Graduate Nursing Program Writing in General

Graduate nursing program writing is the opposite of nursing charting.  We as nurses -are used to providing the facts, nothing more, nothing less :-)  In scholarly or academic writing, the repetition or redundancy is desired (it may be because of the volumes of reading a professor does, the repetition ensures that the professor does not miss any important points :-)
So if you feel you are being repetitive, you are writing in a scholarly manner :-).  Keep the nouns related to your main topic the same and switch up the verbs, and adjectives when writing.  Make sure each paragraph has a minimum of four sentences (MEAL method) where:  M= Main Point; E= Evidence (citation) and/or example; A= your analysis of why this is important or the advantages/disadvantages, compare and contrast or implications of your E-sentence; L= Link to the next paragraph.
For each and every paragraph written ask yourself 4 basic questions:
1. What is the main point of this paragraph? (M sentence of MEAL method)
2. What examples and, or evidence (citation) is best to support the main point ? (E sentence of MEAL method)
3. What are the implications and , or significance of the previous information shared (the examples and , or evidence)  So what?
4) How can I bridge the ideas and thoughts from this paragraph to the main point of the next paragraph? (L sentence of MEAL method)

If you get stuck writing one of the four sentences, just type in blue font "NEED A " for need an analysis sentence and then go back later and fill that aspect in your paper.  Most nurses find the "A" and the "L" the most difficult for the reasons I stated earlier :-) 

Keep the thesaurus function open in MS word (found under “Tools>Language”) to help use a variety of verbs.  Remember to keep the nouns related to your main topic the same throughout the paper, using various verbs and adjectives in the writing. All of this will soon become second nature with practice.

Dr. Maggie