Writing in Nursing A Brief Guide

Writing in Nursing: A Brief Guide applies the key concepts of rhetoric and composition-audience, purpose, genre, and credibility-to examples based in nursing. It is part of a series of brief, discipline-specific writing guides from Oxford University Press designed for today's writing-intensive college courses. The series is edited by Thomas Deans (University of Connecticut) and Mya Poe (Northeastern University).

Thomas Lawrence Long, Associate Professor-in-Residence in the University of Connecticut's School of Nursing, is an affiliate in the university's English Department and in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.

Cheryl Tatano Beck, Board of Trustees Distinguished in the University of Connecticut's School of Nursing, jointly appointed in the School of Medicine's Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, is an expert in postpartum depression and other mood disorders associated with labor and delivery.

Chapter 1. Credibility, Care, and Competence in Nursing Writing
Thinking Like a Nurse: Key Concepts
Translational Science: From Bench to Bedside
Evidence-Based Practice
Writing Like a Nurse: Key Concepts
Message
Purpose
Readers
Credibility, Care, Competence
Credibility
Care
Competence
Signature Genres of Writing in Nursing
Clinical Genres: Reflective Writing and Case Studies
Academic Genres: Research Critiques and Literature Reviews
Professional Genres: Advocacy Writing, Clinical Practice Guidelines, Clinical Practice Articles, Conference Presentations

Chapter 2. Getting Started: Identifying a Clinical Problem and Evaluating the Research Literature
Step 1: Identify a Clinical Problem for a Writing Assignment
Reviewing the literature will help you focus the clinical problem
Using the right technical terminology will help you focus the clinical problem
Specifying a type or cause and a specific population will help you focus the clinical problem
Step 2: Formulate a Research Question
What?
Who?
When?
Where?
Why?
How?
Step 3: Find the evidence base
Kinds of Sources
Research Databases
Search Strategies
Step 4: Evaluate the Evidence Base
Find Gaps in the Evidence Base
Understanding Research Designs
Evaluating the Evidence

Chapter 3. Clinical Reflective Writing
What is reflective writing?
Getting Started
Evaluating reflective writing

Chapter 4. Clinical Case Studies
What is a case study?
Getting Started
Composing the Clinical Case
Title
Introduction
Description of the case
Discussion
Conclusion
References

Chapter 5. Research Critiques
What is a research critique?
Getting Started
Critiquing a Quantitative Research Article
Critiquing a Qualitative Research Article
Critiquing a Mixed-Methods Article
Moving from Critique to Generalizability and Transferability
How to Generalize Quantitative Studies to Other Populations
How to Assess Transferability of Qualitative Studies to Populations
Quantitative Critique of Generalizability
Qualitative Critique of Transferability

Chapter 6. Literature Reviews
Getting Started on the Literature Review
Choose a topic
Search databases
Narrow the general topic
Decide on inclusion criteria
Determine if retrieved literature meets inclusion criteria
Critique and summarize quantitative and qualitative studies
Make tables to summarize the research studies
Create a topic outline
Write your first draft
Consider Common Patterns for Organizing Your Findings
Revise early drafts
Organizing Your Literature Review
Guidelines for Synthesizing Studies
How to show relationships among diverse studies
How to assess conflicting findings
How to anticipate readers' objections
How to present alternatives while emphasizing your recommendation
How to craft an argument to support an implementation and evaluation plan
Going Beyond the Basics

Chapter 7. Advocacy Writing, Clinical Practice Guidelines/Articles, and Conference Proposals
What is Advocacy Writing?
Letters to the Editor
Op-Ed Essays
Clinical Practice Guidelines
Clinical Practice Articles
Conference Proposals
Submitting a proposal abstract for a conference.

Chapter 8. Thinking and Communicating Visually: Tables, Figures, Presentation Slides, and Posters
Decide when a visual is needed
Expectation
Effect
Choose the most fitting type of visual
Tables
Graphs and charts
Photographs and drawings
Present visuals in consistent, standard formats
Label
Title
Text
Ethical visual representations are also a concern
Making Effective Presentation Slides
Posters
Development of a Poster

Chapter 9. Usage and Style
Common Grammar Usage Issues
Noun/verb consistency
Noun/pronoun consistency
Vague pronoun reference
Who/whom
Plurals and possessives
Common Word Usage Issues
Subjects, participants, and populations
Punctuation
Colons
Semi-colons
Apostrophes
Quotation marks
Capitalization
Acronyms and Abbreviations
Style
Active/passive voice
Concision
Parallelism
Paragraphs and transitions
Inappropriate metonymy and personification
Avoid "I think that/I believe that"
Avoid editorializing and grandstanding

Chapter 10. Synthesizing and Citing Sources
How to Summarize and Paraphrase
Read
Condense
Represent
Summarizing
Paraphrasing
How to Position Sources into Your Explanation or Argument
Summarizing and paraphrasing what the sources say
Summarizing the consensus view
Disagreeing with sources or the consensus while explaining your disagreement
Acknowledging objections or making concessions to objections while still holding fast to your view
Integrating Sources into Your Writing
How to Cite Sources in APA Style
Citations and References by Types of Author
References by Type of Publication
Articles
Books and chapters in books
Web sites
Guidance for Other Kinds of Sources

References