2025 Web Conference of My class that I need

2025 Web Conference

1. Introduction to Professional
Writing
NRSG 785

2. Overview and Objectives
•In this course, you will:
–Learn ways to develop ideas and plan writing
activities
–Develop concise essays that deliver a strong
message
–Examine peer review and publishing practices
–Draft effective abstracts
–Use matrices to organize and produce synthesis
essays

3. Let’s have a look…
•The course syllabus
•Schedule for the semester
•Expectations and philosophy

4. Review syllabus
•Faculty contact information
•Objectives
•Assignments
•Schedule

5. Today we will examine…
•Nurses and writing: overcoming obstacles
•Tips for good writing: grammar, punctuation,
point of view, active voice
•Style
•Effective paragraphs
•Pre-writing exercises

6. Me, write?
•I don’t have time…
•I’m not qualified…
•It isn’t worth it…
•It’s too hard…
•I have way more important things to do…
•I don’t write very well…
•I’m a nurse, not an English major…

7. Nurses have a lot to say
•We need to say it well
•We need to put our words and actions out
there
•No one represents us better than
ourselves
•Everyone has a story

8. Taking things in logical order
•Small steps add up
–Get ready!
•General review
•Plagiarism certificates
•Pre-writing activities
–Get Set!
•Five paragraph essay
•Searching literature
–Go!
•Synthesis Matrix construction
•Literature critique and synthesis

9. Basic Writing Tips
Writing tips to help you:
•focus
•use the language effectively
•communicate your ideas
•Find evidence
•critique the things you read
•synthesize new ideas

10. Good Writing vs. Bad Writing
1.Don’t expect writing to be easy—good writing takes work!
2.Master the fundamentals (vocabulary, grammar, style)
Attend to details
1.Find the best word
2.Order words carefully
3.Attend to details
4.Take a break
5.Rely on feedback

11. Basic Tips
•Use normal prose but avoid informal wording
•Stay focused on the topic
•Proceed logically-outline-so the reader can follow
•Use present tense to report well accepted facts
•Use past tense to describe a study that is done
•Avoid informal wording
•Don’t address the reader directly (“you should…”)
•Don’t use jargon, slang or superlatives (exaggerated
expression)

12. Use of Person
•Determine use of 1st, 2nd or 3rd person
–First person is “I,” and the plural form is “we.”
–The second person uses the pronouns “you,”
“your,” and “yours.”
–The third person uses “he,” “she,” or “it” when
referring to a person, place, thing, or idea
•Most scholarly writing is in 3
rd
person.

13. The Dreaded Passive Voice
•Avoid the passive voice
•Use active voice (the subject is doing the
action)
–“The researchers discovered a new gene.”
–“A new gene was discovered by the researchers.”
•Write with vigor and action.

15. Example

17. Punctuation

18. Which punctuation marks should
you avoid in scholarly writing?
•Exclamation points!
•Question marks?
•Dashes—
•(Parentheses)
•Semi-colons;
•“quotation marks”

19. Where to put a comma?

23. Define all abbreviations
•Even if the abbreviations are commonly used,
make sure that they are clearly defined for the
reader.
•Define on first use.
–“Electrocardiograms (ECGs) measure and map
electrical activity of the heart.”

24. Vagueness
•Avoid starting sentences with “it,” “this,” “It is important to note
that…”
•Be specific
•Tell the important thing
–“It is important to note that there are not enough studies
involving older women.”
–“There are not enough studies involving older women.”
–Or better: “Not enough studies involve older women.”
–Or even better: “Older women are not involved in enough
studies.”

25. Spell Check
•Use it, but do not rely solely on Spell Check.
•Correctly spelled words may be used
incorrectly.
•Consider: there, their, they’re; its it’s; pare,
pair; etc.
•Effect (noun); affect (verb)

27. Who vs Whom

28. What about grammar check
programs?
•May be helpful in identifying broken rules of
grammar
•Also can note passive voice
•Again, not comprehensive or foolproof
•Have a look at the Purdue Owl sites in your
Module materials

29. Proofread
•Carefully
•Out loud
•Other eyes
•Give yourself time
to do a good job

30. Identify Your Audience
•Nursing?
•Interdisciplinary?
•Clinical focus?
•Methods focus?

31. Avoiding Plagiarism
•Understand what constitutes plagiarism:
–Presenting someone else’s work as your own
–Copying
•Give credit where due
•Using your own words to convey an idea
(paraphrase) and cite
•Try not to use direct quotations in professional
writing

32. Let’s Talk About Pre-Writing
Strategies…
•Anything you do to help yourself decide
what your central idea is or what details,
examples, reasons, or content you will
include
•Where do I start?
•What do I write about?

33. Brainstorming
•Topic
•Jot down all possible
terms
•Group them
•Label them
•Write a sentence about the label you have
given to the ideas:
– that becomes a topic or Thesis Statement

34. Clustering
•Mind-mapping or idea-mapping
•Put the subject in the center of the page (circle or underline
it)
•As you think of other ideas, link them to the center
•As you think of ideas that relate to each other, link them
•Good for figuring out how things relate to each other and how
ideas fit together.
•Creates a visual picture

35. Freewriting
•Just write non-stop
•5-10 minute sequences
•Write quickly
•Suppress the urge to edit.
•Go back and circle the things you find
•interesting

36. Looping
•Multiple free-writing series
•Take idea from the first writing and use it for
the second session
•Then from the second session, use an idea for
the third session, and so on.
•Iterative process

37. The Journalists’ Questions
•Who?
•What?
•Where?
•When?
•Why?
•How?
•Develop a lot of information about the topic quickly.
•As you develop your writing, ask yourself these questions again
and again.

38. Outlining
•Listing and Clustering ideas
•Organize and focus
•Pick the main ideas, and list associated content under
each one
•Put things in order, improves flow of ideas
•Very helpful in identifying what should go into each
paragraph, structures your essay
•Keeps you from leaving out something important, or from
repeating information.

39. Example

41. Most writers do not use all of these
Pre-writing techniques…
•Good to have a variety of tools
•Try them out
•Use what works for you
•A way to warm up, break down obstacles

42. Let’s stop for questions…
•Questions?