This series aims to give all grades of nurses some useful tips on how to improve their academic writing when submitting work to a university. Previous articles have identified the reasons why someone may fail an assignment and the key points to follow to ensure that you will pass an assignment. Subsequent articles in the series will examine specific areas that will help all students construct and submit a successful piece of academic writing.
Whenever students start a new module and receive the course information, the part that most of them turn to first is the assignment question. Some read it and relax, feeling that it is something they are comfortable with, others become worried as they don't understand what is being asked, and a third group read the question and then interpret it in a way that misses key points of the assignment. Most students come to one of these conclusions in about 60 seconds. There are problems with each of these three common conclusions, which could easily result in the student achieving a lower grade than they might have done, or even failing the assignment completely.
Reading the question and feeling comfortable that you know what is being asked:
Although this appears reassuring and gives the student a degree of confidence that they understand the question, there is a danger that they miss one or two important parts of the assignment. This may result in an assignment answer that focuses on only 70% of the question set and does not address the other 30% of the question. Although what they have written may be of good quality, the assignment can never achieve a high grade as they have only answered 70% of the question. Consider the following question: Discuss the importance of an holistic assessment of a newly diagnosed diabetic teenage boy admitted to a medical ward for assessment and insulin management. Most students reading that question would feel comfortable with it and feel confident in being able to answer it. But my experience of marking many hundreds of similar questions is that students do not answer all of the question. Some students miss the ‘holistic’ assessment, focusing on the physical but missing either the psychological, social, spiritual or family-centred aspects. Some students miss the significance of the ‘teenage’ perspective or the differences that gender may have at that age. Some miss the relevance of ‘newly diagnosed’ and the implications that will have for this particular patient. Others will miss the nuances of ‘importance’ or the relationship of ‘assessment’ to future care planning and treatment. There is also some ambiguity in the question regarding where the boy is admitted. We are told he is a teenager admitted to a medical ward; if he is a younger teenager then that will be a paediatric ward, if 18 or 19 then it would be an adult ward—subtle but significant differences that an ‘A’ grade student could identify and debate. Thus what can be seen initially as a straightforward question (and it is) may only be partially answered if it is not carefully analysed by the student.
Reading the question and then not understanding what is required:
This is probably the example that most of us can identify with. To return to our question: Discuss the importance of an holistic assessment of a newly diagnosed diabetic teenage boy admitted to a medical ward for assessment and insulin management A surprising number of students don't understand the term ‘assessment’ and stray into treatment, or inject no structure or model into their assessment. Others fail to appreciate the breadth of the term ‘holistic’ and just give a physical assessment perspective. All of these errors demonstrate that the student has not taken the time or effort to examine each aspect of the question. The solution to this is to discuss the question with other students and possibly your clinical mentor. Use a simple search engine to make sure you understand key words, exploring at this stage not what the answer is, but what the question is asking.
Reading the question and then interpreting it in a different way that misses key points:
This is a mistake often made by the more experienced nurse on a post-registration course. They often have specialist interest in a topic and for various reasons project that perspective onto their answer at the expense of key aspects of the question set. They can produce a well-written answer, but it does not fully answer the question. In our example of the teenager with diabetes; they may submit a wonderful answer on diabetes management of a teenage patient based on years of experience, but if they have not ‘discussed’ the importance of holistic assessment, then they can never achieve a higher grade, which they probably could easily achieve if they had fully answered the question set. The solution here is to carefully reflect on the question set, produce a plan that covers the question and if possible discuss it with your lecturer and then make sure you follow your plan.
Essay writing is a skill involving thought and planning. If you ignore the first step of exploring the question then it will be difficult to produce a well-structured assignment that builds on your analysis of the question set.