Writing nursing papers

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Feb 7, 2012

apa is easy. here's some examples i use for the authors i edit.

basically, you need to change the format from footnotes/ endnotes to

"....study showed that nyuk nyuk nyuk (fine, fine, and fine, 1967). this is also important fact fact fact (bozo, 1978), although the author revised his study later to show xyz (bozo et al, 1985). finally, thus and such blah blah (kent and lane, 1956). "

then your references at the end are alphabetized:

references:

bozo, tc (1978)the importance of red rubber noses in children's television, journal of clown studies, 12:345, 26-9

bozo, tc, et al (1985) beepie noses as a confounding factor in children's television, journal of clown studies, 19:678, 228-49

fine c, fine m, and fine l (1967) eye-poking provokes laugh response in adolescent males, journal of slapstick, 10:80

kent c and lane l (1956) humor while flying in underwear-like garments, dc comics analysis, 2:1, 300-400

for refs you take off the net, please note date of retrieval and complete url, although an automatically changes it to a named link and i can't make it show the url:

"..and now the old boy's in command of the fleet/cuz he went and married lidia" (arlen and harburg, 1939)

"..this terrific gadget.." (worldwide widget company, 2011)

references:

arlen and harburg (1939), "lidia the tattooed lady," clown ministry, retrieved 1/21/11

worldwide wicket company (2011) how to succeed in business without really trying - wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, retrieved 1/21/11

and if you want more, here're some websites.

apa research style crib sheet
purdue university writing center: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/
wooster university writing center:

http://www.wooster.edu/psychology/apa-crib.html

apa style website:

http://apastyle.apa.org/

university of wisconsin writing center http://www.wisc.edu/writing/handbook/docapa.html

littlerayofsunshine, BSN, MSN · Feb 9, 2012

Get the APA style book. There are lots of little nitpicky rules regarding the body of papers that are different than the MLA format. It's not just the citations that are different.

Ldial1 · Feb 11, 2012

I have to write a paper on Geriatric nursing... in APA format! Does anyone know how to do APA? Basically what I'm wondering is; do you quote something in parenthesis always? ex. According to Perry & Potter, "Geriatric is the blah blah..." Or simply write a paragraph and then quote it? Or do both work for APA style? I did MLA all throughout high school and I remember my teachers saying, "You'll never see APA." lies!

Here is a great program that will help you, check it out.APA and MLA Format and Style Software by PERRLA, LLC - PERRLA.com

Clovery · Feb 12, 2012

apa is easy. here's some examples i use for the authors i edit.
basically, you need to change the format from footnotes/ endnotes to

"....study showed that nyuk nyuk nyuk (fine, fine, and fine, 1967). this is also important fact fact fact (bozo, 1978), although the author revised his study later to show xyz (bozo et al, 1985). finally, thus and such blah blah (kent and lane, 1956). "

then your references at the end are alphabetized:
references:
bozo, tc (1978)the importance of red rubber noses in children's television, journal of clown studies, 12:345, 26-9
bozo, tc, et al (1985) beepie noses as a confounding factor in children's television, journal of clown studies, 19:678, 228-49
fine c, fine m, and fine l (1967) eye-poking provokes laugh response in adolescent males, journal of slapstick, 10:80
kent c and lane l (1956) humor while flying in underwear-like garments, dc comics analysis, 2:1, 300-400

this would get my teacher's face all red and my paper literally thrown back in my face.

you need an ampersand not the word "and". "et al" is incorrect. it is (bozo et al., 1985) al. is an abbreviation, et is not. the example reference list is just full of mistakes... make sure you do not capitalize the words in the title of the book or publication, only the first word of the title and subtitle. be aware of italics, spaces, indents, where parentheses go and there are always periods at the end of references.

some instructors don't care too strictly about apa format and others are downright nutty about it. i would learn it and do it the right way the first time.

make sure your font is times new roman, you have a running head, and your paper is stapled with one staple that runs parallel to the top of the page (not diagonally). i couldn't believe that stuff mattered either, but some instructors really do get particular about it.

this website is a really great resource... just pay attention to every little thing.

purdue owl: apa formatting and style guide

JMederich · Feb 12, 2012

I just finished my paper today using the purdue OWL website. It really did help. I'm not to worried about this one so much, hopefully I will get some good feedback and learn from my mistakes because I will have more of these in the future. My nursing test are where most of my grade comes from.