Doctorate-prepared nurses must have the skills necessary to engage in scholarly work in order to effectively promote health care change.
During your DNP education, you will complete a DNP project aimed to bring about a systems change that enhances population health. In preparation for the scholarly writing required during the project process, the CSS Department of Graduate nursing requires that you complete the Writing in the Sciences Coursera course by the end of your first term.
Many students find it very beneficial to complete this work prior to entering the program. The course will take you approximately 30 hours.
This Writing in the Sciences course (https://www.coursera.org/learn/sciwrite) teaches scientists to become more effective writers using practical examples and exercises. Topics include principles of good writing, tricks for writing faster and with less anxiety, the format of a scientific manuscript, peer review, grant writing, ethical issues in scientific publication, and writing for general audiences. You will gain Grammar, Medical Writing, Science Communication, and Writing skills.
This online course allows you to start anytime and move at your own pace. Take a screenshot of the course completion window and save it to confirm your completion unless you choose to pay for the certificate (which is not a requirement).
APA style is a professional language (watch this YouTube-4:27) designed to standardize scientific writing or academic writing. It is used by over 250 nursing journals! It is a way of documenting and communicating research and the writing style you will be using throughout your program. APA style does take time to learn and much practice, but using APA style correctly helps establish your credibility.
Your goal right now is to understand the scope of the APA resources available to you, rather than memorize the pages or content. Go to the CSS Library website. This is the front door of many types of resources. Click on the Getting Started tab. Explore the following and bookmark sites that help you format APA:
Click Citation Help (on the line of tabs)
Under Citation Libguides from the CSS Library in the middle column of the page, select APA 7th edition (bookmark this page).
Review this page before exploring other tabs. Of particular importance are:
Formatting Your Paper is one of the tabs that could help explain details about APA
Checklists (lower right) are helpful when you start writing your first paper. These are step-by-step guides/instructions about key APA rules.
Under Sample Papers (beneath checklists): Student Paper Title Page & Short Sample Student Paper for you to see how a correctly formatted paper looks.
This is a lot of detailed information, which might feel overwhelming right now. This will be a great just-in-time coach when you start writing your first APA-assigned paper. You may want to bookmark these resources in your computer now.
Turnitin is a software tool that allows you to check (and recheck) your papers for grammar, spelling, and similarity (anti-plagiarism detection tool) to other writing. Academic honesty means you fully credit original ideas to the right author. It helps ensure you have given credit to the authors (correctly). You can submit as many of your papers as you wish UNTIL THE DUE DATE.
Your faculty can make any assignment in the course a Turnitin assignment. Detailed instructions for using this resource will be provided in your first course.
You can learn more about Turnitin by clicking this Turnitin link. There are also assignments in the Brightspace for Students course so you can see how it works before you use it in a course.
Learning how to write scientifically can seem daunting at first. It takes time and lots of editing, but tech tools can help!
Write Right (Google Doc) lists free online writing tools to help you analyze, revise, and improve your writing. The free Grammarly Chrome add-on works in Brightspace, too. Turnitin Draft Coach, an extension in Google Docs, checks grammar, citations, and plagiarism.
Grammarly - checks basic writing mechanics (free version) plus style, tone, and clarity (Premium)
Hemingway - checks passive voice, adverbs, and overly complex sentences
Turnitin Draft Coach - checks similarity, citations, and grammar (of Google docs only)
A chatbot's knowledge base is huge with many different sources of information on a topic.
It will give you the most likely answer to the question for the average person.
And it wants to make you happy, so it will make up facts rather than disappoint you.
Give the chatbot an identity (e.g., play the role of a friendly, experienced teacher).
Provide context to direct the chatbot toward a specific corner of its knowledge base (e.g., play the role of a friendly, experienced teacher who helps college students master abnormal psychology).
Provide clear instructions on what you want as a result and the format you want it in (e.g., provide a 250-300 word analysis of the causes and treatments of phobias for USA Today readers).
Perplexity is a search engine that summarizes the information available with hyperlinked references (most of which are reputable sources).
Copilot is Microsoft’s version of Perplexity and ChatGPT in one. It can summarize information, brainstorm options, answer questions provide links to sources, and give you feedback on your work.
Elicit is a research assistant that automates parts of your workflow. When you ask it a research question, Elicit will show relevant papers and summaries of key information. Users can read abstracts, filter based on study type, and save and export their work. It is good for evaluating and refining research questions.
The Library at CSS will provide a plethora of valid sources, and you can ensure they are peer-reviewed.
Specify the scope (i.e., broad overview or deep dive).
State the objectives.
List any specific research questions to address.
Identify desired sources (academic journals, textbooks, databases, interviews, surveys, etc.).
Highlight constraints (time, resources, access) or limitations.
Specify the format (e.g., academic writing, informal summary).
Eliminating world hunger is a complex and multifaceted challenge. What are some strategies an expert who has studied this worldwide for decades may propose to address this issue?
Quiz me on child development from infancy through toddlerhood using multiple choice questions. Ask me one question at a time, and give me four answer choices. If my answer was correct, tell me so and ask another. If it was incorrect, tell me why my choice was incorrect and ask a similar question that you would classify as a bit easier. If I answer "hint," please give me a hint. If I get 5 in a row right, make the questions a bit more difficult. Keep quizzing me until I say "stop."
Summarize this research article in bullet format following the organization of the article. Limit the summary to 300 words. Write it so a 16-year-old can understand it. [Paste the article.]
Please improve this post for my DNP course. I need to write scholarly and concisely. Please tell me why you made the changes you did. Here are the requirements: [Paste requirements]. Here is my post: [Paste post].
There are no specific guidelines for citing ChatGPT or other generative AI models.
It is a nonrecoverable source and cannot be linked. We recommend using the reference style for personal communication or correspondence. See APA Style guidance for help
Reference list example
OpenAI. (2024). ChatGPT (Dec 20 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/
In-text example
(OpenAI, 2024) or OpenAI (2024)
The full transcript of a response should be included in an appendix.