The AACN requires that doctorate-prepared nurses complete an evidence-based DNP scholarly project aimed at bringing about a systems change that enhances population health. To help you succeed in these courses, we require you to complete this free online course: Writing a Scientific Manuscript. It will take about 8 hours to complete.
Module 1: Writing and Publication Process. This module covers how to write a scientific paper, from its essential components and drafting steps to choosing the right journal for publication.
Module 2: Scientific Writing Principles. This module describes fundamental principles of scientific writing that can be used to improve a paper’s impact. The module covers techniques for writing clearly and concisely. Complete before the end of NSG 8110, which is taken in your first term.
Module 3: Abstract. This module explains how a well-written abstract acts as your paper's first impression, helping readers understand your study and convincing editors to publish it.
Module 4: Introduction. This module covers the introduction section of a scientific paper, which contextualizes the study and highlights the knowledge gap being addressed.
Module 5: Methods. This module explains the purpose and structure of the methods section of a scientific paper, and describes best practices for organizing and writing it so readers understand how the study was conducted.
Module 6: Results. This module teaches you how to clearly communicate your findings through well-organized text, tables, and figures.
Module 7: Discussion. This module describes the discussion section of a scientific paper, which interprets the study findings within the context of the study objective and existing literature.
Module 8: Wrapping Up: Title, Supporting Materials, and Submitting Your Manuscript. This final module explains the submission and review processes for a scientific paper, including crafting an effective title.
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.
APA style is a professional language (watch this YouTube, 4:27) designed to standardize scientific and academic writing. It is used by over 250 nursing journals! The format is used to document and communicate research. It is the writing style you will be using throughout your program. 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.
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, a Google Docs extension, checks grammar, citations, and plagiarism.
Turnitin Draft Coach - checks similarity, citations, and grammar (of Google Docs only)
ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Claude, Poe. Generative AI can provide feedback on writing. You have free access to Gemini because we are a Google School (more on using Gemini).
Which tool should I use? It depends. See these suggestions (2/15/26) or these suggestions (2/17/26).
These are some tools we recommend for research. But caution is needed! AI tools often fabricate journal references. Use the library to double-check citations.
Gemini using its Deep Research tool (first pass only). Consider this question: "What are the most significant peer-reviewed findings from the last year regarding the correlation between diet and mental illness? Provide a structured summary with citations.” (Deep Research questions can take 10 minutes.) See the result. See revision.
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.
Consensus is an academic research tool that limits its data search to the 200M published papers in Semantic Scholar and uses AI (ChatGPT) claims, methodology, sample size, and more, like a “consensus meter” that estimates the consensus in the published literature. It facilitates searching Medical-only sources.
NotebookLM is an AI-powered research hub designed to eliminate 'hallucinations' by anchoring its intelligence strictly to the materials you add to a notebook, including PDFs, websites, text, documents, images, and public YouTube videos (not unlisted). The AI helps you analyze and synthesize information and generate visual and audio summaries without the risk of external misinformation. Learn more here.
Go here for more tools and resources.
Please read Citing generative AI in APA Style: Part 1—Reference formats for guidance.
Format: AI Company Name. (year, month day). Title of chat in italics [Description, such as Generative AI chat]. Tool Name/Model. URL of the chat
Reference list example: OpenAI. (2025, August 21). High school grammar concepts [Generative AI chat]. ChatGPT. https://chatgpt.com/share/68a77b60-0ee4-800c-9acc-cd3fd573c311
In-text example: (OpenAI, 2025) or OpenAI (2025)
APA indicates that users can open the URL and interact with the chat, but that any subsequent conversations are not saved for anyone except the person who continued the chat. Only the original conversation is saved.