Penn Professors on Writing in Nursing

Professor Curley

About the Professor

Professor Curley teaches at the School of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania. Her field of study is pediatric intensive care nursing. Professor Curley writes research articles for scientific journals, and she is the author of several nursing textbooks. Professor Curley enjoys reading the work of colleagues who are controversial—"colleagues who [she] knows are leaders and out-of-the-box thinkers." Professor Curley considers Debora Cook, one such colleague, the greatest writer in her field.

Writing Tips

Professor Martha Curley does not suggest any specific handbook or style guide to students—all she asks of students is that they match their style to the style of the journal they have selected to receive their work. There is a wide range of styles in nursing journals, for example from conversational to technical to scientific. Each piece should match the readership of the journal, which can be clinical nurses, nurse managers, nurse scientists, etc. When Penn students struggle with their writing, Professor Curley suggests that they visit tutors at the Weingarten Center.


Important Criteria for Student Writing

In the ordered list below, there is a break between two sets of criteria. Professor Curley considers the first set far more important than the second, stressing that students focus on original ideas, reasoning and evidence ahead of grammar and mechanics, proper formatting, and other such technical criteria.

  1. Having original ideas
  2. Reasoning and evidence
  3. Organization
  4. Demonstrating mastery of the content

  5. Grammar and mechanics
  6. Following the assignment instructions
  7. Proper formatting (fonts, margins, etc.)
  8. Style
  9. Following the discipline's citation practices

Personal Writing Process

When Professor Curley writes papers, she first plans the tables and figures and then writes by section, beginning with the introduction. Following that she focuses on the methods, then results, then discussion/conclusion, and finally, the abstract. Professor Curley rewrites these sections over and over again, often with the input of other colleagues, so that her articles have the best possible chance of being published in prestigious science journals.

Links

Back to Writing in the Discipline

Other professors in nursing: Professor Libonati



© 2013 The University of Pennsylvania