research

NURS 4420 Care of Adults with Multiple Compromised Health States

Concept Paper Tips

How to begin

· Start with an outline

· Use the grading criteria to develop headers

· All students are HIGHLY encouraged to meet with the faculty grading their papers once the outline is prepared

General Writing Style

· ALL scholarly papers begin with an introduction and end with a conclusion

· Ideas should be presented in a clear, orderly, logical manner

· Ensure that tense is consistent

· Use active voice; avoid passive voice

· Avoid wordiness & redundancy – succinct is better

· Ensure clear transitions from paragraph to paragraph

· Avoid excessively long sentences

· Each paragraph should be a minimal of 3 sentences

· Ok to use first person

Referencing in text

· Reference, reference, reference!!!!!!

· Avoid secondary sources

· Use direct quotes sparingly – paraphrasing is preferred

· Paraphrase (author(s), year)

· Direct quote (author(s), year, page)

· Cite multiple authors when synthesizing information (e.g. pathophysiology and referents)

Common APA mistakes

· Authors

· List authors in the same order as the article

· Do not refer to the journal or article title in the narrative – in text citations refer to the author only

· Acronyms

· Spell out word(s) the first time it is used with the acronym in parenthesis; you may then use the acronym in the remainder of the text; example: chronic kidney disease (CKD)

**Be sure to address ALL areas of the grading criteria