Write for the Reader

Graduate nursing program writing requires organized writing, and easy to read are very important.  The use of headings in any written work provides a road map for the reader and most of all the faculty grading the work <<grins>>.  So if no headings are provided in an assignment, go through the grading rubric and create your own headings.  Use phrases similar to a "newspaper" headline.  Make sure the flow of ideas in the headings is logical and builds from general concepts to specific ideas.

Dr. Maggie

Graduate Nursing Program Writing Blog Directory

You will be an all star writer using the tips in this Blog, Happy 4th of July!

Dr. Maggie

BLOG DIRECTORY

Academic Writing in General 

http://onlinegraduatenursingdegreewriting.blogspot.com/2015/01/academic-writing-in-general.html

APA Mastery- Create your own “ APA Tip Sheet” 

http://onlinegraduatenursingdegreewriting.blogspot.com/2015/01/apa-mastery-create-your-own-apa-tip.html

APA Website Reference 

http://onlinegraduatenursingdegreewriting.blogspot.com/2015/01/apa-website-reference.html

Analysis in Academic Writing  
http://onlinegraduatenursingdegreewriting.blogspot.com/2015/02/analysis-in-academic-writing.html

Quotes in writing:  Avoid them   

http://onlinegraduatenursingdegreewriting.blogspot.com/2015/02/quotes-in-academic-writing-avoid-them.html

Bookmarking pages in APA Manual and other Texts 

http://onlinegraduatenursingdegreewriting.blogspot.com/2015/02/bookmarking-pages-in-apa-manual-and.html

Citation use and When to cite:  
http://onlinegraduatenursingdegreewriting.blogspot.com/2015/02/citation-use-and-when-to-cite.html

Focused Writing 
http://onlinegraduatenursingdegreewriting.blogspot.com/2015/03/focused-writing.html

Headings - Multiple Levels 
http://onlinegraduatenursingdegreewriting.blogspot.com/2015/03/headings-multiple-levels.html

MEAL Method Writing Demonstration  

http://onlinegraduatenursingdegreewriting.blogspot.com/2015/03/meal-method-of-writing-example.html

Managing the Length of a Paper 

http://onlinegraduatenursingdegreewriting.blogspot.com/2015/03/managing-length-of-paper.html

Original Work -Paraphrasing

http://onlinegraduatenursingdegreewriting.blogspot.com/2015/04/original-work-paraphrasing.html

Reseach in the Library

http://onlinegraduatenursingdegreewriting.blogspot.com/2015/04/research-in-library.html

Reference Page

http://onlinegraduatenursingdegreewriting.blogspot.com/2015/04/reference-page.html

Reference Page Formatting

http://onlinegraduatenursingdegreewriting.blogspot.com/2015/05/reference-page-paragraph-formatting.html



Run on sentences: How to avoid these

http://onlinegraduatenursingdegreewriting.blogspot.com/2015/05/run-on-sentences-and-how-to-avoid-these.html


Running Head

http://onlinegraduatenursingdegreewriting.blogspot.com/2015/06/running-head.html

Summary in a Paper

http://onlinegraduatenursingdegreewriting.blogspot.com/2015/06/summary-in-paper.html


Thesis Statements for MSN Course Paper

http://onlinegraduatenursingdegreewriting.blogspot.com/2015/06/thesis-statements-for-msn-course-papers.html

Title Page and Running Head for MSN papers

http://onlinegraduatenursingdegreewriting.blogspot.com/2015/06/title-page-and-running-head.html


Websites in APA style

http://onlinegraduatenursingdegreewriting.blogspot.com/2015/05/web-sites-in-apa-style.html


Write for the Reader

http://onlinegraduatenursingdegreewriting.blogspot.com/2015/07/write-for-reader.html

Title Page and Running Head for Graduate Nursing Program Writing

Another common error seen in graduate nursing program writing is the proper set up of a title page for a paper.  You can learn how to do this once for a template to use ongoing.  The following 9 minute video will help you setup a correctly formatted title page and proper headers for page one then, the a different header for the  remainder of the paper.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKWKswH29kM

The last part of the video addresses the proper way to format section level headings for a paper.

Dr. Maggie

Thesis Statements for MSN Course Papers

    

One of the ways to develop a thesis statement for papers in a Masters Program is to look at the grading criteria and develop a purpose of the paper sentence.  From that purpose statement, develop a clear sentence, which makes a claim, or states a fact for the overall topic of the paper.

For example:

The purpose of this paper is to help students learn scholarly writing. 

Thesis statement options:

Scholarly writing is not only required, but carefully scrutinized in advanced degree nursing programs.
OR
Scholarly writing is a challenge for many nurses.

As you can see, a thesis statement is really the over arching, broad based Main Point of a paper.  The remainder of the paper will address all the other literature related to the topic.Then each for each article analyze the information according to depth, breadth, advantages, disadvantages, comparisons and contrasts all related to the main topic.Finally, a summary of the paper as a whole helps to recap all the main points of each section in a paper.

By developing a strong, yet simple thesis statement, as well as a straightforward purpose of the paper sentence, whenever you feel your self “rambling”, you simply look back at these two sentences to stay focused.  You may even want to write these two sentences down and place them in front of you as you write.

Dr. Maggie

Summary in a Paper

Conclusions are different from the summary and are typically reserved for research studies or a literature review paper.  All papers need a summary of the content.  A good way to create a paper summery is to look at the main point sentences of each section in a paper and use those to craft your summary.  Use your thesis statement as your first sentence, with section main point sentences following.  Finally, add a summative sentence to wrap up the paper. 

Dr. Maggie 

Running head

APA format calls for the use of a Running head: TITLE OF PAPER  on the title page.   The header is different  on the title page from the remainder of the paper.  The remaining pages of the paper, after the title page,  require the abbreviated title of the paper in all caps.  The logistics for the creation of proper APA headers can be found on You Tube at

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1YeXF1xq84

or at http://www.apastyle.org/learn/faqs/running-head.aspx

Happy Heading!

Dr. Maggie

Reference Page “Paragraph” Formatting

The references for an APA formatted paper should use  special indentation function under Paragraph of the home tool bar..  By selecting “Hanging” as the indentation formatting for the reference page, your own references will be formatted correctly -.  See pg. 49 of the APA 6^th edition manual for how a properly formatted reference page looks. You can also go to this video for help:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuEb1RC1auw

Dr. Maggie