Shaping How Graduate Nursing Students Write

Abstract

SOME GRADUATE NURSING STUDENTS HAVE DIFFICULTY WRITING IN THE FORMAL, PROFESSIONAL STYLE REQUIRED IN THEIR ACADEMIC PROGRAMS, BUT IT IS NOT CLEAR WHY, OR WHAT CAN BE DONE TO HELP THESE STUDENTS IMPROVE THEIR WRITING SKILLS. Perhaps they were never taught how to write formal prose, or were not consistently supported to write well, or have forgotten how to write formal papers because of lack of practice. They may avoid writing because of fear that they will not write well, or they may value doing over thinking and writing. Some students may have difficulty because writing clearly requires thinking clearly, or they do not care enough about writing to make the effort that professional writing requires. At Azusa Pacific University School of Nursing, our efforts to understand graduate student writing problems began with discussions at faculty meetings. Faculty who taught in the core courses of the graduate program identified poor writing as a major contributor to student distress and discouragement that, in some cases, led to failure or a decision to drop out of graduate school. Good candidates for the Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) program were being lost because of poor writing skills, and faculty wanted to provide them with better opportunities to succeed. However, this university lacked resources, beyond books on writing, to help graduate students. At the time, there were no writing classes, seminars, consultants, or writing groups (Cuthbert, 2008) to assist them, and, as at other universities (Kamler, 2008), there was inadequate mentoring and structural support. Thus, individual faculty took on the burden of helping students. Ours was not an isolated problem. A brief look at the literature revealed that while few studies on graduate writing have been published, many graduate programs report that they face this concern (Delyser, 2003; Giddens & Lobo, 2008; Megginson, 2009). Purdue University developed its OWL website to address this issue (http://owl.english.purdue.edu), and faculty at the University of New Mexico (Giddens & Lobo) and the University of Wisconsin (Cowles, Strickland, & Rodgers, 2001), among others, have reported on efforts to address the problem of writing skill deficiencies in their nursing programs. As frustration over problems in student writing increased, our faculty realized that lack of a coherent and sustainable support system for writing was a barrier to student improvement and to effective teaching of course content. A list was compiled of student writing skill deficiencies, including: * Inappropriate English grammar, sentence structure, and paragraph form, style, and transitions * Difficulty in changing writing style for the type of assignment * Incorrect and inconsistent use of the American Psychological Association (APA) format. Initial Solution Our first initiative was an attempt to evaluate student writing more carefully in order to document problems. Dr. Diana Glyer, a writer and professor in the English department, was asked to help evaluate student writing samples. On the day of orientation to the MSN program, students were given a nursing scenario and were asked to write their thoughts. Although faculty from the English and nursing departments collaborated in designing a prompt to evaluate writing samples, there were no succinctly identifiable patterns in these samples, and no common problems were identified. The frustration continued. In 2005, an informal four-item Graduate Student Writing Survey was designed and administered to 73 MSN students, with participation voluntary and anonymous. Sixty-two percent of 50 respondents acknowledged having difficulty with writing skills; 97 percent said that writing enhancement resources would be helpful; 75 percent agreed that evaluation of writing skills should be done on entry into graduate school; and 86 percent said they would attend writing workshops if offered. In response, we asked the university writing center, a department dedicated to assist undergraduate students with writing skills, to provide assistance to our graduate students. …