Writing guidance for nursing students.
One of the banes of nursing school is writing the dreaded nursing paper. Even if there’s one per class, that’s too many for most nurses. Although nurses can (and should) learn to write journal articles and health-focused content, let’s focus on scholarly papers for nursing school right now. These include papers such as literature reviews or research papers.
APA Format
The great news about APA guidelines — they will remain constant throughout your nursing education. The not-so-great news — there’s a lot of APA info to know.
I’ve given you the basics here but one of the most thorough online APA Style help sites is the Purdue Online Writing Lab.
General APA Guidelines
- 1-inch margins on all sides
- 12-point fond Times Roman or Courier
- Use only one space after the end of sentences, initials in personal names, commas, colons, and semicolons.
- No more than 27 lines per page.
- Double spacing throughout, including reference page
- Text alignment should be flush left with uneven right margin (DO NOT justify the right margin)
- Indent each paragraph (5-7 spaces)
- Sections of the text follow each other without a page break. When a new heading occurs, DO NOT start a new page.
- DO NOT break words at the end of a typed line
- All pages are numbered in consecutive order beginning with the title page
- The manuscript header is in the upper right-hand corner
Writing Each Section
Title Page
- First page of the manuscript.
- Type title centered and double spaced in upper and lower case
- Be sure your title is inclusive and summarizes the main idea of the paper.
- The title must be fully explanatory on its own.
- The title page contains the title, author’s name, and author’s affiliation: all centered in the upper half of the page
- The title page may or may not include the author’s contact information.
- You have been given a rubric to follow. It will show you how to format your paper. It is important to follow the rubric given to you by your instructor. Project points can be missed simply by failing to follow the rubric.
- Contains manuscript page header and running head
- Numbered as page 1
HOT TIP: The rubric provides information on how to format each section of your paper.
For more tips see: Three Tips For Writing Your Next Research Paper
ABSTRACT
- This is a brief but comprehensive summary of the whole article.
- It should succinctly cover the purpose, methods, results, and conclusions drawn by the author(s).
- It is often recommended by veteran writers to write the abstract last, after all the other sections have been written.
- According to APA style (2020), the abstract should not exceed 120 words.
- Typed as a single paragraph with NO indentation.
- Double spaced.
- Page 2 of the manuscript, includes page number and header
Body
- The body of your paper will differ depending on what type of paper you’ve been asked to write.
- There is where content is shared.
- Start a new page (after the abstract, so will be page 3)
- Continue double-spacing throughout
- Begin the body with the manuscript Title centered in Upper & lower case
- All paragraphs are longer than one sentence but never longer than one page
- Number all pages and include header
The BODY may include these sections:
Introduction
- This is the real beginning of your paper, not the abstract.
- In a few paragraphs, introduce the topic stating why it’s important and its relationship with previous work.
- The introduction should give a solid sense of what was done and why it was done.
Literature Review
- A literature review will include a theoretical framework
- It involves identifying a relevant nursing or medical topic and exploring the current literature to identify trends, gaps, and conflicts in previous studies
- A well-researched literature review shows that the writer has a thorough understanding of the topic from which the author can explore new concepts and original ideas
The following sections are related to research papers and are discussed in a separate post.
Methods Section
Participants/Subjects
Instruments/Apparatus
Procedure
Results Section
Conclusion or Discussion
- This is the end of the paper but is not the final section.
- Use the conclusion to interpret your findings and discuss what you found. Begin with a clear statement of support or non-support for your original thesis.
- DO NOT introduce new information to this section.
- All statements and conclusions discussed should be supported by the data you found.
- Make recommendations to direct future research.
- Your final statement should be compelling and speak directly to the importance of your findings. Avoid vague or complicated language.
References
- This is the final section of your paper.
- Begin a new page.
- “References” is centered at the top of the page.
- List references in alphabetical order by the first author’s last name.
- If multiple references with the same last author, list in chronological order by year
- If same author and same year, use letter to differentiate.
Example:
Johnson, JE. (2020a)
Johnson, JE. (2020b)
- First line of reference is flush with left margin, all subsequent lines are indented (hanging indent)
- All references should be double spaced.
- References on this list MUST BE cited in the text. DO NOT list references here that you only read and did not mention in the manuscript.
- For articles with 1-5 authors: list all authors’ last names with their first and second initials (if given) in the order they appear on the manuscript.
- If the reference has 6 or more authors, list the first six and use et al. (to indicate the remaining)
Reference Examples:
Journal Article
Johnson, J.E., & Feldmon, L.B. (2020). Strategies for writing a scholar nursing paper. American Journal of Professional Writing, 18, 120-123.
Web Document
Johnson, J.E. & Feldmon, L.B. (2020). APA style guidelines and tips, Retrieved October 2, 2020, from Johnson University, Department of English from http://www.nprush.com/cfm?docid=873
Book
Johnson J.E. & Feldmon, L.B. (2020). Writing for nurses past and present. NY: Springer.
Here’s help for Writing IMRAD: Introduction Method Results and Discussion. And don’t forget to download your FREE PDFs: APA Headings and Research Paper Checklist.
Don’t stop now! You’re on a roll!
Click here for more downloadable FREE PDFs.
Questions? Help? Contact me!
Cheers!
