APA Website Reference for Graduate Nursing Program writing

One of the most common errors I see in graduate nursing program  papers is an incorrect reference for a website.  Typically, students simply paste the URL for the site in to the reference page of a paper.  Be sure to go to p. 200 at the bottom of the APA manual 6th ed. #11 for how to format online articles. Tab this page with a label, or place the example below on your own APA tip sheet to have handy during writing.  The format is the same for journals as it is for a newspaper.

E.G. Below (this is a fictitious reference and is only for illustration purposes)

Smith, J. (2015, January 5). How to use APA formatting correctly. Journal of Community Colleges. Retrieved from http://www.JCC.net/apa/cite-a-website/manual.

Dr. Maggie

APA Mastery- Create your own “ APA Tip Sheet” for Graduate Nursing Program Writing

One of the best ways to master graduate nursing program writing  APA is to keep an example of what you find most challenging in front of you while you write.  Create your own “APA Tip Sheet” with a sample of a proper in text citations for one, two, and multiple authors, including an example of  citing multiple sources. 

Include on the APA tip sheet, a reference listing for a website; a journal article; a book; and an edited book because these are the most common references.  By creating your own APA tip sheet with this commonly used APA information you are starting the mastery process.  By referring to your tip sheet repeatedly, while writing, you have a handy list of the most common APA formatted items at the ready.  Practice makes perfect!

The video below tells how to set MS Word (2010) to default APA formatting for a paper.  On the right side of the screen you will also find numerous videos explaining many other aspects of using MS Word to create APA formatted papers such as a title page and abstract.  You tube is an excellent source of help for APA and MS Word.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pbUoNa5tyY

The site below is an index of key APA rules.  This site is terrific  be sure to bookmark/save to favorites!

http://www.apastyle.org/learn/faqs/index.aspx

This site below helps you to use APA style for any type of reference and is free –be sure to book mark/save as a favorite this page on your computer!

http://www.citationmachine.net/apa

Dr. Maggie

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