial whose possible outcomes are found among those in a given basic set. The following are typical.
- A pair of dice is rolled; the outcome is viewed in terms of the numbers of spots appearing on the top faces of the two dice. If the outcome is viewed as an ordered pair, there are thirty six equally likely outcomes. If the outcome is characterized by the total number of spots on the two die, then there are eleven possible outcomes (not equally likely).
- A poll of a voting population is taken. Outcomes are characterized by responses to a question. For example, the responses may be categorized as positive (or favorable), negative (or unfavorable), or uncertain (or no opinion).
- A measurement is made. The outcome is described by a number representing the magnitude of the quantity in appropriate units. In some cases, the possible values fall among a finite set of integers. In other cases, the possible values may be any real number (usually in some specified interval).
- Much more sophisticated notions of outcomes are encountered in modern theory. For example, in communication or control theory, a communication system experiences only one signal stream in its life. But a communication system is not designed for a single signal stream. It is designed for one of an infinite set of possible signals. The likelihood of encountering a certain kind of signal is important in the design. Such signals constitute a subset of the larger set of all possible signals.
These considerations show that our probability model must deal with
- A trial which results in (selects) an outcome from a set of conceptually possible outcomes. The trial is not successfully completed until one of the outcomes is realized.
- Associated with each outcome is a certain characteristic (or combination of characteristics) pertinent to the problem at hand. In polling for political opinions, it is a person who is selected. That person has many features and characteristics (race, age, gender, occupation, religious preference, preferences for food, etc.). But the primary feature, which characterizes the outcome, is the political opinion on the question asked. Of course, some of the other features may be of interest for analysis of the poll.
Inherent in informal thought, as well as in precise analysis, is the notion of an event to which a probability may be assigned as a measure of the likelihood the event will occur on any trial. A successful mathematical model must formulate these notions with precision. An event is identified in terms of the characteristic of the outcome observed. The event “a favorable response” to a polling question occurs if the outcome observed has that characteristic; i.e., iff (if and only if) the respondent replies in the affirmative. A hand of five cards is drawn. The event “one or more aces” occurs iff the hand actually drawn has at least one ace. If that same hand has two cards of the suit of clubs, then the event “two clubs” has occurred . These considerations lead to the following definition.
Definition. The event determined by some characteristic of the possible outcomes is the set of those outcomes having this characteristic. The event occurs iff the outcome of the trial is a member of that set (i.e., has the characteristic determining the event).
- The event of throwing a “seven” with a pair of dice (which we call the event SEVEN) consists of the set of those possible outcomes with a total of seven spots turned up. The event SEVEN occurs iff the outcome is one of those combinations with a total of seven spots (i.e., belongs to the event SEVEN). This could be represented as follows. Suppose the two dice are distinguished (say by color) and a picture is taken of each of the thirty six possible combinations. On the back of each picture, write the number of spots. Now the event SEVEN consists of the set of all those pictures with seven on the back. Throwing the dice is equivalent to selecting randomly one of the thirty six pictures. The event SEVEN occurs iff the picture selected is one of the set of those pictures with seven on the back.
- Observing for a very long (theoretically infinite) time the signal passing through a communication channel is equivalent to selecting one of the conceptually possible signals. Now such signals have many characteristics: the maximum peak value, the frequency spectrum, the degree of differentibility, the average value over a given time period, etc. If the signal has a peak absolute value less than ten volts, a frequency spectrum essentially limited from 60 herz to 10,000 herz, with peak rate of change 10,000 volts per second, then it is one of the set of signals with those characteristics. The event "the signal has these characteristics" has occured. This set (event) consists of an uncountable infinity of such signals.
One of the advantages of this formulation of an event as a subset of the basic set of possible outcomes is that we can use elementary set theory as an aid to formulation. And tools, such as Venn diagrams and indicator functions for studying event combinations, provide powerful aids to establishing and visualizing relationships between events. We formalize these ideas as follows:
- Let \(\Omega\) be the set of all possible outcomes of the basic trial or experiment. We call this the basic space or the sure event , since if the trial is carried out successfully the outcome will be in \(\Omega\); hence, the event \(\Omega\) is sure to occur on any trial. We must specify unambiguously what outcomes are “possible.” In flipping a coin, the only accepted outcomes are “heads” and “tails.” Should the coin stand on its edge, say by leaning against a wall, we would ordinarily consider that to be the result of an improper trial.
-
As we note above, each outcome may have several characteristics which are the basis for describing events. Suppose we are drawing a single card from an ordinary deck of playing cards. Each card is characterized by a “face value” (two through ten, jack, queen, king, ace) and a “suit” (clubs, hearts, diamonds, spades). An ace is drawn (the event ACE occurs) iff the outcome (card) belongs to the set (event) of four cards with ace as face value. A heart is drawn iff the card belongs to the set of thirteen cards with heart as suit. Now it may be desirable to specify events which involve various logical combinations of the characteristics. Thus, we may be interested in the event the face value is jack
or
king
and
the suit is heart
or
spade. The set for jack
or
king is represented by the union \(J \cup K\) and the set for heart
or
spade is the union \(H \cup S\). The occurrence of both conditions means the outcome is in the intersection (common part) designated by \(\cap\). Thus the event referred to is
\(E = (J \cup K) \cap (H \cup S)\)
The notation of set theory thus makes possible a precise formulation of the event \(E\).
\({A_i : i \in J}\) is the class of sets \(A_i\), one for each index \(i\) in the index set \(J\)
For example, if \(J = {1, 2, 3}\) then \({A_i : i \in J}\) is the class \({A_1, A_2, A_3}\), and
\(\bigcup_{i \in J} A_i = A_1 \cup A_2 \cup A_3\), \(\bigcup_{i \in J} A_i = A_1 \cap A_2 \cap A_3\),
If \(J = {1, 2, \cdot\cdot\cdot}\) then \({A_i: i \in J}\) is the sequence \({A_1: 1 \le i}\), and
\(\bigcup_{i \in J} A_i = \bigcup_{i = 1}^{\infty} A_i\), \(\bigcap_{i \in J} A_i = \bigcap_{i = 1}^{\infty} A_i\)
If event E is the union of a class of events, then event E occurs iff at least one event in the class occurs. If F is the intersection of a class of events, then event F occurs iff all events in the class occur on the trial.
The role of disjoint unions is so important in probability that it is useful to have a symbol indicating the union of a disjoint class. We use the big V to indicate that the sets combined in the union are disjoint. Thus, for example, we write
\(A = \bigvee_{i = 1}^{n} A_i\) to signify \(A = \bigcup_{i = 1}^{n} A_i\) with the proviso that the \(A_i\) form a disjoint class
Events derived from a class
Consider the class \({E_1, E_2, E_3}\) of events. Let \(A_k\) be the event that exactly \(k\) occur on a trial and \(B_k\) be the event that \(k\) or more occur on a trial. Then
\(A_0 = E_1^c E_2^c E_3^c\), \(A_1 = E_1 E_2^c E_3^c \bigvee E_1^c E E_3^c \bigvee E_1^c E_2^c E_3\), \(A_2 = E_1 E_2 E_3^c \bigvee E_1 E_2^c E_3 \bigvee E_1^c E_2 E_3\), \(A_3 = E_1 E_2 E_3\)
The unions are disjoint since each pair of terms has \(E_i\) in one and \(E_i^c\) in the other, for at least one \(i\). Now the \(B_k\) can be expressed in terms of the \(A_k\. For example
\(V_2 = A_2 \bigvee A_3\)
The union in this expression for \(B_2\) is disjoint since we cannot have exactly two of the \(E_i\) occur and exactly three of them occur on the same trial. We may express \(B_2\) directly in terms of the \(E_i\) as follows:
\(B_2 = E_1 E_2 \cup E_1 E_3 \cup E_2 E_3\)
Here the union is not disjoint, in general. However, if one pair, say \({E_1, E_3}\) is disjoint, then \(E_1 E_3 = \emptyset\) and the pair \({E_1 E_2, E_2 E_3}\) is disjoint (draw a Venn diagram). Suppose \(C\) is the event the first two occur or the last two occur but no other combination. Then
\(C = E_1 E_2 E_3^c \bigvee E_1^c E_2 E_3\)
Let \(D\) be the event that one or three of the events occur,
\(D = A_1 \bigvee A_3 = E_1 E_2^c E_3^c \bigvee E_1^c E_2 E_3^c \bigvee E_1^c E_2^c E_3 \bigvee E_1 E_2 E_3\)
The important patterns in set theory known as DeMorgan's rules are useful in the handing of events. For an arbitrary class \({A_i: i \in J}\) of events,
\([\bigcup_{i \in J} A_i]^c = \bigcap_{i \in J} A_i^c\) and \([\bigcap_{i \in J} A_i]^c = \bigcup_{i \in J} A_i^c\)
An outcome is not in the union (i.e., not in at least one) of the \(A_i\) iff it fails to be in all \(A_i\), and it is not in the intersection (i.e. not in all) iff it fails to be in at least one of the \(A_i\).
continuation of example
Express the event of no more than one occurrence of the events in \({E_1, E_2, E_3}\) as \(B_2^c\).
\(B_2^c = [E_1 E_2 \cup E_1 E_3 \cup E_2 E_3]^c = (E_1^c \cup E_2^c) (E_1^c \cup E_3^c) (E_2^3 \cup E_3^c) = E_1^c E_2^c \cup E_1^c E_3^c \cup E_2^c E_3^c\)
The last expression shows that not more than one of the \(E_i\) occurs iff at least two of them fail to occur.


8.5: Wisconsin Model Early Learning Standards Framework
Course Competency 8. Develop STEM learning experience plans that promote child development and learning
CRITERIA: 8.5. plan incorporates the WMELS Framework.
WMELS Framework
Please see page 2-3 of the Wisconsin Model Early Learning Standards to learn more about the framework.
The WMELS Framework is built in to your lesson plan form for your learning experiences. You will be including:
1. The Domain
2. The Sub-Domain
3. The Performance Standard
4. The Developmental Continuum
5. Sample Behaviors of the Children and how they align or relate to your activity.
You will also be including the Relevant Developmental Domains for your activity as we know children develop in multiple domains at once. See 8.1 Relevant Developmental Domains to review.


2: Developmental Theories Last updated Save as PDF Page ID 60356 Lumen Learning Lumen Learning 2.1: Why It Matters- Developmental Theories 2.2: Introduction to Psychodynamic Theories 2.3: Understanding Theories 2.4: Psychodynamic Theory 2.5: Psychosocial Theory 2.6: Introduction to Behavioral and Cognitive Theories 2.7: Exploring Behavior 2.8: Exploring Cognition 2.9: Introduction to the Humanistic, Contextual, and Evolutionary Perspectives of Development 2.10: The Humanistic Perspective 2.11: Contextual Perspectives 2.12: The Evolutionary Perspective- Genetic Inheritance from our Ancestors 2.13: Comparing and Evaluating Lifespan Theories 2.14: Putting It Together- Developmental Theories 2.15: Discussion- Developmental Theories 2.16: Assignment- Applying Developmental Theories 2.17: Assignment- Bioecological Model Journal