Writing Types in Occupational Therapy

Overview

Every discipline has specific types of writing that are done within it (genres), and every genre has conventions (i.e., the features of that type of writing). We often recognize genre conventions when we're thinking about books or movies. You don't expect violence and action-packed chase scenes in a romantic comedy, but you do expect a fantasy book or film to have new worlds, magical creatures, etc. Genres apply to academic and professional writing as well. Once you recognize the writing genres in your graduate field of study, you'll be able to learn the genre conventions, which will help you write successfully.

Visit this page to learn more about the types of writing you'll do at the graduate level (and beyond) in the field of Occupational Therapy. Note that this page focuses solely on writing types that are unique to this discipline. (For more information about general writing resources--such as materials about writing abstracts, literature reviews, and research papers--visit the Writing Center resources page.)

Types of Writing in Occupational Therapy

In the Occupational Therapy program at SJSU, students are required to complete a literature review to meet the graduation writing assessment requirement as part of their master’s degree. In the research-related courses, they also have to complete article critiques for both qualitative and quantitative studies (OCTH 245), critically appraised papers and critically appraised topics (OCTH 275), qualitative and quantitative data analysis and interpretation reports (OCTH 275), and a capstone project paper (OCTH 295).

In the practice-related courses (all courses with the suffix of "6": OCTH 216, OCTH 226 . . . up to OCTH 286), students have to write many papers, such as evaluation reports, intervention plans, and progress reports, just to name a few. Other than that, students also write professional development plans, teaching plans, and advocacy papers.

Lastly, SOAP notes (with Subjective, Objective, Assessment, and Plan sections) are another common type of writing in the field of Occupational Therapy (and in many healthcare fields). The following book is useful for learning to write effective SOAP notes.

Gateley, C. A., & Borcherding, S. (2017). Documentation manual for occupational therapy: Writing soap notes. Slack Incorporated.