ABOUT WRITING

Introduction
Writing is a skill that is usually taken for granted on academic courses. Students are taught
the course content and then expected to transform this into elegant written form using
supposedly natural writing skills. Students pick up and share the same attitudes, being
happy to avoid thinking consciously about their approach to writing. However, experience
with written work shows that writing is nearly always students' biggest problem. In most
cases, work could have been better presented, fails to make maximum use of the student's
material and so loses marks.
Your object, in writing, is to communicate with an intended audience. Improvement in writing
skills will lead to more effective communication. It will also help you to think more clearly
since good writing cannot be separated from clear thinking. In working to improve your
writing you will also be working to organise and clarify your ideas.
This section will first consider the emotional problems caused by anxiety about writing ability.
It will then discuss ways in which you can improve your writing skills. Most of this discussion
will be concerned with the use of a structured approach to writing. The next part considers
the use of word-processors to facilitate a structured approach before examining the use of
chapters or sections in the dissertation structure before finally discussing use of the first
person.
Emotional aspects of writing
Writing problems are associated with the twin diseases of writer's block and writer's splurge.
Writer's block, as Becker points out, is an almost universal disease about which there is a
conspiracy of silence. Writers want to appear fluent and so are often reluctant to confess to
difficulties. Since writing is a solitary activity it is possible for everyone to suffer in secret and
imagine that they are unique.
Writer's splurge usually follows writer's block. In this case the writer works at frenetic speed,
expressing whatever comes into his/ her head without thought to purpose, logical order of
ideas, repetition or balance. The idea of reading through what he has written is unbearable
and editing, if undertaken at all, is a perfunctory ritual. Above all, no-one is allowed to see
the work until it is too late to alter it, in case the writer should be sent back to square one.
Writing is an activity in which one's thought processes are exposed to public scrutiny. Any
writer who is not exceptionally gifted or totally conceited feels vulnerable to imagined ridicule
and demolition of his efforts. The resulting anxiety can be handled by not thinking about its
source with block and splurge as the likely results. Alternatively, the anxiety can be faced.
Fortunately, although most of us are not capable of becoming gifted writers, it is relatively
easy to improve your writing skills.
Adopt a reflective approach to your learning. It needs to be personal enough to relate to
your personal learning journey during the course, but does not require you to expose any
area of yourself or your practice which you wish not to disclose. If you use some of your
patients as cases that triggered your thinking, you are required to anonymise all the data so
that they remain unidentifiable.
Improving your writing skills
1.

You should be aware of any anxiety about writing and realise how common and

natural it is. Good time planning and a structured approach to writing (see below) will
reduce the anxiety and make writing a more enjoyable activity.
2.

You should try to submit rough drafts of your work to a sympathetic reader whilst you
still have time to modify it. The reason for this is not that the reviewer can write
better than you. He or she almost certainly can't. But, as a relatively uninformed
reader, he / she can give you a consumer's report on what is difficult to understand,
what is boring and what seems to have been omitted. You are likely to be too close
to your work to be able to see it through a reader's eyes.

3.

Poor writing is the most common reason for academic under-performance. Poor time
planning is the most common reason for poor writing. Most students under-estimate
how long it will take them to write up their work. This is partly wishful thinking as it is
easier in the short-term to put off doing something which is difficult and worrying.
When deadlines loom, fatigue and anxiety loom and writing quality deteriorates. Very
often this means that credit for a lot of hard work is lost because you can only be
credited for the finished written product not for work which is in your head or your
rough notes or which is not expressed clearly. The antidote is to over-estimate the
amount of time you will need and to under-estimate the amount of time you have
available.

4.

You should adopt a structured approach in which you write according to a

formal plan and include this plan explicitly in the finished work. A structured
approach is indispensable in writing a long piece of work such as a
dissertation.

Writing (and reading) a long essay is qualitatively different to writing a short essay. When
writing a short essay you can carry the structure in your mind or even allow it to develop as
you write. With a longer piece of work it becomes impossible to retain purpose, structure,
balance and style informally. Similarly, it is much easier for the reader to follow your
argument are explicit about the structure of your essay at its beginning and then signpost the
structure throughout the essay.
By developing an explicit structure and communicating this structure in the finished product
you will make writing as easy as possible for yourself. The structure allows you to break the
total task down into manageable modules, knowing in advance what you intend to achieve in
each section, how each section contributes to your overall aim and how many words you can
afford to use.
In a long piece of work it is easy to get bogged down in one aspect of the problem and then
be forced to neglect others. Techniques of structured writing are also invaluable for shorter
essays even though you may have been able to get away with ad hoc impulse writing.
Explicit structure informs the reader of what you intend to achieve both in the essay as a
whole and in each section, as well as clarifying your thinking process. Perhaps the most
important benefit is that you cannot express clearly what you wish to achieve without first
thinking through what you wish to achieve. Explicit structure enforces clarity of thought.

A structured approach to writing

A structured approach to writing should consist of the following four stages:
a.

Clarification of the aims of the essay

b.

Development of a plan of how you are going to achieve your aims in the
essay

c.

Incorporating the plan in sections of the essay

d.

Editing

a. Clarification of the Aims of An Essay

Clarification of aims should be considered in terms of WHAT is to be communicated to
WHOM. With set essays, the aims are initially defined by the question, but will need
elaboration and interpretation. Whilst this may seem like a truism, it is unfortunately the
case that many essays do not address the question set because the writer simply
regurgitates whatever he / she can remember most easily without regard to its relevance to
the problem in hand.
The WHOM question requires you to envisage the impact of your writing on the intended
audience. The audience will share some but not all of your background knowledge and will
probably get bored and confused rather easily. Empathising with the reader is a key writing
skill. You need to form a judgement about how much the reader knows and how much you
can take for granted. This is a difficult question on which you will receive differing advice
from academic staff.
Good advice is to assume that the reader is moderately intelligent but knows nothing about
your subject! You will therefore need to define concepts under discussion and illustrate them
with relevant examples. It is important to USE the theory to analyse the problem the essay
is concerned with, illustrating with concrete examples, since this will not be obvious to the
reader. Many essays do just the opposite, providing a general statement of a theory which
readers are already familiar with but not discussing how the theory is to be used to help
understand practice. In general, aim to inform but beware not to bore with unnecessary
details.
b. Development of a Plan in Relation to the Aims
The nature of the plan will depend upon the problem and how you decide to tackle it. There
is no one right way of planning an essay. However, some important general points about
formal aspects of the structure can be made. Firstly, your writing should have a beginning,
middle and an end. This may seem like another truism, but many student essays only have
middle. You need an introduction in which you elaborate the aim of the piece and state how
this aim is to be achieved in the essay and a conclusion in which you summarise your
argument.
Inexperienced writers are often afraid to produce introductions and conclusions in case they
are accused of repetition. However, they underestimate the difficulties inherent in

communication. A succinct introduction provides an overview of the entire argument. This

makes it easier to understand the significance of each part of the essay in relation to the
whole. A conclusion highlights the most important parts of your argument. Many writers
neglect the conclusion because they have run out of steam, or use the conclusion to
introduce new ideas which they have only just thought of. Lack of a final conclusion is as
frustrating as a piece of music without its last note. Such essays seem badly thought out
and are often marked down.
Just as much as the overall work, each section of should have a beginning, middle and end.
Secondly, you should try to incorporate a logical structure in your plan so that each section
draws on the argument of the previous one. Finally, it is generally a good idea to get a
balance between the length of the sections of the essay, with their length related to their
importance in feeding into your argument.
d. Editing
As Becker (1986) points out, the key to successful writing is being prepared to redraft your
work until it reads as well as possible. You should not expect to be able to develop your
ideas in the first draft and to express them clearly at the same time. You should read and
edit each section of a long essay before going on to the next one as you will rapidly forget
what you were trying to achieve. When the essay is finished you should edit it as a whole
with particular reference to inconsistencies in terminology, unnecessary repetitions and flow.
T he main aim of editing is to improve the clarity and economy of your writing. To test for
clarity ask yourself whether a member of your intended audience could easily understand
what you have written. To test for economy, ask whether you could convey the same
meaning in fewer words.
Writing style is developed through habit and example. Here are a few general principles that
can be used to improve style:
1. Substitute passive for active verbs wherever possible
Passive constructions are more convoluted than active ones and vaguer in that they allow
the agent to remain unspecified, e.g.
'Nurses are not expected to take medical decisions'
allows the writer to avoid discussing who is doing the expecting.
2. Avoid unnecessary words
We all develop mannerisms that tend to reassure us, but add nothing to the meaning of what
is being written. For example, a formula such as: 'In my view ...' is redundant because any
statement not attributed to another person must be the writer's own view. Similarly, polite
disclaimers of the form: 'The evidence suggests that there may be a relationship between ...'
add nothing unless the reasons for doubt are spelt out, e.g. how else the evidence might be
interpreted.
3. Avoid repetition
In an effort to make clear statements, the author may be tempted to rephrase what has
already been said. Repetition bores rather than clarifies and it would be better to work at
making the original statement as clear as possible.
4. Make the structure support the content
Your main points, whether in the diary, the essay, a section, a paragraph or a sentence,
should stand out from subsidiary or supporting points. One way to do this is to put the main

points at the beginning. Don't force the reader to wade through less important material to
get to the point. Don't save the best point until last for a dramatic denouement. The reader
may lose interest and miss your main point entirely.
5. Support abstract concepts with concrete details and examples
The social sciences are notorious for long abstract words. You need to use them if you want
to generalise theoretically. But unless they are applied to your topic and illustrated with
concrete examples, they will be a meaningless substitute for thought.
6. Check and revise the structure of sentences and paragraphs
When you write a first draft you are trying to do two things at the same time, to formulate
your ideas and to express them clearly. The human brain is not good at carrying out two
complex tasks at the same time. As a result your first draft is likely to be below your best in
terms of style. Common problems are: Sentences which are too long and convoluted
Incomplete sentences
Spelling atrocities and malapropisms (e.g. 'appendages' instead of appendices repeated
throughout an assignment)
Poor punctuation
Use of sections
For most assessments (especially essays) you shouldn't need more than 3 or 4 headings
between the introduction and the conclusion. Then estimate the relative importance and
complexity of each area and allocate an approximate word estimate for each area to be
discussed. You can now work within each section, generating sub-headings within sections
before writing them if necessary. It is not necessary to start with the first section. I usually
start with the section I feel most confident about, in order to break the ice and write the
introduction and conclusion last with the reader in mind.
Within a portfolio of evidence ,consider it to be a learning contract of how you will achieve
the learning outcomes of the module. Break the portfolio up into sections, with each section
pertaining to a learning outcome. What will you do to achieve the outcome- e.g. academic
reading, write assignment, clinical visit?
Then consider what evidence you need to provide to demonstrate achievement of this
outcome e.g. written assignment, witness testimony etc.
To avoid repetition, it is OK to cross reference between the sections, but please remember to
check that you have included what you say you have directed the reader to. This also
applies to any appendices.
If a section of the essay turns out to be longer or shorter than estimated, you can choose
whether to edit the length or modify the plan. The plan is only an initial guideline.
In addition, there are some specific considerations for this module. The module assessment
requires you to become aware of your assumptions about writing: what it is, for whom, and
why, how, where, and when it might be written. We want you to take ownership of your
writing to show the ownership you have over your learning process. Writing can be used as
a learning tool; enjoy it for its own sake, to verbalise and structure your learning.
Words can be easily taken for granted as the communication tools used every day. We use
language every day, all the time. We were all taught to write when we were little, and
learned more and more through further school and training days. However, there are many
more different ways to write than there are writers, because each writer can tailor their
writing style appropriately to the work in hand.

This kind of enquiry will probably not provide right answers, but it may throw up invaluable
questions, startling links, fresh light on relationships, new angles on hitherto unquestioningly
held views. The effect on future action, however, may not be straightforward. Expect to be
surprised, or even unsettled for a time! Many practitioners respond to this writing and
reflection process by exclaiming I didnt know I knew that!
Useful references for academic writing
Allen,A (1993) Changing theory in nursing practice Senior Nurse 13 (1) 43-45
Gopee,N. (2002)Demonstrating critical analysis in academic assignments Nursing
Standard16 (35) 45-52
Hamill,C (1999) academic essay writing in the first person: a guide for undergraduates
Nursing Standard 13 (44) 38-40
Jones,K.N. (1999) Reflection as an alternative to nursing models Professional Nurse 14 (12)
853-855
Mc Caughan,D. (1999) Developing critical appraisal skills Professional Nurse 14 (12) 843847
Norman,I J,Redfern,SJ, Tomalin,DA, Oliver,S. (1992) Developing Flanagan's critical incident
technique to elicit indicators of high and low quality nursing care from patients and their
nurses Journal of Advanced Nursing 17 590-600
Webb,C. (1992) The use of the first person in academic writing; objectivity,language and
gatekeeping Journal of Advanced Nursing 17 747-752