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PubMedDate not supplied

The evaluation of students' reflective writing for evidence of critical thinking.

The purpose of this study was to establish interrater reliability of the Critical Thinking Scale (CTS), a teacher-accessible tool designed to measure the critical thinking of baccalaureate nursing students as evidenced in their reflective writing about their practice experiences.The study is an extension of an earlier pilot test of the CTS. Graduating students from a nursing program at a small liberal arts college were asked to write about a significant practice experience encountered during their last clinical course. Three teachers used the CTS to independently evaluate the students' writing. California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST) scores provided a standard measure of critical thinking. Results indicated statistically significant positive relationships between the CCTST total critical thinking score and mean teacher ratings using the CTS. Meaningfully significant interrater reliability ratings for the CTS were also found. With further development, the CTS has promise as an appropriate tool to evaluate students' reflective writing for evidence of critical thinking.

Adult↗

PubMed1991

[Experience in using personal computers in writing and publishing books].

Experiences in using personal computers in writing and publishing books are presented. Since 1984, I have written 8 books, translated 4, and edited two books, in all of which personal computers/wordprocessors have been somehow involved. Their relationships to computers were; writing using a wordprocessor, drawing graphs and figures by computers, writing books about computers and doing analysis using them, such as acid-base and uptake of inhalational anesthetics. In ten books out of these 14, the printings of text were done electronically from diskettes. This has decreased greatly the work of the author's galley-proof reading. The greatest advantage of the computers/wordprocessors is that they make personal editing possible, thereby compiling materials, writing them into books and improving grammar and wording.

Anesthesiology↗

PubMed1981

Learning to write: can books help?

A distinguished group of writers, editors, and teachers have published at least seven books on scientific writing in the past three years. These authors lament the poor quality of writing in scientific manuscripts and argue that many papers are unclear, verbose, confusing, and abusive to the reader. Several of these works are practical, how-to manuals, while others emphasize the art more than the craft of writing. Authors in academic centers often ignore elementary devices such as how-to books because of misplaced pride plus an assumption of natural writing ability. This article reviews these recent books and suggests that medical authors who have something to say may at least learn to say it clearly.

Humans↗

PubMed1994

Analysis of the structure of original research papers: an aid to writing original papers for publication.

BACKGROUND: An increasing number of people involved in medicine are under pressure to publish research, but there is little understanding of how to describe structured writing. AIM: This paper aims to describe the structure of original research papers published in the British Journal of General Practice with a view to providing insight into the nature of such analyses, and particularly to help researchers and trainers to write and teach writing more successfully. METHOD: A sample of 50 original papers published in the Journal between January 1989 and March 1993 were examined. The papers were subjected to a form of 'move structure analysis', a technique used in applied linguistics; move structure analysis assigns a tentative function to a piece of text, and identifies words/phrases associated with it. To be recognized, moves thus identified had to occur in the same section of the paper in 65% of the corpus, and/or appear in the same order relative to other moves in 50%. RESULTS: Fifteen moves were identified, four in the introduction, three in the method, and four each in the results and discussion. These moves functioned, for example in the discussion, to state limitations and defend successes; describe achievements; contextualize procedures and findings; and offer recommendations. Frequency scores ranged from 66% to 100%, and order stability scores from 50% to 80%, with three moves being unordered. CONCLUSION: It is possible to derive from this study a template for structuring academic medical writing. This template may be built up from the exemplary quotations in the text, to provide assistance to educators and less experienced writers.

Publishing↗

PubMed1993

Annotated bibliography: grant writing.

This is the first in series of annotated bibliographies on research topics that will appear in the ANNA Journal. The bibliographies have been prepared by members of ANNA's Research Special Interest Group. Each bibliography focuses on a particular topic and includes reviews of research books and articles published in nursing and allied health journals in recent years. The series is intended to assist nephrology nurse researchers in locating resources to plan and implement research studies and to communicate and implement research findings. The annotation for each item includes a full citation, a brief summary, and a categorization of the content level. The topic covered in this first bibliography is grant writing. Contributors to the grant writing bibliography were Nancy Hoffart, Janel Parker, and Nancy Seaby. The next installment will cover the research proposal, abstract writing, and the conceptual framework. Topics to be covered in future articles will include: (a) research proposal development and literature review; (b) poster preparation, abstract writing, and collaborative research; (c) instrument references, instrumentation, and reliability and validity; (d) research question, design and methods, and sampling; and (e) statistics and general nursing research texts. The following key was used in rating the content level for each citation: Basic/Introductory--For professionals who have no previous research background. Intermediate--For professionals who possess some knowledge of the research process and terminology, and have participated in some research projects. Advanced--For professionals who possess broad knowledge and experience with research projects.

Nursing Research↗

PubMed1996

Protocol for writing cause-of-death statements for deaths due to natural causes.

The purpose of this article is to describe a protocol that provides suggestions and guides the clinical practice of writing cause-of-death statements for death certificates, autopsy reports, and other medical documents. The 16 members of the Autopsy Committee of the College of American Pathologists (CAP), Northfield, Ill, were appointed by the CAP officers based on demonstrated interest and expertise in autopsy performance and reporting. The committee perceived a need for specific instructions aimed at promoting consistency, accuracy, and completeness when writing cause-of-death statements. Development of a protocol was supported by CAP after approval by the CAP board of governors. The framework for the protocol was based on recommendations of the National Center for Health Statistics, Hyattsville, Md, with additional concepts added by the autopsy committee. The protocol for writing cause-of-death statements for natural causes is expected to foster consistency, accuracy, and completeness in the writing of cause-of-death statements. The quality of individual death certificates, autopsy reports, and national mortality data may improve through protocol usage. Application of the protocol principles should impose no ongoing costs at any user level because no new products or personnel are required for its application.

Autopsy↗

PubMed1995

Scientific writing and editing: a new role for the library.

Traditional library instruction programs teach scientists how to find and manage information, but not how to report their research findings effectively. Since 1990, the William H. Welch Medical Library has sponsored classes on scientific writing and, since 1991, has offered a fee-based editing service for affiliates of the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions. These programs were designed to fill an educational gap: Although formal instruction was offered to support other phases of the scientific communication process, the medical institutions had no central resource designed to help scientists develop and improve their writing skills. The establishment of such a resource at Welch has been well received by the community. Attendance at classes has grown steadily, and in 1993 a credit course on biomedical writing was added to the curriculum. The editing service, introduced in late 1991, has generated more requests for assistance than can be handled by the library's editor. This service not only extends the library's educational outreach but also generates a revenue stream. The Welch program in scientific writing and editing, or elements of it, could provide a model for other academic medical libraries interested in moving in this new direction.

Baltimore↗

PubMed1995

Interdisciplinary research: evaluating writing to learn in the nursing curriculum.

A 3-year collaborative study was conducted by the department head of baccalaureate nursing and the director of writing at a southern university in Louisiana. The research was designed to test the effectiveness of an intense writing-to-learn curriculum intervention incorporated into a required introductory nursing course. Writing-to-learn strategies used in this study were designed to foster personal involvement in the subject matter, improve data comprehension, and encourage critical thinking (Dobie & Poirrier, 1995). The findings reported in this study represent Part III of a 3-year investigation into the effectiveness of using writing-to-learn strategies in freshman nursing classes.

Curriculum↗

PubMed1996

Write it now, or never!

Writers need knowledge and credentials to write, but one key to successful writing is to start writing now. Often the only difference between a published writer and a unpublished writer is simply that the published writer did the writing.

Denial, Psychological↗

PubMed1996

Writing for publication: a workshop to prepare faculty as medical writers.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: A 2 1/2-day Writing for Publication Workshop was presented to faculty and fellows for 5 successive years, 1991-1995. This paper describes the workshop curriculum and reports evaluation results. METHODS: A three-part evaluation plan incorporated both quantitative and qualitative methods. First, a nine-item questionnaire was administered to the 1992-1995 participants immediately prior to and after the workshop to identify perceived change in knowledge and skills. Second, a follow-up qualitative interview was administered to the 1991 and 1992 participants to identify their perceptions of the workshop's usefulness. Third, pre- and postworkshop publications of the 1991 and 1992 participants were analyzed to identify types of publications and significant differences in rates of publication. RESULTS: Eighty individuals participated in the five workshops given during the 1991-1995 period. Pre/post self-assessment data indicated significant increases in perceived knowledge and skill in all nine areas of assessment. The follow-up interview data showed that participants felt that the workshop motivated them to begin and sustain writing projects, gave them skills that made their writing more effective, and demystified the submission and publication processes. Analysis of the difference between pre- and postworkshop rates of publication showed a significant increase in the rate of publication. CONCLUSIONS: The evaluation findings indicate that the Writing for Publication Workshop met its educational objectives. Future curricula to prepare faculty as medical writers need to be tested using quasi-experimental designs to determine their impact on publication productivity and quality.

Analysis of Variance↗

PubMed1997

[Bimanual mirror letter writing: a post-traumatic case].

Mirror writing is inverse writing that can only be read with the help of a mirror. It is generally associated with dominant hemisphere lesions and affects only one hand. We describe the case of a patient who, after cranial injury, developed bimanual mirror writing for letters but no other focal neurological symptom. The only abnormal complementary finding was a zone of left parieto-occipital hypoperfusion visibly by SPECT. No signs of psychological disorder were present to which the dysgraphia could be attributed. Symptoms disappeared after three months. We conclude that isolated bimanual mirror letter writing may be an expression of reversible parieto-occipital dysfunction of the dominant hemisphere.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1999

Impediments to writing do-not-resuscitate orders.

BACKGROUND: Physicians are frequently unaware of their patients' desires regarding end-of-life care. Consequently, opportunities to implement do-not-resuscitate (DNR) orders are often missed. OBJECTIVE: To determine the reasons attending physicians do not write DNR orders when patients face increased mortality. METHODS: Over 4 months, the medical records of all inpatients on the General Medicine Service were reviewed at the time of discharge to identify patients with conditions predicting increased mortality. These cases were presented to a 5-member panel who decided if a DNR order was indicated. Reasons for missing DNR orders were discussed with the attending physicians. RESULTS: Of 613 consecutive admissions, the panel identified 149 patients (24%) for whom DNR orders were indicated. In 88 (59%) of these, DNR orders were absent. The lack of a DNR order did not correlate with age (P = .95), sex (P = .61), or race (P = .80). The attending physicians' explanations for not writing DNR orders in these 88 cases included the belief that the patient was not in imminent danger of death (n = 49 [56%]), the belief that the primary physician should discuss DNR issues (n = 43 [49%]), and the lack of an appropriate opportunity to discuss end-of-life issues (n = 38 [43%]). In 11 (12%) of the 88 cases, patients or their families did not accept the recommendation for a DNR order. No physicians expressed concerns regarding the morality of DNR orders, discomfort discussing end-of-life issues, or the threat of litigation as reasons for not writing a DNR order. CONCLUSIONS: Limitations in the extent and depth of the physician-patient relationship appear to be the most frequent impediments to writing DNR orders in our institution.

Adult↗

PubMed1996

Quantification of essential tremor in writing and drawing.

Eighty-seven patients, aged 15-84 years (mean, 61.8 +/- 16.2 SD), with essential tremor wrote two series of cursive e's and cursive l's on a standard sheet of ruled paper that was mounted on a commercially available digitizing tablet. Forty patients also drew an Archimedes spiral. Postural wrist tremor was measured with a triaxial accelerometer on the dorsum of the horizontally extended hand. The digitizing tablet was sufficiently sensitive to measure sustained visible tremor. Very severe tremor could not be recorded when it prevented a patient from keeping the ballpoint pen on the tablet. The intertrial variability of the handwriting data was such that a 36.0% change in mean acceleration amplitude (cm/s2) and an 8.3% change in mean tremor frequency (Hz) could be detected in the hypothetical population of 30 patients (paired-sample t test, p = 0.01, power = 90%). The intertrial changes detectable with accelerometry were 35.9% (amplitude) and 7.8% (frequency). The correlations between wrist tremor and writing tremor were < 0.60 for amplitude and < 0.25 for frequency. Significant correlations between patient age and tremor frequency and between tremor amplitude and frequency existed for postural tremor but not for writing or drawing tremor. Standard digitizing tablets for personal computers are useful in the quantitative assessment of writing tremor. The amplitude and frequency characteristics of tremor in posture, writing, and drawing may differ significantly.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1984

Writing postures in left-handers: inverters are hand-crossers.

A behavioural approach shows that the inverted hand-writing posture typical of many left-handers is one element of a well-patterned bimanual strategy including (i) counterclockwise rotation of the page; (ii) horizontal orientation of the active forearm on the page; and (iii) positioning of the non-writing hand just below the beginning of the line of writing. The strategy as a whole is liable to represent an adaptation to the necessity of writing with an adduction movement, rather than the symptom of any neurological particularity.

Functional Laterality↗

PubMed1983

Side differences in writing to dictation of aphasics with agraphia: a Graphic Disconnection Syndrome.

The performance of five aphasics with agraphia and right hemiplegia showing side differences in writing to dictation is reported on. It was found that writing with the paralyzed arm, supported by a writing aid, was better than writing with the left hand. In a control group of aphasics with agraphia, but without hemiplegia, such side differences were not found. The conclusion is drawn that in aphasia with hemiplegia the lesions intersect the path between the graphic region of the dominant hemisphere and the corpus callosum. Therefore the observed syndrome is termed "Graphic Disconnection Syndrome."

Adult↗

PubMed1989

Left non-dominant hand mirror writing.

A 38-year-old right-handed woman, who had suffered a left cerebral hemisphere infarction, was studied. She developed right hemiparesis, motor and sensory aphasia, and left hand mirror writing. All possible brain mechanisms involved in writing, either perceptual or motor, were investigated in search of the one responsible for her mirror writing; however, no abnormality was detected. On examination of the left handwriting, in the directionality of writing tracings as related to the body midline, we detected a lack of inversion of the right handwriting motor patterns--at the moment they are transmitted from the left to the right cerebral hemisphere--implicating a motor rather than a perceptual mechanism.

Adult↗

PubMed1989

Mirror writing: an advantage for the left-handed?

It has been claimed that left-handed individuals are better than right-handers at writing in a mirror script (R. Tankle & K. Heilman, 1983, Brain and Language, 19, 115-123). We tested this claim by comparing the mirror writing ability of normal right- and left-handed adults as a function of hand used and hand use order. Our results do not support the notion of a left-hander superiority in mirror writing since, in two different experiments, right-handed individuals were found to be as good as left-handers. Instead, we obtained evidence for an order effect such that in both experiments, mirror writing was faster in those who started the task with their right hand.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Limitations of the dual-process-theory regarding the writing of words and non-words to dictation.

It is generally assumed that the lexical and phonological systems are involved in writing to dictation. In an experiment concerned with the writing of words and non-words to dictation, the handwriting of female students was registered using a digitising tablet. The data contradict the assumption that the phonological system represents an alexical process. Both words and non-words which were acoustically presented to the subjects were lexically parsed. The analysis of kinematic data revealed significant differences between the subjects' writing of words and non-words. The findings reveal gross disturbances of handwriting fluency during the writing of non-words. The findings of the experiment cannot be explained by the dual-process-theory.

Adult↗