Nurses as Technical Writers: What They Need to Know

1995 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 401-414 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lee A. Spears
Keyword(s):  
Nursing Students ◽  
Nurse Managers ◽  
Technical Writing ◽  
Healthcare Delivery ◽  
Nursing Documentation ◽  
Writing Courses ◽  
Writing Problems ◽  
Technical Writers ◽  
Good Writing ◽  
Predominantly Female

Acquaintance with the writing of nurses would help instructors design assignments for nursing students who enroll in basic technical writing courses. Based on secondary research, samples of nursing documentation, and interviews with seventy-six bedside nurses, thirty nurse managers, and five nurse consultants, this study discusses the importance of writing tasks for nurses and describes the most common documents nurses generate. Good writing skills for nurses improve healthcare delivery and promote empowerment in a predominantly female profession. However, most of the bedside nurses and all the nurse managers and consultants believe nurses have significant writing problems. This article suggests instruction in six communication principles and several types of assignments that would help prepare nursing students in technical writing courses for future writing activities.

Technical Writing in the Netherlands

1996 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 537-546 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominique M. W. De Vet
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Technical Writing ◽  
Fourth Section ◽  
Text Quality ◽  
Writing Problems ◽  
Technical Writers ◽  
Global Profile

This article is about the profession of technical writing in the Netherlands. The data are mainly based on two studies. The first was directed at technical writers who work as freelancers (external writers). It was done with the objective of learning about the characteristics and backgrounds of external technical writers and about their wishes concerning the development of the profession. The second study was directed at technical writers who work inside organizations (internal writers) and focused on questions about text quality and the writing problems that threaten this quality. We will focus on three issues. After the introduction in the first section and the description of the design of our studies in the second section, we will give a global profile of technical writers in the Netherlands. In the fourth section we will give an impression of the writing problems internal technical writers have to deal with. In the fifth section opinions concerning more professionalism in the field of technical writing are discussed. Also attention is paid to current developments in professionalism.

Feedforward (ff) en Metaforische Transfer (mt) -Dimensies Van Technical Writers'

1984 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 116-124
Author(s):  
J.W. Broer
Keyword(s):  
Professional Identity ◽  
Technical Communication ◽  
Technical Writing ◽  
Visual Elements ◽  
Communication Problems ◽  
Writing Problems ◽  
Technical Writers ◽  
The World ◽  
Technical Writer ◽  
Use Of Knowledge

A map of the world of 'technical' communication shows the (a, ß)-universe, flat country filled with language experts and scientists, including engineers. In the centre Technical Writing is situated, a territory in turmoil, on the border of α-land and ß-land. In the U.S.A. the territory is developing fast as the professional core of a new skill. As emigrants, many people of an α-type or ß-type nature end up in the territory. Having a problem of professional identity they possess a hy-brid personality. The attention paid to this problem causes them to lose sight of the two 'natural' forces of an emigrating individual, that is to say feedforward — an anticipative composition principle — and metaphoric transfer — 'as-if use of knowledge from the individual's professional past, to solve the communication problems met at present. Feedforward (Ivor A. Richards, 1893-1979) is a principle of creative action, proceeding from more generic to less (a top-down hier-archy); a number of 'formators' (Charles W. Morris and Bess Sondel), the tools for making text according to the feedforward scheme, are discussed. Nowadays visual elements as formators receive more emphasis. Text is seen as a distribution of three types of elements ('knowing', 'feeling', 'acting') glued into a unit, the communicative 'whole', by the formators. The textual whole should match the type of readers as originally anticipated by the technical writer (27 types, a classification based upon estimating three levels of knowing, feeling, acting; examples are included). Some prescriptions for solving Technical Writing problems found by metaphoric transfer are discussed. To illustrate the traffic of ideas arising from metaphoric transfer, a detailed map of the border area science/ technical writing is shown.

Technical Writing, Stylistics, and TG Grammar

1977 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 333-345 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard David Ramsey
Keyword(s):  
Technical Writing ◽  
Generative Grammar ◽  
Writing Courses ◽  
Technical Writers

Modern technical writing often suffers from its tendency toward jargon. Technical writing courses should include units on grammar as it relates to stylistics in technical writing. Transformational-generative grammar offers an effective and useful approach to train technical writers to communicate more effectively and to avoid the problems inherent in an impersonal style. One way of organizing a discussion of transformational-generative grammar is to consider its application to sentences and clauses, phrases, and individual words.

Using Multimedia for Instructor Presence in Purposeful Pedagogy-Driven Online Technical Writing Courses

2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-52
Author(s):  
Heidi S. Harris ◽  
Michael Greer
Keyword(s):  
Course Design ◽  
Technical Writing ◽  
Instructional Materials ◽  
Engaged Learning ◽  
Writing Courses ◽  
Course Materials ◽  
Instructor Presence ◽  
Course Outcomes ◽  
Writing Instructors ◽  
Student Projects

Teaching and composing with multimedia humanizes online technical writing and communication classes. However, students do not always see the connection between multimedia instructional materials, multimedia assignments, and the course learning outcomes. Purposeful pedagogy-driven course design uses multimedia instructional materials to connect assignments, course materials, and assessments with course outcomes. Technical writing instructors can integrate synchronous and asynchronous multimedia elements to address not only the what and why of online technical writing instruction but also the how of multimedia instructional materials. Example multimedia instructional materials and student projects discussed in the article can increase student retention and promote engaged learning.

scholarly journals “Loving Nursing” and “Taking Responsibility”: Strategies for Transitioning to Practice in Lebanon

SAGE Open ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 215824401882037
Author(s):  
Michael Clinton ◽  
Sawsan Ezzeddine ◽  
Myrna Doumit ◽  
Ursula Rizk ◽  
Murielle Madi
Keyword(s):  
Nursing Students ◽  
Registered Nurses ◽  
Baccalaureate Nursing ◽  
Nurse Managers ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Self Monitoring ◽  
Clinical Placements ◽  
Hospital Administrators ◽  
Baccalaureate Nursing Programs ◽  
Taking Responsibility

Transitioning to practice is challenging for baccalaureate nursing students. In baccalaureate nursing programs, the process typically begins in the junior year. A Successful transition depends on how well students apply their developing knowledge during clinical placements. A cross-sectional, multisite, qualitative study was conducted at four universities in Greater Beirut, Lebanon. In total, 35 junior baccalaureate students participated in audio-recorded focus group discussions. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. Three themes were sufficient to summarize the students experiences: “being unprepared,” “learning unexpected lessons,” and “taking responsibility.” Three subthemes, revising expectations, discovering divergence, and self-monitoring, were used to clarify the unexpected lessons students learned during clinical placements and how students responded. “Loving nursing and protecting yourself,” making the most of every day, and doubting future readiness were subthemes within the “taking responsibility” theme. Students troubled by nursing practices that diverged from their expectations monitored themselves to avoid falling into poor practices and kept track of the nursing procedures they performed. Only by taking responsibility for their learning, could students develop the competencies they will need as registered nurses. Faculty, clinical instructors, hospital administrators, nurse managers, and registered nurses need to do more to support students to take control of their learning.

scholarly journals PROMOTING MIND-MAPPING TECHNIQUE TO IMPROVE NURSING STUDENTS’ WRITING SKILL

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 14
Author(s):  
Yoyok Febrijanto
Keyword(s):  
Nursing Students ◽  
Mapping Technique ◽  
Mind Mapping ◽  
Alternative Teaching ◽  
Successful Communication ◽  
Writing Skill ◽  
Good Writing ◽  
Teaching Learning ◽  
The Right ◽  
Writing Practice

A teacher can use many ways to make students easier to study writing. Mind-mapping is a way to solve problems in writing. This technique is chosen since it has many advantages. The main benefit is that it uses both halves of the brain which makes it easier to remember. Moreover, making mind-mapping is a creative process and a natural way to organize the thoughts and it is widely believed to ease a pathway towards successful communication. Nursing students mostly do not pay attention to their writing skill. There are some indications which show the students’ poor ability in writing, such as; the students do not organize their writing well, their ideas are not coherence, they do not use right tenses in the right context, they have lack of vocabulary and their understanding of mechanic is low. They also think that time for writing is limited. Because of these, they become unmotivated and have low interest in writing. Some students even give up and do not try to solve their problem. In this paper, the writer wants to describe the use of mind-mapping technique to build up a good writing practice as an alternative teaching learning process and to activate the students’ participation in the classroom.   Keywords: Mind-Mapping Technique, Writing Skill.

scholarly journals Using Electronic Software for Nursing Documentation in Nursing Students

2021 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 128-136
Author(s):  
Kamran Ranjbar ◽  
◽  
Raheleh Sabetsarvestani ◽  
Hossein Oghlaee ◽  
Parisa Sabet Sarvestani ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Nursing Students ◽  
Nursing Documentation

Making the Virtual Real

2011 ◽  
pp. 224-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reneta D. Lansiquot
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Second Life ◽  
Technical Writing ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Writing Apprehension ◽  
Writing Courses ◽  
Social Nature ◽  
The Social ◽  
3D Virtual World

The emerging critical global collaboration paradigm and the use of virtual learning communities can form structured domains that require complementary methods for educational research. The purpose of this chapter is to illustrate how the social nature of virtual worlds can be used to teach technical writing and the academic research process. A yearlong, mixed methodology, research study is used to demonstrate the effect of this blended learning pedagogical approach on writing apprehension in advanced technical writing courses. Students wrote manuals collaboratively for an audience of their peers. Second Life, the online 3D virtual world created entirely by its residents, was both their subject of study and a mode of meaningful communication.

Teaching Technical Writing to Foreign Students

1973 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 103-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joan L. Pavelich
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Students ◽  
Technical Writing ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Writing Problems ◽  
Job Application ◽  
The Many ◽  
Daily Writing ◽  
Concise Expression ◽  
Application Forms

Students are selected by a diagnostic essay. They begin simply, by completing job application forms, personal resumes, and letters of application, tasks which require concise expression of facts, which reveal much about the students' backgrounds, and which they must use to get a job. Then they move to the daily writing problems an engineer faces. In every class they also practice exercises that correct the many errors caused by the change from their native language into English.

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