Writing Requirements for professional and academic work in Nursing:
Do your own work: All work must be original and created by you as the author. When sources of information are used, they must be cited correctly in APA format to give credit to the author. All in-text citations require an entry (in APA format) on the reference page.
Basics:
12-point Times New Roman font. Double spaced and left justified.
Running head includes your name and the course with AM or PM (this is not APA but required)
Margins are all one inch.
Paragraphs begin with a half inch tab (not space bar). No extra spaces between paragraphs (normal double).
Except for in a personal narrative, DO NOT USE ABBREVIATIONS (can’t, don’t, I’m…).
If you are given directions on point of view (this is whether or not you may use first person “I am…, we are…”) follow them throughout the paper.
SPELL CHECK your work (be careful, and double check if you are not sure – patients and patience are not the same thing).
Proofread your work (Grammarly is an excellent tool).
Fundamental rules for citing:
Cite all data, statistics, and numerical facts
If the knowledge is not fully common knowledge (a dog is a mammal is common knowledge, dogs have 42 teeth is not common knowledge and should be cited), then cite it even if you have the knowledge within your own memory.
If you paraphrase, cite the source. When paraphrasing, try to read the information and put it away. Then write your wording.
If you quote directly, use quotation marks (less than 40 words) or hanging indents (40 words or more). Cite with a page or paragraph number in addition to the author and year.
Best source for APA guidance: type what you are looking for into Google with the phrase …in APA. Select the Purdue Owl site. https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/general_format.html
References:
All sources in reference page are in the paper
References are in alphabetical order by author last name
References formatted with hanging indent
References are all double spaced
Created 1/10/2020
Linda Gordon