scholarly writing in nursing

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Since 2011, enrollment in Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) graduate nursing programs increased by almost 300%, suggesting that nursing had entered its “golden age.” This steep-growth trajectory reflects the concomitant growth in the number of doctoral programs, today exceeding 435 for the combined DNP and Ph.D. degrees. Unfortunately, the recent progress in advancing nurses in academic programs is hampered by a weakness in a competency crucial for nurses to complete their rigorous academic programs and disseminate research findings or evidence-based practice project interventions: academic writing proficiency . Since nursing curricula at the undergraduate level place lesser emphasis on the humanities, nursing students lack training in the liberal arts compendium of logic, grammar, and rhetoric necessary for effective and articulate communication and dissemination of knowledge in the field of nursing. Data generated from a recent national survey offers new perspectives on the pervasive problem of poor scholarly writing evidenced by students in graduate nursing programs: 97% of graduate papers contain grammatical errors, and only 13% of students demonstrate higher-order skills. While 81% of graduate program faculty ranked their own writing ability as “exceptional” or “highly proficient,” graduate faculty noted that 97% of the time, student papers evidenced numerous grammatical errors, such as flawed sentence structure, run-on sentences, punctuation errors, and ambiguous word choice. These data suggest that graduate nursing programs must pursue avenues to address student writing shortfalls.

The authors opine that the absence of action suggests that graduate nursing programs may be in a dilemma that parallels the metaphor and urban legend of the boiled frog, wherein acceptance of an unacceptable change occurs gradually through minor, unimportant, and unnoticed increments. Aimed at addressing this dilemma, the authors discuss the potential value of offering a customized writing course to refresh and improve students’ basic writing mechanics. A sample curriculum focuses on critical thinking, clarity, and logical flow. Nursing academicians must acknowledge the drift to low writing performance in their students, advance proficiency in scholarly writing to the top of the graduate nursing education’s agenda, and prepare nurses to achieve in nursing’s “golden age.”

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Common Assignments: Writing in Nursing

Although there may be some differences in writing expectations between disciplines, all writers of scholarly work are required to follow basic writing standards such as writing clear, concise, and grammatically correct sentences; using proper punctuation; demonstrating critical thought; and, in all Walden programs, using APA style. When writing in nursing, however, students must also be familiar with the goals of the discipline and discipline-specific writing expectations.

Nurses are primarily concerned about providing quality care to patients and their families, and this demands both technical knowledge and the appropriate expression of ideas (“Writing in nursing,” n.d). As a result, nursing students are expected to learn how to present information succinctly, and even though they may often use technical medical terminology (“Writing in nursing,” n.d.), their work should be accessible to anyone who may read it. Among many goals, writers within this discipline are required to:

• Document knowledge/research
• Demonstrate critical thinking
• Express creative ideas
• Explore nursing literature
• Demonstrate understanding of learning activities. (Wagner, n.d., para. 2)

Given this broad set of objectives, nursing students would benefit from learning how to write diverse literature, including scholarly reports, reviews, articles, and so on. They should aim to write work that can be used in both the research and clinical aspects of the discipline. Walden instructors often ask nursing students to write position and reflective papers, critique articles, gather and analyze data, respond to case studies, and work collaboratively on a project. Although there may be differences between the writing expectations within the classroom and those in the workplace, the standards noted below, though more common in scholarly writing, require skills that are transferrable to the work setting.

Because one cannot say everything there is to say about a particular subject, writers present their work from a particular perspective. For instance, one might choose to examine the shortage of nurses from a public policy perspective. One’s particular contribution, position, argument, or viewpoint is commonly referred to as the thesis and, according to Gerring et al. (2004), a good thesis is one that is “new, true, and significant” (p. 2). To strengthen a thesis, one might consider presenting an argument that goes against what is currently accepted within the field while carefully addressing counterarguments and adequately explaining why the issue under consideration matters (Gerring et al., 2004). The thesis is particularly important because readers want to know whether the writer has something new or worthwhile to say about the topic. Thus, as you review the literature, before writing, it is important to find gaps and creative linkages between viewpoints with the goal of contributing innovative ideas to an ongoing discussion. For a contribution to be worthwhile you must read the literature carefully and without bias; doing this will enable you to identify some of the subtle differences in the viewpoints presented by different authors and help you to better identify the gaps in the literature. Because the thesis is essentially the heart of your discussion, it is important that it is argued objectively and persuasively.

With the goal of providing high quality care, the healthcare industry places a premium on rigorous research as the foundation for evidence-based practices. Thus, students are expected to keep up with the most current research in their field and support the assertions they make in their work with evidence from the literature. Nursing students also must learn how to evaluate evidence in nursing literature and identify the studies that answer specific clinical questions (Oermann & Hays, 2011). Writers are also expected to critically analyze and evaluate studies and assess whether findings can be used in clinical practice (Beyea & Slattery, 2006). (Some useful and credible sources include journal articles, other peer-reviewed sources, and authoritative sources that might be found on the web. If you need help finding credible sources contact a librarian.)

Like other APA style papers, research papers in nursing should follow the following format: title, abstract, introduction, literature review, method, results, discussion, references, and appendices (see APA 7, Sections 2.16-2.25). Note that the presentation follows a certain logic: In the introduction one presents the issue under consideration; in the literature review, one presents what is already known about the topic (thus providing a context for the discussion), identifies gaps, and presents one’s approach; in the methods section, one would then identify the method used to gather data; and in the results and discussion sections, one then presents and explains the results in an objective manner, noting the limitations of the study (Dartmouth Writing Program, 2005). Note that not all papers need to be written in this manner; for guidance on the formatting of a basic course paper, see the appropriate template on our website.

In their research, nursing researchers use quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods. In quantitative studies, researchers rely primarily on quantifiable data; in qualitative studies, they use data from interviews or other types of narrative analyses; and in mixed methods studies, they use both qualitative and quantitative approaches. A researcher should be able to pose a researchable question and identify an appropriate research method. Whatever method the researcher chooses, the research must be carried out in an objective and scientific manner, free from bias. Keep in mind that your method will have an impact on the credibility of your work, so it is important that your methods are rigorous. Walden offers a series of research methods courses to help students become familiar with the various research methods.

Instructors expect students to master the content of the discipline and use discipline- appropriate language in their writing. In practice, nurses may be required to become familiar with standardized nursing language as it has been found to lead to the following:

• better communication among nurses and other health care providers,
• increased visibility of nursing interventions,
• improved patient care,
• enhanced data collection to evaluate nursing care outcomes,
• greater adherence to standards of care, and
• facilitated assessment of nursing competency. (Rutherford, 2008)

Like successful writers in other disciplines and in preparation for diverse roles within their fields, in their writing nursing students should demonstrate that they (a) have cultivated the thinking skills that are useful in their discipline, (b) are able to communicate professionally, and (c) can incorporate the language of the field in their work appropriately (Colorado State University, 2011).

If you have content-specific questions, be sure to ask your instructor. The Writing Center is available to help you present your ideas as effectively as possible.

Beyea, S. C., & Slattery, M. J. (2006). Evidence-based practice in nursing: A guide to successful implementation . http://www.hcmarketplace.com/supplemental/3737_browse.pdf

Colorado State University. (2011). Why assign WID tasks? http://wac.colostate.edu/intro/com6a1.cfm

Dartmouth Writing Program. (2005). Writing in the social sciences . http://www.dartmouth.edu/~writing/materials/student/soc_sciences/write.shtml

Rutherford, M. (2008). Standardized nursing language: What does it mean for nursing practice? [Abstract]. Online Journal of Issues in Nursing , 13 (1). http://ojin.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ThePracticeofProfessionalNursing/Health-IT/StandardizedNursingLanguage.html

Wagner, D. (n.d.). Why writing matters in nursing . https://www.svsu.edu/nursing/programs/bsn/programrequirements/whywritingmatters/

Writing in nursing: Examples. (n.d.). http://www.technorhetoric.net/7.2/sectionone/inman/examples.html

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Writing for Publication in Nursing

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Marilyn H. Oermann, PhD, RN, ANEF, FAAN

Designated a Doody's Core Title!

"Writing for publication is essential for disseminating nursing knowledge, and this book will surely prepare budding authors and serve as a resource for experienced authors. It is a great reference for authors at all levels." Score: 100, Five Stars

–Doody's Medical Reviews

"Teaching writing is the biggest challenge when teaching these courses including the mechanics of writing and how to organize…manuscripts. Manuscript writing is so much different than writing a paper for a grade. Students don't always appreciate the amount of time and attention to detail that a manuscript takes. [This book is] excellent. Gives the students a broad overview of writing yet includes specifics, such as how to create tables."

–Kimberly Whiteman, DNP, MSN

Waynesburg University

Praise for previous edition

This award-winning book has helped thousands of nursing students and nurses produce high quality work, with its focus on all aspects of writing for professional publication. The new fifth edition offers two-color design to enhance the reading experience, expanded coverage on selecting a journal, conducting and reporting a literature review, reporting evidence syntheses, and preparing DNP projects as manuscripts, as well as a greater variety of journal examples. A full chapter on writing research reports makes this edition particularly useful for PhD students and researchers.

Designed for nursing students in MSN, DNP, and PhD programs along with faculty and practitioners interested in disseminating their scholarship, this comprehensive resource demystifies the process of writing for publication with easy-to-follow examples and expert guidance. It leads nurses step-by-step through scholarly writing from idea to publication with clear direction for a multitude of writing formats, including case reports, editorials, chapters, books, and more. Instructor Resources include a sample course syllabus, an online course with 17 modules, and PowerPoints for each module.

New to the Fifth Edition:

• Enhanced reading experience with two-color design
• Expanded coverage of literature reviews, writing research reports and manuscripts on quality improvement, and content related to publishing DNP scholarly projects
• Types of evidence syntheses, steps to follow, and reporting guidelines
• Increased guidance on selecting a journal and open access
• Responding to peer reviews
• Greater variety of journal examples reflecting expanded publishing options

Key Features:

• Takes readers through the entire process of writing for publication from idea to completion
• Delivers strategies for conducting and writing literature reviews, research reports, evidence syntheses, quality improvement and clinical practice articles, chapters, books, and more
• Includes learner exercises to guide development of competencies in each chapter
• Offers tips for turning dissertations, DNP scholarly projects, and course assignments into manuscripts
• Details submission, editorial review, and publication processes

Contributors to the Fifth Edition

Contributors to Prior Editions

SECTION I: PREPARING TO WRITE

Chapter 1. Getting Started

Chapter 2. Selecting a Journal for Submission of a Manuscript

Chapter 3. Authorship and Preparing to Write

Chapter 4. Reviewing the Literature

SECTION II: WRITING RESEARCH, EVIDENCE SYNTHESES, CLINICAL PRACTICE, AND QUALITY IMPROVEMENT ARTICLES

Chapter 5. Research Reports

Chapter 6. Evidence Syntheses: Conducting and Reporting Reviews

Chapter 7. Clinical Practice Articles

Chapter 8. Articles Reporting Quality Improvement

SECTION III: CHAPTERS, BOOKS, AND OTHER FORMS OF WRITING

Chapter 9. Other Types of Writing

Chapter 10. Books and Book Chapters

SECTION IV: THE WRITING PROCESS

Chapter 11. Writing Process

Chapter 12.  References

Chapter 13. Tables and Figures

SECTION V: FINAL PAPER THROUGH PUBLICATION

Chapter 14. Final Paper and Submission to Journal

Chapter 15. Editorial Review Process

Chapter 16. Publishing Process

Chapter 17. Open Access Journals

APPENDICIES

Appendix A: Selected Statistical Symbols and Abbreviations

Appendix B: Web Resources for Authors, Editors, and Reviewers

Marilyn H. Oermann, PhD, RN, ANEF, FAAN , is the Thelma M. Ingles Professor of Nursing at Duke University School of Nursing, Durham, North Carolina. She is the author or coauthor of 35 books and many articles on evaluation, teaching in nursing, and studies of the nursing literature. She is the Editor-in-Chief of Nurse Educator. Dr. Oermann received the National League for Nursing (NLN) Award for Excellence in Nursing Education Research, the Sigma Theta Tau International Elizabeth Russell Belford Award for Excellence in Education, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Excellence Award, the Margaret Comerford Freda Award for Editorial Leadership in Nursing from the International Academy of Nursing Editors, and the NLN President’s Award. The NLN established an award in her honor, the Marilyn H. Oermann Award for Distinguished Research in Nursing Education, to recognize an individual or team who has generated an evidentiary base for the science of nursing education.

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• Release Date: January 17, 2023
• Paperback / softback
• Trim Size: 7in x 10in
• ISBN: 9780826178015
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• Webinar Publishing Journal Articles: Strategies for your Success

Book Title: The Scholarship of Writing in Nursing Education: 1st Canadian Edition

Authors: Jennifer Lapum; Oona St-Amant; Michelle Hughes; Andy Tan; Arina Bogdan; Frances Dimaranan; Rachel Frantzke; and Nada Savicevic

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Book Description: This open access textbook is intended to guide best practices in the journey of scholarly writing in the context of the nursing profession. This resource is designed for students in undergraduate nursing programs and may also be useful for students in other health-related post-secondary programs, graduate students, and healthcare providers. The project is supported and funded by the Ryerson University Library OER Grant.

Book Information

The Scholarship of Writing in Nursing Education: 1st Canadian Edition Copyright © 2019 by Jennifer Lapum; Oona St-Amant; Michelle Hughes; Andy Tan; Arina Bogdan; Frances Dimaranan; Rachel Frantzke; and Nada Savicevic is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Scholarly Writing and Publishing: Nursing/Health Sciences

• Biology/Life Sciences
• Nursing/Health Sciences
• Faculty Research Symposium
• JSU Writing Center

Selected Books on Writing for Publication

Below are selected electronic books held by the library. Click on the title or cover to see the book or check the online catalog for availability.

Writing Journal Articles

Predatory Publishing

• Characteristics of E-Mail Solicitations From Predatory Nursing Journals and Publishers Article from The Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing. (Must be affiliated with JSU for access.)
• How to Assess a Journal How not to publish in undesirable journals
• Predatory Publishing: Getting Start(l)ed? This guide from Rutgers University helps with Open Access publishing by helping to identify "potential non-scholarly, for profit only publishing practices, also known as predatory publishing."
• Predatory Publishing: How to Avoid Exploitative Journals Predatory Publishing: How to Avoid Exploitative Journals from the American College of Sports Medicine
• Predatory Publishing is No Joke Article from American Journal of Nursing on how unethical publishers take advantage of unsuspecting authors.
• Think Check Submit A collaborative effort from a number of scholarly communication organizations to help researchers with selecting trusted journals in which to publish.

Search Tips

Academic or scholarly writing and publishing and related subjects span several disciplines, Library floors, and subject headings. Below are just a few selected examples of Library of Congress call number ranges for browsing.

Writing in Nursing and Health Sciences: 9th Floor RT 24 Nursing- Authorship Writing: 5th Floor LB 2369 Academic Writing Academic Writing: 6th Floor PN 146 Scholarly Publishing PE 1408 Academic Writing  

Some Keyword Searches in the JaxCat catalog are:

• Academic journals writing
• Academic writing
• Writing in nursing
• Scholarly writing

Some Subject Heading Searches in the JaxCat catalog are:

• Technical writing
• Communication in science
• Technical writing--Handbooks, manuals, etc.

Resources for Wrting for Publication

• Mulford Health Sciences Library Instructions to Authors in the Health Sciences Provides links to instructions for authors for more than 6,000 journals in the health and life sciences
• Nurse Author & Editor A free quarterly online publication dedicated to nurse authors, editors and reviewers more... less... From Wiley-Blackwell
• Writing for Professional Journals (12 modules) This course is open to the public and is licensed under Creative Commons. Patricia Gonce Morton, PhD, RN, FAAN, University of Utah College of Nursing Dean, authored the content as part of a grant provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) while participating in the RWJF Executive Nurse Fellow program. more... less... From the University of Utah College of Nursing
• Writing for Publication: Step By Step This series of articles from the American Journal of Nursing takes "nurses step by step through the publication process, highlighting what gets published and why, how to submit articles and work with editors, and common pitfalls to avoid."
• Creative Commons: About the Licenses "Creative Commons helps you legally share your knowledge and creativity to build a more equitable, accessible, and innovative world."

Resources from Scholarly Writing and Publishing Presentations

• Adding Your Citations to RefWorks: 4/21/22 Detailed instructions for using RefWorks in science and health databases
• RefWorks Setup Getting started with RefWorks
• Scholarly Writing and Publishing PowerPoint slides from the Scholarly Writing and Publishing workshop on October 20, 2023
• Scholarly Writing Presentation Handout PDF handout for October 20, 2023
• Scholarly Writing and Publishing, Part 2 PowerPoint slides from the Scholarly Writing and Publishing Part 2 presentation on October 27, 2023

Where to Submit a Paper

• Elsevier Journal Finder Elsevier® Journal Finder helps you find journals that could be best suited for publishing your scientific article.
• JANE (Journa/ Author Name Estimator) JANE helps authors decide where to submit a paper or find relevant articles to cite in a paper.
• Selecting a Journal Resources to help you select a journal in which to publish your research.

Health and Sciences Librarian

Literature Reviews

Nursing Journal Lists

• Directory of Nursing Journals Compiled by Nurse Author & Editor and INANE (International Academy of Nursing Editors)
• Lippincott Nursing Center Over 70 journals listed by subject.
• << Previous: Biology/Life Sciences
• Next: Psychology >>
• Last Updated: Aug 9, 2024 11:12 AM
• URL: https://libguides.jsu.edu/scholarlywriting

Nursing Guides & Resources: Scholarly Reading & Writing

• Featured E-Resources
• Caring for Vulnerable Populations
• Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion in Nursing
• Evidence-Based Practice
• Introduction to Nursing Research
• Legal Issues in Nursing
• Mental Health and Wellness for Nurses
• Nursing Theory
• APA Formatting & Citations
• PICO Questions
• SEWS Student Resources
• Develop a Topic
• Search Methods
• Evaluating Sources
• Scholarly Reading & Writing
• Information Literacy This link opens in a new window

Scholarly Reading & Writing

Explore the critical importance of scholarly reading and writing. We delve into the significance of engaging with academic literature to deepen understanding, develop critical thinking skills, and contribute to the advancement of knowledge.

For more resources on scholarly reading, writing, and research, please visit LMU Library's Information Literacy Guide .

Reading a Scholarly Article

• While You Read
• Putting Theory into Action
• What is a Scholarly Article?
• Key Elements of a Scholarly Article
• Reading Strategies

When approaching a scholarly article, it's distinct from reading a novel, website, or newspaper piece. You're unlikely to consume it all in one sitting. Instead, view scholarly reading as an inquiry process. This means posing questions as you engage in research or study for a class. Your reading should align with your class subject, research inquiry, or thesis.

For instance, consider asking yourself:

• Does the article tie into the class theme or my own research?
• What inquiries does it resolve, or what subjects does it explore?
• Does it present unique viewpoints or fresh data?
• Are these perspectives applicable or beneficial to me?
• Can I utilize the article's content in alternative ways?
• Does it provide a useful framework for understanding my topic or inquiry (theoretical framework)?
• Do the authors employ intriguing or inventive research methods that could be pertinent to my work?
• Does it include references I could explore for further insights?

When delving into scholarly articles, mastering the art of scanning and skimming proves invaluable, especially when initiating your research or grappling with a vast amount of material. Many scholarly articles are structured to facilitate efficient scanning and skimming. When faced with an article, hone your skills by scanning the following sections (if available) and skimming their content:

• The abstract: This concise overview provides a panoramic snapshot of the article's content.
• The introduction: What topics does the research cover? What central idea or question does it address?
• The list of keywords or descriptors.
• Methods: How did the author(s) approach their inquiry or gather data?
• Section headings: Pause and skim through sections that seem pertinent.
• Figures: These visuals convey abundant information swiftly.
• The conclusion: What are the key findings or conclusions drawn in the article?

A scholarly article is a piece of academic writing authored by experts in a field, published in journals after peer review. They present original research, theories, or analyses, contributing to academic knowledge and serving as a basis for further research and discussion.

Scholarly journals are typically evaluated based on several categories to assess their quality and relevance to academic research. Some common categories for evaluating scholarly journals include:

• Peer Review : Check if experts review articles before they're published.
• Impact : Look at how often articles from the journal are cited by other researchers.
• Ranking : See how respected the journal is in its field.
• Indexing : Check if the journal is listed in big databases.
• Editorial Board : See who's in charge and if they know their stuff.
• Publication Schedule : Find out how often the journal comes out and if it's on time.
• Coverage : Check if the journal talks about the stuff you're interested in.
• Access : See if you can read articles without paying.

Understanding the key elements of a research article is crucial because it:

• Facilitates comprehension and accurate interpretation.
• Enables critical evaluation of research quality and validity.
• Enhances reading efficiency by enabling quick information retrieval.
• Improves communication about scholarly work.
• Develops essential research skills, including study design and data analysis.

Annotate Your Text:

• Approach your reading with intent.
• When scanning and skimming, wield a pen to enhance your focus.
• Utilize color for swift referencing. Experiment with highlighters or sticky notes, assigning different colors to distinct topics.
• Engage with the text by jotting down thoughts and questions in the margins as you progress.
• Leverage digital markup tools within eBook platforms or via third-party solutions like Adobe Reader or Hypothes.is.

Organize Information:

• Craft your own informal organizational system. It needn't be intricate — begin with simplicity and ensure it suits your needs.
• Compile a list of your own keywords for each article. These terms may align with crucial themes in your class or research paper.
• Record keywords on hard copies or utilize the note-taking functionalities in reference management tools such as Zotero and EndNote.
• Your keyword list and organizational system may evolve in complexity as you delve deeper into your reading.

New Vocabulary:

• Highlight unfamiliar words, terms, acronyms, or phrases. You can annotate directly on the text or create a list within a note-taking application.
• Determine whether the term is vital for comprehension at the moment or if you can defer looking it up until later while continuing to scan.

How to Write a Scholarly Article

Elements of Plagiarism

• What Is Plagiarism
• What Is Not Plagiarism
• Plagiarism and Paraphrasing
• Intentional and Unintentional Plagiarism

Plagiarism is using a source without credit.           In your academic work, you will most likely hear about plagiarism as an issue when you write papers or create projects (slides, speeches, presentations). Knowledge does not exist in a vacuum. To make a case, formulate an argument, give a summary, do an analysis -- all the things you do when you write a paper -- you rely on ideas, expressions, and quotations from those who have come before you, from outside sources. The whole point of finding and evaluating information is to use it in some way. There are accepted conventions for how to do this. The most common is citing. This means whenever you take a direct quote from a source or paraphrase an idea or argument from a source you provide a citation for it. This acknowledges that the idea is not originally yours, tells whose it is, and allows readers to follow the citation and find it themselves.           There is a cultural dimension to plagiarism as well. Here in the West we put a high value on individual genius and have all sorts of laws protecting intellectual property. We own our words, feel personally attached to them, and often take it as a personal offense if someone else takes them and passes them off as their own. In other cultures less emphasis is put on individual attribution and more on the social utility of texts and ideas and these are often shared and reused without any expectation of attribution. See for  example this article about problems with plagiarism in China . So social norms have a lot to do with what is considered appropriate use of sources. Consider this a little lesson in the norms for source use in our social context.

So that's a little bit on what plagiarism is, here is a little bit of what it is not: Common knowledge: For instance, stating that cancer is a deadly disease is an obvious fact. We all know this. You don't need to cite it. But if you say that recent research suggests that eating more kiwi will prevent cancer, you better have a source to back you up. Your ideas, expressions, and words: If you then say kiwi is delicious and you should eat it both because it tastes good and it is good for you, that is your idea, your conclusion, your expression and you obviously don't need to cite that. You are the source of your own ideas, and now someone can quote and cite you!            This may seem simple and obvious and at one level it is. But there may be times when you are not sure if something is common knowledge or not. For instance, I may mention that humans and chimpanzees share about 96% of the same DNA. Is this common knowledge or not? It may depend on your intended audience. If you are presenting to a room full of specialists in genetics, it probably is. But if you’re writing for a general audience, people who don’t necessarily know much about DNA and chimpanzees, it may not be.

          Here is a good rule of thumb: if you can easily find multiple sources for something, it’s probably common knowledge. When I do a quick Google search for “human chimp DNA” I see from the first page of results that there are many potential sources for this. Though I’d want to more carefully evaluate these sources (for instance, some 98%, some 90%), just the fact that it is so widely circulated puts it more on the common knowledge side. But when in doubt, cite it!

One of the most difficult things for many beginning writers to grasp is the difference between paraphrasing and plagiarizing. Paraphrasing is different from quoting. When you quote, you copy word for word the exact language of the source and put it in quotes so it is clear that the sentence or passage is from the outside source. Paraphrasing involves taking the idea behind the exact wording and rephrasing it to make it better fit into the flow of your own writing. When you paraphrase, you still have to cite the source, because that is where the idea came from, but you do not put it in quotes because you did not use the exact language of the original source.

It may be easier to see what paraphrasing is and is not by looking a few examples. Here is the original source:

Advertising in the media, specifically magazines, can have a huge impact on both men and women. Current scholarship suggests that the media send out the message that success in life requires attractiveness, a perfect body, money, and sexual performance. I investigated whether this is emphasized in both male and female magazines. It can be very discouraging when this perfectionism is unattainable. This in turn creates a market for those trying to fulfill desires and deal with anxieties throughout the customer's life course (Freedman).

Here is a bad paraphrase:

It can be very discouraging when the perfectionism portrayed in the media is unattainable. This in turn creates a market for those trying to fulfill desires and deal with apprehension throughout the customer's life course.

Can you see why it is not a good paraphrase? All the author did was change a few words and add a few others. The source has “It can be very discouraging when this perfectionism is unattainable.” The paraphrase has “It can be very discouraging when the perfectionism portrayed in the media is unattainable.” Adding the words bolded here does not make it a paraphrase. Nor does changing the word “anxieties” in the original to “apprehension” in the paraphrase. This is not really a paraphrase. It is either bad quoting or plagiarism. Here is another example:

When the perfectionism portrayed in the media is unattainable it can be very discouraging to women. In turn, this anxiety creates a market for those trying to fulfill desires throughout their life course.  

This one is a little better, but still a quite poor paraphrase. The author changed more than just a few words but the retained phrases which echo the language of the original source a little too closely. Here is an example of a good paraphrase:

Common observation backed by much research and scholarship all support the idea that advertising and other media outlets have a lot to do with how women and men view their own bodies. Usually, it has a negative influence. Freedman (2003) argues this then creates a market for those trying to reach an unattainable perfectionism.

Can you tell why? The author uses the main idea drawn from the original source, but has reworked the language and phrasing to fit her unique writing voice. Source:  Freedman, J. A. (2003).  Media influence on men’s and women’s self perceptions and related behaviors.  (Master’s thesis, Air Force Institute of Technology, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio). Abstract retrieved from  https://www.stormingmedia.us/58/5826/A582614.html?&lang=en_us&output=json

Plagiarism can be malicious and intentionally dishonest or, more innocently, simply ignorance. You may know the conventions and flaunt them or you may unintentionally break the rules because you don’t know what they are.

          Just as larger cultures have different practices and norms, keep in mind that different disciplines within our culture have different conventions for acknowledging sources. In general the sciences and social sciences are more strict and rigorous, demanding closer attention to how you acknowledge outside sources, while in the humanities and especially literature and artistic expression --where making indirect references to previous writers and artists can be an art form in itself-- the conventions may be looser. Intentional Plagiarism: This is the category for outright academic dishonesty. This includes having someone else write your paper for you, or downloading one off the internet, or wholesale copy-and-pasting chunks of text from a website. And this doesn’t just apply to students.  There are well-documented cases of plagiarism amongst established scholars and writers . This is just not doing your work because you’re too lazy to do it yourself. And you’re better than that, so don’t do it.

          LMU, along with most institutions of higher learning, treats intentional plagiarism as a kind of academic crime for which you will be punished (failing the assignment and/or the class). Many scholars and educators also see it as a moral issue akin to stealing and just as inherently wrong as taking something that isn’t yours.  But plagiarism isn’t necessarily just a legal or moral issue, it can also be seen as an educational problem.  Just as you always heard in grade school, you really only hurt yourself when you cheat. You don’t learn anything if you don’t struggle to find the words and do the work yourself. You come to university to learn the rules of professionalism and codes of conduct in a given discipline and as mentioned above in America and most of the West we place a high value on originality and crediting sources. The basic idea is that this is the only way new ideas and inventions and ways of doing things can come about and this can never happen if people just take from what’s already been done without adding anything new to it. Unintentional Plagiarism: This is not as bad as intentional plagiarism because you didn’t mean to do it. Nevertheless it is just as wrong, and after completing this learning unit you will no longer have the excuse that you didn’t know! This may also involve not knowing the conventions of the discipline within which you are working or writing, of when it is appropriate to cite and when you don’t need to. You will learn these conventions with time and familiarity. But again, if in doubt, cite it.

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A guide to scholarly writing in nursing

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• 1 Department of Undergraduate Studies, Pace University, Pleasantville, NY, USA.
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• A guide to scholarly writing in nursing. Daniels K. Daniels K. Imprint. 2007 Jan;54(1):8; author reply 8. Imprint. 2007. PMID: 17378395 No abstract available.

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• How original is your writing? McClelland H. McClelland H. Accid Emerg Nurs. 2006 Jul;14(3):131-2. doi: 10.1016/j.aaen.2006.05.004. Epub 2006 Jul 11. Accid Emerg Nurs. 2006. PMID: 16815015 No abstract available.
• Touch of humour much appreciated. Archie J. Archie J. Nurs N Z. 2005 Oct;11(9):3. Nurs N Z. 2005. PMID: 16529264 No abstract available.
• Writing for publication: the basics. Fahy K. Fahy K. Women Birth. 2008 Jun;21(2):86-91. doi: 10.1016/j.wombi.2007.12.005. Epub 2008 Feb 20. Women Birth. 2008. PMID: 18282754 Review.
• Citation etiquette in biomedical publications: false claim of "first reported case". Summers JB, Kaminski JM. Summers JB, et al. Comp Med. 2002 Oct;52(5):396. Comp Med. 2002. PMID: 12405630 Review. No abstract available.
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A guide to scholarly writing in nursing

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Writing for publication is often seen as an arduous, daunting task reserved mainly for those in academia. This paper represents the first author&#39;s experience over the past 2 years of working on writing papers for publication in the context of personal and academic development. The aim is to reflect on the first author&#39;s journey towards publication with the intention of encouraging nursing staff to make their work visible and validate their practice through publication. This personal journey was made easier by the encouragement, help and support of the second author, a university lecturer acting as a mentor, advisor and critical friend. This paper is also intended to assure and give courage to those who have considered writing about their practice but are reluctant to do so.

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Aims. To investigate the academic writing experiences of a group of preregistration nursing students. To explore issues surrounding how academic writing skills were developed, integrated and received into the student's educational programme and how these skills impacted on various aspects of their educational and clinical experience. The development of an academic writing style is seen to be an integral skill that the student must be willing to learn and undertake within higher education settings. Academic styles of writing have been imported into nursing education as a consequence of its integration into higher education. I wanted to investigate the experiences of learning an academic style of writing for students early on in their nursing career. There is little, if any, research that seeks to investigate or measure these experiences of nursing students. A phenomenological approach to investigate the academic writing experiences of a group of preregistration students. There is an expectation that preregistration students will quickly acquire academic writing skills when most will have had little or no prior experience. There appeared to have been little emphasis placed on facilitating the development of these skills in the educational programme. The lack of emphasis and support proved to be problematical for these nursing students. The emergence of a theory-practice divide also figured strongly. Students were, however, able to appreciate the need and place for academic writing skills and most were able to identify the structural processes that were integral to acquiring such skills. A plethora of anecdotal evidence, supported by the findings in this study, suggests that most nursing students' struggle with the demands placed upon them when writing academic assignments. The need for greater emphasis and support throughout the whole period of training are highlighted in the findings of this study. It is known that nursing loses large numbers of its students to the academic rigors of its educational programmes. Where this is the case, the findings of this study support the need for nurse educationalists and curriculum planners to revise and reform the way that they approach and deliver the demands of an academic style of writing with their students.

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Nursing Resources: Scholarly Project Planning and Writing

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Disciplinary Approaches to Composing Texts

Writing in Nursing

 by Dr. Nancyruth Leibold

Writing is a core element of nursing because it is a major form of communication. Writing in clinical records creates a record of the patient scenario.  It provides information for future health care workers to access in the provision of care. Published scholarly writing allows a medium of ideas, evidence, knowledge, and experiences to share with others in nursing (Holland & Watson, 2012). For example, a women’s health department in a hospital setting implements a practice program that advocates the use of complementary holistic approaches, such as essential oils and Reiki. The nurses in the unit develop formal procedures, policies, staff education programs, network with other health professionals and the community, and collect research evidence on the effectiveness of the holistic approaches. The results are that patients use less narcotics, report less pain, and report increased satisfaction with the health services they received. By sharing this project with others, it can serve as a solid starting point for other nurses wanting to start a similar project at their facility. By publishing an article about this project, the information is in circulation for others. This benefits the nurses, patients/families, and society as a whole to share knowledge and experiences.  

Types of writing in the field

Nurses do a variety of different types of writing. The types of writing a nurse commonly completes are dependent on the role of the nurse and setting of practice. For example, a nurse who works in the hospital will for the most part write in an electronic health record.  However, a nurse who works in clinical research will predominantly write research proposals, grants, institutional review board applications, and research reports. For this reason, nurses receive education about a wide variety of types of writing.

For nursing—the types of writing depend on the area the nurse is working. For example if the nurse is a clinical nurse in patient care, the dominant writing will be quite different from if the nurse is the Nurse Manager of a unit, or if the nurse is a Faculty Member. Since nurses have a lot of mobility in their careers—a nurse could very easily have all of these roles during their career. Therefore, literacy in all the types of writing is very helpful preparation! I have provided some labels but these are quite limited in their meaning and real life application. The following is a list of specific types of writings by nurses (labeled as most dominant, daily impact, and emerging as the field evolves):

• Scholarly journal articles (theory articles, practice articles) Emerging as the Field Evolves  
• Research manuscripts  Emerging as the Field Evolves  
• Blogs  Emerging as the Field Evolves  
• Videos  Emerging as the Field Evolves
• Virtual Simulations  Emerging as the Field Evolves
• Grants for Funding
• Annual Reports Emerging as the Field Evolves
• Quality Improvement Reports  Most Dominant
• Patient Documentation (graphics, charts, tables, narrative notes)  Most Dominant; Daily Impact
• Websites Daily Impact
• Instructions Daily Impact
• Patient/family Education Materials  Most Dominant; Daily Impact
• White Papers Daily Impact
• Political Letters to Legislators  Emerging as the Field Evolves
• Patient Care Plans Most Dominant; Daily Impact 
• Infographics/Infograms Emerging as the Field Evolves
• Electronic Posters  Emerging as the Field Evolves
• Posters Emerging as the Field Evolves
• PowerPoint Presentations  Emerging as the Field Evolves
• Prezi  Emerging as the Field Evolves
• Glogsters Emerging as the Field Evolves
• Resume/Curriculum Vitae 
• Cover letters for resume/curriculum vitae
• Abstracts Emerging as the Field Evolves
• Social media (facebook, textblasts, TV monitors) Emerging as the Field Evolves
• Smart Objectives

Writing in the classroom

Nurses work in numerous settings and roles during their career, so a baccalaureate education includes the types of writing that they may need in the workplace. During nursing school, students write to complete a number of assignments such as papers, journal writings, nursing care plans, letters to legislators, posters, and evidence-based projects. Beyond nursing school, writing is important in all settings of nursing. In clinical nursing, nurses document patient care in the health care record. Nurses also write reports and documents in committee work such as health care policies and procedures. Clinical nurses write book chapters, books, and journal articles for publication. Written communication is one way that information about the practice of nursing is disseminated with others. Nurses in management write reports, proposals, reference letters, human resource reports, and staff performance appraisals. Since nurses work in a variety of areas in society, it is important they develop various writing skills.

Advanced nursing roles required solid writing skills for success that are cultivated over time. Nurses who continue their education in graduate school will need a solid foundation in writing skills, as graduate nursing education is heavy in scholarly writing. Those who practice in nursing education will be required to acquire graduate degrees in nursing and lead others in scholarly writing. Learning how to write in the discipline of nursing involves lifelong learning. It takes time and commitment to develop effective writing skills. 

Tips for writing in the classroom

An introduction that introduces the topic and previews the main points of the writing is included in quality nursing writing. The introduction should capture the reader’s attention with an interesting aspect, such as a quote or statistic. A statistic is one technique that can signal the importance of the topic for the reader. At the end of the introductory paragraph, a thesis statement should be included. At the end of the paper, double-check the introduction with the paper to make sure the main points in the introduction match the main points in the paper. 

The last section in the writing should be a summary or conclusion. The writer should review the main points of the paper without presenting any new information. This is the last chance to make a lasting impact on the reader. After completing the conclusion, the writer should check that the main points of the paper are reviewed and whether the reader will be left with a strong impression of the key ideas or not.

Other aspects of writing in nursing include correct grammar, spelling, and organized paragraphs. The use of grammar and spelling checks can be a great check of writing. Word processors, such as the Word program have the ability to custom set the grammar checks at a higher level. There are videos at youtube.com that demonstrate how to do this, so that learners can custom set their word processor. This is a helpful strategy, as the computer program will coach the writer for development related to writing. Nurses sometimes struggle with satisfactory paragraphs because clinical patient documentation does not use paragraph format.   Writers can use a recipe to help write paragraphs. In scholarly, academic nursing papers, a fully developed paragraph is a minimum of five sentences.   The "PIE" method is one easy way to write developed paragraphs (Roger Williams University, 2016). "P" is for point, which means to start the paragraph by identifying the main point of the paragraph. In other words, it is important to write a topic sentence of the overall topic and point. "I" is for illustrate, meaning that one should illustrate the point with evidence, such as a research study description, or specific examples. Be sure to cite any sources using APA format. This part of the paragraph may be 3 or more sentences in length. Next is "E" which stands for explain. You should explain to the reader how the evidence or examples support the point of the paragraph. You should always end the paragraph with a summary sentence that points out the “so what” of the paragraph. By using correct grammar, spelling, and organized paragraphs, the nursing writer can communicate the essence in writing!

Writing Resources for Nursing Students

There are a great deal of very helpful resources for nursing students to use that can help learners develop their writing!  Some valuable sources are shared here:

• APA Format Lesson (Leibold, 2015):  https://www.softchalkcloud.com/lesson/serve/iwd87TEScX3r42/html
• A Guide to Scholarly Writing in Nursing (Hallas & Feldman, 2006) at https://www.mnsu.edu/success/tutoring/nursing_writing.pdf
• Purdue Owl APA Formatting and Style Guide (Purdue University, 2016) at https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/
• List of Nursing Resources at the Purdue Owl (Purdue University, 2016) at https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/1012/03/
• Writing as a Professional Nurse (Purdue University, 2016) at https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/owlprint/922/

Nursing: Disciplinary Perspective

Documentation in Nursing

Research in Nursing

Reading in Nursing

• Introduction to the Text
• Writing is Important in your Major
• Advice from Students
• Making Your Writing Work: Ethos & Commonplaces
• Professional Associations
• Scholarship as Conversation
• Genres and Finding Sources
• Genres, Metagenres, and the Rhetorical Situation
• Analyzing Scholarly, Trade, and Popular Sources
• Library Research Overview
• Introduction To Research
• Research Process
• Choosing a Topic
• Determining Genres
• Trouble Finding Sources
• Videos Overview
• Special Education
• Annotated Writing Samples
• Agricultural Education Overview
• Documentation
• Scholarly Writing Sample
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• Computer Science Overview
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Writing in Nursing

Writing as a Student

Ely, C., Nicol, M., & Scott, I. (2007). Essential study skills for nursing . Mosby/Elsevier.

Garrard, J. (2017). Health sciences literature review made easy: The matrix method (5th ed.). Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett.

Gimenez, J. (2011). Writing for nursing and midwifery students . Palgrave Macmillan.

Lang, T. (2010). How to write, publish, and present in the health sciences: A guide for clinicians and laboratory researchers. Philadelphia, PA: American College of Physicians.

Scullion, P., & Guest, D. (2007). Study skills for nursing and midwifery students. Open University Press.

Roush, K. (2015). A nurse's step-by-step guide to writing your dissertation or capstone. Indianapolis: Sigma Theta Tau International.

Taylor, D.B. (2014). Writing skills in nursing and health care: A guide to completing successful theses and dissertations. London: Sage.

Whitehead, E., & Mason, T. (2008). Study skills for nurses (2nd ed.) London: Sage.

Witte, F. (2003). Basic grammar and usage for medical communicators . Rockville, MD: American Medical Writers Association.

Writing in Nursing : Resources to help nursing students with writing from Purdue OWL.

Literature Searching for Nursing Students : A bibliography of articles on researching and writing literature reviews in nursing, compiled by the Nursing and Allied Health Resource Section of the Medical Library Association.

Writing for Publication

Nurse Author & Editor : A free online journal with articles on writing manuscripts, editing, publishing, and avoiding rejection. Volume 19.2 (March 2009), for example, contains articles on converting a poster into a paper and on writing a PhD proposal. This page lists all of the articles written for authors (as opposed to publishers or editors). See also their free e-book, listed below. Note: You will need to register with the website to view articles.

Webb, C. (2008). Writing for publication . Wiley-Blackwell. A free e-book posted on Nurse Author & Editor’s website that covers writing for publication; writing review articles, clinical articles, and research papers; presenting tables and figures; publishing a thesis; writing style; finishing touches such as the abstract; impact factor; and copyright.

Fondiller, S. (1999). The writer’s workbook: Health professionals’ guide to getting published (2nd ed.). New York: Jones & Bartlett.

Oermann, M. H. (2016). Writing for publication in nursing (3rd ed.). Philadelphia: Lippincott Press.

Saver, C. (2017). Anatomy of writing for publication for nurses (3rd ed.). Indianapolis, IN: Sigma Theta Tau International.

Writing on the Job

Turnbul, A. (2001). Plain words for nurses: Writing and communicating effectively . London: The Foundation of Nursing Studies.

Writing to Get a Job

Nursing Samples and Resources : Examples of resumes, cover letters, thank-you letters and interview questions, by and for nurses at the University of California, San Francisco.

Resources for International Students

Allum, V., & McGarr, P. (2008). Cambridge English for nursing: Intermediate. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Bosher, S. D. (2008). English for nursing, academic skills (2nd ed.). Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. (for advanced English learners)

Graf, J. (2008). Handbook of biomedical research writing . Hanyang University Online Writing Lab. Written for Korean scientists in the biomedical sciences, this handbook covers writing journal article and clinical case reports.

McCullagh, M., & Wright, R. (2008). Good practice: Communication skills in English for the medical practitioner . Cambridge: CUP.

Ribes, R., & Ros, P. R. (2006). Medical English . Springer: New York.

Quann, S., & Satin, D. (2007). Project care: Health care case studies, multimedia, and projects for practicing English . Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.

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• v.4(4); 2017 Oct

Writing self‐efficacy in nursing students: The influence of a discipline‐specific writing environment

Kim m. mitchell.

1 Nursing Department, School of Health Sciences and Community Services, Red River College, Winnipeg, MB, Canada

2 College of Nursing, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada

Tom Harrigan

Diana e. mcmillan.

To explore if writing self‐efficacy improved among first‐year nursing students in the context of discipline‐specific writing. The relationship between writing self‐efficacy, anxiety and student grades are also explored with respect to various learner characteristics such as postsecondary experience, writing history, English as a second language status and online versus classroom instruction.

A one group quasi‐experimental study with a time control period.

Data was collected over the 2013–2014 academic year at orientation, start of writing course and end of writing course.

Writing self‐efficacy improved from pre‐ to post writing course but remained stable during the time control period. Anxiety was negatively related to writing self‐efficacy but remained stable across the study period. Inexperienced students and students with less writing experience, appeared to over‐inflate their self‐assessed writing self‐efficacy early in the programme. This study gives promising evidence that online and classroom delivery of instruction are both feasible for introducing discipline specific writing.

1. INTRODUCTION

Self‐efficacy is a concept that has received an enormous amount of attention since the development of Bandura's theory (1977) but exploring self‐efficacy from the perspective of writing has received sparse consideration. Self‐beliefs are thought to predict academic success and influence career choices and self‐efficacy may be a better predictor of performance than actual ability (Pajares & Valiante, 2006 ). In nursing, scholars are only beginning to discuss the role of writing self‐efficacy and its relation to student success (Miller, Russell, Cheng, & Skarbek, 2015 ; Mitchell, Harrigan, Stefansson, & Setlack, 2017 ) and more research is required to inform this important educational discussion.

Writing self‐efficacy (WSE) can be defined as a writer's belief about their ability to write in a specific context. Bandura's self‐efficacy theory, emphasizes that context critically influences self‐efficacy perceptions (Bandura, 1997 ). Discipline‐specific writing instruction has been acknowledged as the preferred method for introducing students to nursing's unique discourse through allowing opportunities to practice higher level thinking strategies such as critical analysis. (Andre & Graves, 2013 ; Luthy, Peterson, Lassetter, & Callister, 2009 ; Oermann et al., 2014 ) However, empirical testing of this relationship is lacking likely because so few discipline‐specific writing courses are offered in nursing curriculums. Andre and Graves ( 2013 ), who investigated the nature of writing instruction in nursing programmes in Canada, identified that only 6% of programmes included a discipline‐specific course. Close to half of programmes had no required writing course and the remainder required a generic writing course, an English literature course, or both. Thus, research evidence is required to establish the benefits of discipline‐specific writing.

The purpose of the present investigation was to explore, via quasi‐experimental methods, if WSE improved among first‐year nursing students in the context of discipline‐specific writing in one college baccalaureate nursing programme. The relationship between WSE, anxiety and student grades are also explored with respect to various learner characteristics including, past postsecondary educational experience, writing history, English as a second language (ESL) status and online versus classroom instructional environment.

2. BACKGROUND

Nursing student populations have been the focus of inquiry in two studies: Miller et al. ( 2015 ), who explored writing in a cohort of post‐RN students near the end of their programme in a discipline‐specific environment and Mitchell et al. ( 2017 ), who described WSE and anxiety in first‐year nursing students pre and post a discipline‐specific writing course. Thus, given the limited research in nursing on discipline‐specific writing, this literature review will take the approach of an interdisciplinary examination of writing self‐efficacy as it relates to writing performance assessment, improvement in WSE pre‐ to post intervention or course specific strategy and the relationship between WSE and anxiety.

2.1. Writing performance

WSE's relationship with writing performance has received attention from various researchers as it correlates with or predicts student grades. A variety of writing activities have been used to define writing performance including on‐demand essays of 30‐minutes or less (Pajares & Johnson, 1994 ; Shell, Murphy, & Bruning, 1989 ; Woody et al., 2014 ), final grades or grade point average (Goodman & Cirka, 2009 ; Martinez, Kock, & Cass, 2011 ; Williams & Takaku, 2011 ; Zimmerman & Bandura, 1994 ), computer scored essays (Jones, 2008 ), scaffolded writing assignments and/or papers across a term (Miller et al., 2015 ; Woodrow, 2011 ) and complete essays (MacArthur, Philippakos, & Graham, 2016 ; Mitchell et al., 2017 ; Prat‐Sala & Redford, 2012 ; Sanders‐Reio, Alexander, Reio, & Newmann, 2014 ).

WSE, using various measurement instruments, has only partially been able to predict writing performance in most studies, usually predicting less than 10% of variance in grades (Prat‐Sala & Redford, 2012 ; Shell et al., 1989 ), with some studies finding a negligible relationship (Jones, 2008 ; MacArthur et al., 2016 ) and only one researcher identifying a “powerful effect” in a population of Chinese students learning to write in English (Woodrow, 2011 ). Differences in findings may be due to inconsistent methods of assessing performance or to the remote proximity of the WSE measurement to the evaluation of the writing outcome (Pajares & Johnson, 1994 ).

The study by Williams and Takaku ( 2011 ) compared ESL and non‐ESL students in terms of help seeking and writing performance. These authors found that ESL students scored lower than domestic students at the beginning of their freshman year but eventually outperformed domestic students by the end of their sophomore year. Higher self‐efficacy predicted writing centre use and writing centre use became the mediator between WSE and the grade the student ultimately achieved.

2.2. Writing self‐efficacy improvement from pre‐ to postwriting course

Among researchers who assessed change in WSE from pre‐ to postwriting course (Goodman & Cirka, 2009 ; Jones, 2008 ; MacArthur et al., 2016 ; Miller et al., 2015 ; Mitchell et al., 2017 ; Van de Poel & Gasiorek, 2012 ; Woody et al., 2014 ; Xu, Park, & Baek, 2011 ) all identified a statistically significant improvement in WSE. Given that each of these studies explored different populations using a variety of instructional strategies and different instruments to measure WSE, the consistency of this finding is evidence that WSE can be successfully influenced with positive instruction. Mitchell et al. ( 2017 ), providing a course design example, described the role of the instructor in the scaffolding process as including but not limited to anxiety control, simplifying the task demand, providing feedback, ensuring students stay on task and on the specific focus of the assignment, reviewing outlines or drafts of papers and providing models of successful student past writing efforts for current students to follow. Literature describing scaffolding as an instructional model also emphasizes the importance of an instructor “stance” that supports a collaborative instructor–student relationship (Benko, 2013 ).

2.3. The relationship between writing self‐efficacy and anxiety

One instructor role in writing instruction would be to normalize and alleviate writing anxiety. Writing anxiety is a common emotional response to writing tasks no matter the experience level of the writer (Zimmerman & Bandura, 1994 ). Anxiety, assessed using various measures (Martinez et al., 2011 ; Mitchell et al., 2017 ; Woodrow, 2010) and writing apprehension, assessed using Daly and Miller's writing apprehension scale (Goodman & Cirka, 2009 ; Pajares & Johnson, 1994 ; Sanders‐Reio et al., 2014 ) were the most common methods of assessing the emotional arousal component of self‐efficacy theory. Pajares and Johnson described writing apprehension as a form of writing anxiety. Correlations between apprehension or anxiety and WSE are consistently negative regardless of measurement tool used (Martinez et al., 2011 ; Mitchell et al., 2017 ; Pajares & Johnson, 1994 ; Sanders‐Reio et al., 2014 ). Through use of statistical modelling, researchers have demonstrated that anxiety's role in influencing academic performance is mediated through self‐efficacy (Goodman & Cirka, 2009 ; Martinez et al., 2011 ; Woodrow, 2011 ). Evaluation of change in apprehension from pre‐ to post writing course has been inconsistent with some authors identifying a statistically significant improvement in apprehension in pre‐ to post course methods (Goodman & Cirka) and others finding that apprehension remains constant even when self‐efficacy shows improvement (Pajares & Johnson).

3. THE STUDY

3.1. participants.

Participants in this study either directly enrolled in the Baccalaureate nursing programme (minimum entry requirement: 60% average in prerequisite courses) or entered through a college preparation programme designed to help mature students update their educational prerequisites. All 192 students registered in three sections of the required course “Scholarly Writing” were eligible to participate. Course sections were offered in both the first and second term of the 2013–2014 academic year. From 192 students, 132 participants (68.8%) provided useable data for analysis. Of the participating students, 27 (20.5%) were enrolled in an online‐only section offered in the first term of the nursing programme, 35 (26.5%) were in an online section in the second term of the programme and 70 (53.0%) were in a second term classroom section.

From the original 192 possible participants, 60 students failed to return sufficient questionnaires (31.2%). An assessment of paper percent grade, using an independent t test, comparing participants (mean = 69.85, SD = 18.10) to non‐participants (mean = 56.71, SD 23.88) found significantly lower grades in non‐participants , t (187) = 3.72, p  <   .001. A similar significant difference was observed between participants (mean = 5.85, SD 12.97) and non‐participants (mean = 64.48, SD = 19.40) on final percentage grade, t (187) = 4.05, p  <   .001.

3.2. Design

The study employed a one‐group quasi‐experimental pre‐test/posttest design with a time‐control period in the term prior to participation. A time‐control was added to rule out possible changes in WSE and anxiety unrelated to participating in a writing course. Figure  1 outlines the study groups that emerged given the varying degrees of participation of students in the context of collecting data over two academic terms in various course sections. Because a time‐control period was not possible for the students registered in the online section offered in the first term of the programme, these students were included as “experiment‐only” participants ( n  =   30)—three additional participants in this group were students in the other sections who did not return the first questionnaire.

Study groups and context of participation over three measurement time points. Data was collected at T1 (T2 for online term 1 participants) during their first year orientation. T2 data was delivered and collected during the first classroom session for the classroom group and by email for the online group. T3 questionnaires were delivered and returned by email for all groups

3.3. Ethical approval and study procedures

Ethical approval was obtained from the Research Ethics Board at the instructional institution. Informed consent was secured by presenting all participants with a letter attached to the front of a questionnaire package following a presentation about the study during their first‐year orientation (T1). Return of questionnaire was considered consent to participate. Bonus marks, amounting to 2% of the final grade, were offered to students as a reward for participation to help reduce attrition. The pre‐course questionnaire (T2) was distributed on the first day of class for the second term online section and requested by email from the second term online students.

The post course questionnaire (T3) was requested via email from all students following completion of the academic paper assignment but prior to grades being released. This timing was chosen to avoid having student's knowledge of grading and feedback as an influencing factor on their internalized perception of their WSE. Students who did not return the post course questionnaire were included as “time‐control only” participants ( n  =   36). The main analysis was performed on students who completed all three questionnaires, referred to as “full participants” ( n  =   66). Online or classroom course section enrolment was self‐selected, however, students in the second term groups were given the general advice to choose the online section only if they felt confident with their writing skills. Students in the first term online section were required to have completed course credits in at least two other first term courses as this section was only added to decrease the class size for second term.

3.3.1. Scholarly writing course description and environment

The course was developed using scaffolding strategies (Benko, 2013 ; Gazza & Hunker, 2012 ; Vanderburg, 2006 ). A complete description of the course learning outcomes and instructional strategies has been presented elsewhere (Mitchell et al., 2017 ). The main outcome of the course required students to produce a final academic paper worth 60% of their final grade. The instructor provided three to five topic choices. First term students chose from topics such as binge drinking, victim blaming and energy drinks. The second term groups chose from narcotics addiction in health care workers, immunizations, kids and electronic devices, cyber bullying and healthy relationships.

3.4. Measures

3.4.1. self‐efficacy scale for academic writing.

The Self‐Efficacy Scale for Academic Writing (SESAW) was designed by the first author of this study. The SESAW is a 10‐item 4‐point Likert scale with response options ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree. Scale items are presented in Mitchell et al. ( 2017 ). Cronbach's alpha for the SESAW was assessed as .82–.85 for this study and .85–.90 for a previous cohort. Concurrent comparisons with the General Self‐Efficacy Scale (Schwarzer & Jerusalem, 1995 ) were .50 and .53 at pre‐test and posttest, respectively, in previous use.

3.4.2. State‐trait anxiety inventory

The STAI is a two‐part questionnaire measuring anxiety as a stable personality trait (trait anxiety) and as a result of transitory anxiety producing circumstances (state anxiety) (Spielberger, 1983 ). The STAI has demonstrated acceptable reliability and validity in nursing and education populations. In college students, the test‐retest scores for the trait scale are reported to be .73–.86 but proved less stable in the state scale ranging from .16–.62, which, according to Spielberger, was expected because the state scale should be sensitive to situational factors on a given day. Cronbach's alpha is reported at greater than 0.90 in both scales in a college student population (Spielberger).

3.4.3. Grammar and APA knowledge test

This researcher designed knowledge test was created to assess improvement in recognition of errors in grammar and American Psychological Association (APA) style guide usage. The 10 questions were formatted as written statements that contained one error, or no errors. Errors in punctuation and spelling were not included. Error types included: use of & rather than “and” in an unbracketed APA citation with two authors; two examples where no page number or paragraph number was included with a direct quotation; a then/than grammar error; a sentence fragment; a date separated from its author in citation; two examples involving a word misuse of your/you're or its/it's; and two correct statements. Risk taking was rewarded in the scoring strategy. An unanswered question scored 0, a correct answer scored 2 and an incorrect or partially correct answer scored 1, for a total possible test score of 20. Participants were not informed of the scoring process for this knowledge test.

3.4.4. Assessment of writing

The two course instructors graded the scholarly paper assignments in the first term students. The second term sections required seven graders, including the two course instructors. The department chair assigned five additional markers, who were also classified as instructors in the nursing programme, to assist with the process. These five graders were all provided with the same training by the first author as to how to use the rubric found in Table  1 . A printed instruction sheet was supplied to all graders to help ensure consistency. The two course instructors (including the first author) were available for consultation during the process of grading as required and the first author completed a spot check of each external grader to assess for consistency.

Rubric for grading scholarly paper assignment a

3.5. Analysis

Data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 22.0. Statistical tests performed are identified in the results section. Power was calculated for the main effect of change in self‐efficacy in the full‐participant group using an effect size of .5 and alpha of .05. For this study a sample size of 63 would yield a power of greater than 98%.

The demographic characteristics of the sample are presented in Table  2 for the total sample and by study group. One‐way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) failed to identify any statistically significant demographic differences based on study participation level other than the experimental‐only group was significantly younger ( p  =   .042). Table  3 describes the sample by mean grades, SESAW, APA and grammar score and STAI scores at all three time points. No statistically significant differences were noted between the three study groups, using t tests or ANOVA, except in final course percentage grade where the time‐control only group achieved the lowest final grades.

Demographic characteristics of the sample by participation group

Grades, SESAW, APA and grammar and STAI scores by participation group at all time points

4.1. Change over time

Table  4 presents the results of the time effect on the key study variables using repeated measures ANOVA or dependent t tests. In the full participant group, as expected, SESAW scores were statistically non‐significant in the control period but significantly improved from pre‐ to post course ( p  <   0.001). SESAW scores did not achieve statistical significance in either the control‐only participants or the experiment‐only participants during the study period. There was no change in either state or trait anxiety at any time period in any of the three groups. APA and grammar knowledge improved significantly and were different at all three time periods in full participants ( p  <   0.001) and also improved in the time control‐only group ( p  =   0.03) and the experimental‐only group ( p  <   0.001).

Change in SESAW, APA and grammar knowledge and STAI scores across three time points by participation group

4.2. Correlations between SESAW and anxiety

Pearson's r calculated negative correlations, as expected, between SESAW and both state and trait anxiety with the exception of state anxiety at T3. Using Pearson's r , correlations with SESAW at T1 were r  = −.33 ( p  <   .001) for state anxiety and r  = −.24 ( p  <   0.05) for trait anxiety. At T2, SESAW negatively correlated with state anxiety, r  = −.48 ( p  <   .001) and trait anxiety, r  = −.53 ( p  <   0.001) and at T3 these negative relationships were maintained with state, r  = −.17 (n.s.) and trait, r  = −.23 ( p  <   0.05).

4.3. Correlations between SESAW and paper and final percentage grades

As expected, using Pearson's r, both paper and final percentage grades were uncorrelated with SESAW measures more remote from their writing performance at T1 (paper percent r  = −0.004, p  = n.s.; final grade percent r  =   0.04, p  = n.s.) and T2 (paper percent r  =   0.04, p  = n.s.; final grade percent r  =   0.07, p  = n.s.) but achieved a statistically significant correlation at the SESAW measure most proximal to their performance at T3 (paper percent r  =   .24, p  <   0.05; final grade percent r  =   .25, p  <   0.05).

4.4. Online versus classroom instruction

The study hypothesis predicted no differences between the online and classroom experience in terms of grades, APA and grammar test scores and STAI and this hypothesis was observed in the data with the notable exception of final course grade. Using independent t tests, final percentage grade differences between the first term online section (mean   = 80.66, SD = 9.33), the second term online section (mean = 72.84, SD 13.09) and the second term classroom section (mean = 75.49, SD 13.73) grades were non‐significant by ANOVA, F (2,129) = 2.90, p  =   0.058, but post hoc tests identified a significant difference between the two online groups ( p  =   0.048). The SESAW was expected to be higher in the second term section of online students because students were guided to choose this section based on their self‐assessed confidence in writing. As expected, independent t tests showed SESAW at T1 to differ between the second term classroom (mean = 27.95, SD 3.44) and online sections (mean = 29.52, SD 3.26), t (96) = −2.16, p  =   0.033.

4.5. Education prior to nursing admission

Students entering the programme with only high school entry credits fared the worst in terms of their paper and final percentage grades but did not correspondingly differ on SESAW, APA and grammar test, or the STAI scores. This was an expected finding. ANOVA compared the paper percentage grades in high school entry students (mean = 59.83, SD 23.45) with students with previous degrees or diplomas (mean = 74.98, SD 16.79) as well as students with some postsecondary experience (mean = 69.05, SD 16.78) F (2, 128) = 4.36, p  =   0.015. This pattern mostly held when examining final percentage grades where high school entry students (mean = 67.11, SD 16.13) had lower grades than those with degrees or diplomas (mean = 80.32, SD 11.30) or some postsecondary experience (mean = 75.17, SD 12.22), F (2, 128) = 6.67, p  =   0.002. Post hoc Tukey test targeted that difference as being between high school entry and previous degrees for both paper ( p  =   0.012) and final ( p  =   0.001) percent grades. In addition, the findings neared significance between high school entry and some postsecondary education for final grades ( p  =   0.053).

4.6. ESL status and past writing experience

As hypothesized, independent t tests showed no differences between students who self‐declared English as their second language and those who did not with respect to paper and final percent grades, SESAW, STAI and APA and grammar knowledge. A similar lack of significant difference was observed when the assessment compared those reporting less writing experience to those reporting more writing experience.

5. DISCUSSION

This study is unique in the body of literature examining WSE for several reasons. First, it examines WSE both pre and post a course with efficacy‐building scaffolded instructional methods and rules out the possibility of a maturation effect during a control time period where no academic writing was required. Second, it compares online and classroom instructional environments. Third, it examines WSE in self‐identified ESL and non‐ESL students, which has important implications for the instruction of writing in diverse student groups including international students. Fourth, it contributes valuable information for consideration when establishing admission policies, because nursing students direct out of high school struggle with the academic writing demands required to achieve passing grades.

As expected, WSE remained stable during the time control period when no writing was required and improved from pre‐ to postcourse in full study participants. In the experimental‐only group WSE improved but was not statistically significant. Failure to find significance in this latter group may have occurred for two possible reasons. First, the sample size was small with only 30 students in this portion of the analysis. Second, the initial WSE measure on this group was taken without a time control preceding their student experience. This group would have been responding to the first questionnaire, unaware of the nursing writing context and academic rigour of nursing education and this may have contributed to an over inflation of their initial self‐reported WSE giving little room for statistical improvement. Prat‐Sala and Redford ( 2012 ) made a similar observation in their first‐year psychology cohort. However, given that term one online students ultimately demonstrated a high degree of academic skill achieving the highest course final grades, their high WSE may have been justified.

Anxiety and WSE were negatively correlated as expected matching the findings of others when using writing apprehension or anxiety as the emotional arousal factor (Martinez et al., 2011 ; Mitchell et al., 2017 ; Pajares & Johnson, 1994 ; Sanders‐Reio et al., 2014 ). Surprisingly, anxiety did not change as a result of participating in the scholarly writing course. This finding is similar to the resilience in writing apprehension observed by Pajares and Johnson ( 1994 ). In this study, because anxiety was measured with the STAI, the STAI may have not been specific enough to writing anxiety and students may have answered the questions while envisioning their more general academic anxieties.

The APA/Grammar knowledge test produced some interesting trends in student knowledge of these writing tasks because participants demonstrated improvement of their knowledge during the control period (unexpected) as well as pre‐ to post course (expected). The improvement in scores from the beginning to the end of the control period was unexpected because students were not taking any writing instruction, completing formalized writing assignments, or being asked to apply APA style during the control phase. The noted improvement during the control period is more likely due to scoring the test by rewarding risk taking responses. By the end of their first term of study, students were more likely to guess at questions they were unsure of answers for—a trait related to learning effective test taking strategies. In addition, course readings in nursing may have exposed them to the patterns of APA in published textbooks and journals.

The most concerning but, perhaps, not surprising finding with respect to writing performance was that students who entered the programme without any previous postsecondary experience achieved the lowest writing course and paper grades while reporting similar WSE and anxiety at all measurement periods. Walsh, Prokos, and Bird ( 2014 ) noted that it is not unusual for inexperienced students to overestimate their capabilities in contexts where writing complexity and the demands of evaluators are unknown. This explanation also rationalizes the failure to find significance between students who self‐reported extensive past writing experience compared with those with little or remote past writing experience. Those who reported little writing experience likely had overestimated their WSE. Self‐evaluation is not likely to be accurate when little frame of reference is present for the experience. Context of writing is critical to accurate WSE measurements (Pajares & Johnson, 1994 ).

5.1. Online writing instruction

This study provides preliminary evidence that writing can be successfully taught in an online environment to generic baccalaureate nursing students. The online and classroom sections in second term only differed in terms of WSE at T1 with the online group reporting higher WSE. This difference is likely an indication that students heeded advice in section selection to choose the online version of the course only if they felt comfortable with their writing ability. Paradoxically, the second term online group ultimately achieved the lowest average final percent grades in the course indicating there may have been a mismatch between their self‐reported WSE and their writing ability. An overinflated sense of self‐efficacy in relation to grades, in some students, has also been observed by other authors (Williams & Takaku, 2011 ). The second term online students may have found themselves weaker in self‐regulatory skills to independently stay on pace with course materials (e.g. avoidance of the course in face of a heavy second term course load). However, because paper percentage grades did not differ significantly in this group when compared with the other sections, this is an indication that their final grades were lower as a result of poor quality of or failure to submit the other weekly assignments that contributed to their final grade. This pattern may be evidence that the second term online students did not attend to the course materials all that closely without having weekly class attendance to keep them accountable. By contrast, the first term online group had the highest final grades. This pattern may be an indication that student self‐selection of course section and previous college course credits prior to admission (required for admission to the first term online course) had a greater impact on grades in these online environments than WSE or anxiety levels. Some authors have suggested WSE instruments may be useful tools to guide course placement (Zimmerman & Bandura, 1994 ), however, if beginning students are prone to overinflate their sense of WSE, using the tool to place students in sections may not have the desired effect of appropriately grouping students by writing ability when disciplinary requirements and rigour are unknown to the student.

5.2. ESL status, WSE and writing performance

Identifying no differences between self‐declared ESL students and non‐ESL student in writing self‐efficacy, anxiety and grades was an important finding and similar to the results reported in Williams and Takaku ( 2011 ). Nursing instructors must be careful to not assume that ESL students are worse writers than their domestic counterparts, or overly scrutinize their work for errors because they are known ESL students.

5.3. Practical implications for teaching writing

5.3.1. scaffolding.

Similar to an earlier study in this population (Mitchell et al., 2017 ), the results of this study contribute additional knowledge that scaffolding writing assignments in an introductory discipline‐specific writing course can enhance writing ability and WSE. Miller et al. ( 2015 ), in the only other published study examining WSE in nursing students, also used a scaffolding method of structuring their writing assignments. Their population was different from this study and from Mitchell et al. ( 2017 ) in that they explored nurse‐to‐degree students late in their nursing programme. Scaffolding combines two parallel processes: (i) structuring assignments so that they are completed in progressive stages over a term (Walsh et al., 2014 ) and, (ii) instructor involvement, where the instructor or the tutor act as the scaffold in the writing process, slowly withdrawing support as writers become more independent (Benko, 2013 ; Gazza & Hunker, 2012 ; Mackiewicz & Thompson, 2014 ).

Leveling assignments within a course and across a curriculum is achieved by increasing the complexity of written assignments. This approach requires the student to progressively demonstrate abilities in Bloom's taxonomy to first, summarize and describe and then synthesize, critically analyze and evaluate topics they are investigating (Gazza & Hunker, 2012 ). This process of reducing a major writing project into manageable relevant pieces may contribute to students being able to advance their thinking to higher levels of Bloom's taxonomy (Luthy et al., 2009 ). In the course described here, this process involved short writing assignments which began with reflection and then requested students summarize one source, followed by two more writing exercises where they were asked to synthesize two and then three sources on the same topic. Scaffolding also occurred in the scholarly paper assignment. The course prescripted a schedule which had students complete the major elements of the assignment in stages, first choosing their topic, searching for supporting research, learning to make notes from their sources and develop an outline and then writing and editing a rough draft in preparation for submission for grading (Mitchell et al., 2017 ).

5.3.2. Instructor influence

While scholars who discuss writing instruction in nursing agree that writing is important to critical thinking skills, reasoning and career trajectories, we agree with Miller et al.'s ( 2015 ) conclusion that writing competency in many nursing programmes is assumed rather than taught. But because writing skills develop slowly, a single discipline‐specific course is not sufficient to develop proficient writers. All instructors who include a writing assignment as an evaluation criterion in a course must consider themselves writing instructors. Instructor involvement includes teaching course content in such a way that it connects the writing assignment to prior learning and future needs (Benko, 2013 ).

The scholarly writing course requires a tremendous number of instructor hours to implement successfully with large classes. Instructors must be comfortable with their knowledge of the writing process and their ability to give advice and feedback to students in a writing process framework for benefits to be observed. Scaffolding in courses is effective for any type of writing assignment but must include the critical elements of ensuring an appropriate challenge, allowing for student choice to increase engagement with writing and providing students with the opportunity to say something of their own, all contained in a caring classroom environment where instructors can show interest in student's writing ideas (Benko, 2013 ).

5.4. Study limitations

While this study successfully demonstrated that a discipline‐specific scholarly writing course using scaffolding as an instructional method can improve WSE in first year nursing students, the study does have some limitations. First, the original proposal for this study intended to compare this cohort of nursing students to another group of students in the college environment who were required to complete a significant academic writing assignment without the benefit of writing instruction, however, discussions with instructors in other programmes identified that all courses were providing too much writing support to function as a true control. While the time control period enhances confidence that the scholarly writing course positively affected WSE levels, a comparison group would have been an additional strength. Second, the bonus marks for participation were included in an attempt to curb attrition from the study, however, attrition remained high and was concentrated among students who achieved the lowest grades. Thus these results cannot be generalized to students who demonstrate poor writing performance.

5.5. Areas for future research

While this study successfully demonstrated that WSE can improve early in a nursing programme when assessed in the context of discipline‐specific writing, the empirical relationship between WSE and its role in student performance remains tenuous. In part, this is due to the difficulty in consistently assessing and scoring writing performance. The successful measurement of writing performance and detecting improvements in writing performance over time, requires similar writing assessment activities in a given course. For example, in this study, a second three‐page academic paper would have needed to be assigned early in the study—a requirement that would have put tremendous burden on both the students and the course instructors/graders. In addition, requiring a second intensive writing assignment early in a course prior to writing instruction would have likely produced high anxiety and some academically disastrous results for some students. One possible solution would be to explore the changes in drafts of the same assignment over a term.

This study used a brief grammar and APA test which was not to be considered an assessment of writing performance. It is generally well accepted among writing experts and theorists that good grammar (and application of APA format) does not equate to good writing as it is far too limiting a criterion to be a parallel assessment for performance. It may be argued that using a substitute writing assessment such as an in‐class essay is also not an adequate assessment of writing performance as it denies the student the opportunity to research, reflect, polish and be creative in their writing approach. These spontaneous essays are not a mirror for the kinds of assignments we require of students with the goal toward improving critical thinking, learning the discourse of a discipline, or creating a synthesis of knowing.

Miller et al. ( 2015 ) were likely correct in exploring changes in different sub‐components of writing performance (e.g. organization, sentence fluency, voice, or ideas), rather than exploring performance in a more global fashion such as grades or GPA, in their search for improvement over time. Williams and Takaku ( 2011 ) have suggested that the relationship between WSE and performance is likely mediated by student choices in help seeking for their writing. This study provides support for the idea that past writing experience (and more specifically, previous postsecondary experience) likely has a strong influence on writing performance in the form of grade earned in an assignment or course. But given that both experienced and inexperienced students reported similar WSE levels, this study also provided preliminary evidence that levels of WSE may bear little connection to past experiences of writing as WSE is not a stable construct and will fluctuate according to context, expectations and task requirements. Even expert writers will experience bouts of low self‐efficacy under conditions of changing expectations, challenging evaluators (sometimes external and sometimes self‐imposed) and disciplinary circumstances. However, improving writing self‐efficacy may play a role in shutting down negative self‐regulatory behaviours that lead to writing avoidance, stop students from writing, prevent them from making career choices that require writing such as advanced degrees, or keep them from writing to advocate for policy changes that may influence the nursing profession as a whole. Intervening in writing self‐efficacy could be what keeps students and nurses writing. These proposed relationships require further study.

The exploration of writing self‐efficacy and how it influences writing performance is a research area in its infancy. It is unlikely that writing self‐efficacy will dramatically improve performance across a single term as writing development is a lifelong endeavor. The only way writing performance can improve is through ongoing progressively more challenging writing. Currently a long‐term follow up of the same cohort of students is being conducted examining WSE and anxiety in terms of stability or growth over a curriculum. Help seeking, engagement with instructors, revision practices, response to feedback and progression through the programme will be investigated for their WSE connections. An exploration of the relationship between writing self‐efficacy and clinical practice success is being included. In addition to this active study, a revision of the WSE questionnaire is required to assess its discipline specific elements. Qualitative research examining the writing experiences of undergraduate nursing students are also necessary for establishing targeted interventions in this population.

6. CONCLUSION

This study has demonstrated that discipline‐specific writing instruction can influence writing self‐efficacy in first year nursing students. A paucity of research exists in nursing populations to address the “problem” of student writing. Scaffolding as an instructional method is a promising solution to improving student writing but requires intense instructor involvement from instructors who are confident with their own writing and confident assessing the writing of undergraduate students. Discipline‐specific writing, given that nurses communicate in a shared professional discourse, is the current recommended approach to improving writing and critical analysis skills in students at all levels of nursing education.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

No conflict of interest has been declared by the authors.

AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS

Ms. Mitchell: designed, implemented and coordinated the study through all phases, developed and implemented the writing course, and wrote the manuscript.

Dr. Harrigan: contributed to the study design, provided statistical analysis and insights into the relevance of findings, and reviewed and approved the manuscript.

Dr. McMillan: provided insights to the statistical analysis, relevance of findings, and reviewed and approved the manuscript.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The first author thanks Mr. Ashley Blackman, Director, Research and Planning at Red River College, for his support and advice during the initial planning phase of this study.

Mitchell KM, Harrigan T, McMillan DE. Writing self‐efficacy in nursing students: The influence of a discipline‐specific writing environment . Nursing Open . 2017; 4 :240–250. https://doi.org/10.1002/nop2.90 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]

This study was funded by the Red River College Program Innovation Fund Award 240‐15001‐09

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August 8, 2024

Graduate Teaching Assistant (Winter 2024/2025 Academic Term)

Submit Application

GRADUATE TEACHING ASSISTANT

(2024/25 Academic term)

Course Number and Title: Various Undergraduate and Graduate Courses

Instructor:   Various

Number of Positions:   

Qualifications Required: Graduate students in Nursing; Undergraduate degree in Nursing required; Strong critical appraisal skills; Excellent interpersonal communication skills; Very good computer skills; Excellent academic writing skills.

Assists with organization of learning activities in the basic undergraduate program courses under the direct supervision of a faculty member. These activities may include:

• Assisting faculty with setup and planning of learning resources and activities
• Guiding groups of students through clinical skills experiential learning sessions
• Communicating with students on an ongoing basis throughout the term
• Providing direction to students regarding course learning activities
• Communicating with course leaders on an ongoing basis
• Assisting with evaluating student academic and/or clinical skill performance

Hours of work:                 4 – 12 hours per week between September 2024 to April 2025

Current salary:                 *GTA I = $40.16 per hour

                                            **GTA II = $38.65 per hour

Application:

Members of the CUPE 2278 bargaining unit (Teaching Assistants Component), please submit application with resume by 11:59 pm, Monday, August 19, 2024 to be reviewed for eligibility as preferred candidates. Applications submitted after August 19, 2024 may not be considered.

To apply, please fill out the Qualtrics survey, https://ubc.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1G1jF2XbGaEaZz8 . If there are any questions or concerns, please email [email protected]  

_______________________________

*Graduate Student Teaching Assistant I is a graduate who has completed two (2) years’ service as a graduate student teaching assistant.

**Graduate Student Teaching Assistant II is a graduate student with less than two (2) years’ service as a graduate student teaching assistant.

Closing Date

Mon, August 19, 2024

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