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From Thesis to Publication
AORN JOURNAL
JANUARY 1992, VOL 55, NO 1
From Thesis to Publication PREPARING YOURSCHOOL PAPER FOR PUBLICATION Susan V. M. Kleinbeck, RN
S
tudents absorb a great deal of knowledge in the process of developing and writing a major school paper, thesis, or dissertation. The style of writing and the format required by faculty, however, generally is not acceptable to journal editors. Success in writing is measured by how effectively the interest of the audience can be captured. The audience in school is the instructor; the audience of a journal is the subscriber. Students who wish to publish should translate the information in their academic papers into the language used in specialty journals.
Susan V. M . Kleinbeck, RN, MS, CNOR, was an assistant professor of nursing at Wichita (Kan) State University at the time this article was written. She earned her nursing diploma at St Francis Hospital School of Nursing, Wichita, Kan, and her bachelor of science and master of science degrees in nursing at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. 204
Write for the Audience
P
erioperative nurses who return to school for post-RN degrees frequently are required to write major papers. Although the specific topic may be selected by the student, the professor defines the style of writing to follow (eg, American Psychological Association, Turabian), the number of pages required, the objectives that must be met, and the date the paper is due. Success depends on the content of the paper and how closely the professor’s directions are followed. The best reward is a grade of A+ and a “well done” note on the title page. The format is even more stringent for a master’s thesis or dissertation. These projects are divided into sections or chapters that follow the research protocol. A problem is defined and analyzed based on an in-depth literature review of multiple sources. Students spend hours, days, and weeks developing, writing, rewriting, and testing their research questions. At the completion of the project, the student often is an expert in the area he or she explored. Success occurs when the advisor or committee accepts the final product. The thrill of turning in your thesis book, the last requirement before graduation, is explosive. Can your thesis be published so other operating room nurses might learn something from all your work? The answer is yes, you can publish the information, but not in the school’s format. You must write in the style of the journal publishing it and direct it to the audience that reads the journal.
,
JANUARY 1992, VOL 55, N O 1
Rewriting is Unthinkable
I
f you spend an entire semester or longer writing about a subject, the idea of rewriting one more time is abhorrent. The first thing to do, therefore, is put the manuscript away for a couple of weeks. Then force yourself to read it again and highlight anything you believe would help other nurses. Think about your new audience. Ask yourself who would benefit from the information. Who could use the results of your library searches, analyses, and conclusions? Select a journal based on the interests of the readers. Choose the journal that attracts the readers with whom you want to share your information. For example, if you want to share with perioperative nurses, select the AORN Journal. Once the specialty group is identified, reread the highlighted segments of the project. Forget about style or format, and let your mind wander without editing the highlights. What news or facts might be of interest to your selected audience? Is there data that might make a difference in patient care or in the management of patient care? Could educators use the content to teach students? These exercises will help you shift from concentrating on a school paper to thinking like an author preparing a manuscript. Expect conversion from thinking like a student to writing like an author to take some time. Continue to explore, question, and ponder the issue of your audience’s needs. One author suggests three criteria to guide content selection.’ Is it new? Is it true? 0 Is it important?
Writing an Outline
0
utlines are like road maps. They tell you where you are going and where you have been. This guide or map is essential to successful publishing. Before writing an outline, authors usually have a series of ideas competing for attention. These ideas often are free floating and without a logical order.
AORN JOURNAL
Writing an outline puts the ideas on paper, so the author can test the relationship between each idea and see the logical sequence of ideas. The object is to list the major ideas and the steps in which they will be developed. Outlines can be in the form of single words, phrases, sentences, or questions. The skeleton outline for this article included the phrase subheadings that precede each topic. A more detailed, complete sentence or question outline is advantageous because each statement can serve as the first sentence of succeeding paragraphs.
Query Letter
A
fter the audience and the journal have been selected and the outline is com.plete, write to the editor of the journal and ask if he or she is interested in an article about your topic. Most editors welcome fresh ideas from novice or experienced authors. Give enough information in the query letter so the editor can determine readers’ interest in your topic. If you mail a copy of the outline along with the letter, you often will receive feedback or suggestions with the response. Each journal publishes author guidelines. These instructions provide the format including margin requirements, page limitations, reference style, and many other details particular to that publication. Editors, like teachers, recognize and appreciate authors who study the guidelines and prepare a manuscript in the requested style.
Talk the Rough Draft
T
he secret to writing is not to edit as you write. Pretend to be talking to a nurse in the audience. Write as though you were talking, and resist the temptation to go back and change words. Use the outline to guide a description of what you see as the problem, what others have said about it, and what you know about the topic now. Offer recommendations for implementing the new information in the nurses’ work settings. If your audience 205
AORN JOURNAL
JANUARY 1992. VOL 5 5 , NO I
includes clinicians, tell them how to apply the knowledge to patient care situations. Administrators prefer strategies for managing employees, equipment, supplies, or budgets. Include the literature review, but compress it into one or two paragraphs for your new audience. Expand the conclusion and nursing implications sections. Suggest examples the audience can see as applicable to their work setting.
It is Never Right the First Time
A
fter finishing your first draft, put the manuscript away for a while. The next reading should be from a fresh, critical point of view. Edit and rewrite with an aim to be more clear, succinct, brief, and convincing. Replace dull words with sparkling ones, cancel redundancies, and smooth awkward sentences. Editors call this revision because it comes from reviewing-looking at the words again to make sure they are right. After revising your manuscript, ask one or two colleagues who belong to the target audience to read the article. Consider your colleagues’ suggestions, make any changes, and mail copies of the manuscript to the editor.
Summary
W
riting to share knowledge with colleagues is a professional responsibility. 1 encourage graduates of advanced degree programs to publish new information in a format that the working nurse can read and use. Success is seeing your thesis transformed into a published manuscript that will capture the interest of other nurses. 0 Note 1 . L Debakey, The Scientific Journal: Editorial Policies and Practices - Guidelines for Editors, Reviewers, and Authors (St Louis: The C V Mosby Co, 1976).
206
Delegate Voting for National Officers Delegates representing the AORN members are empowered to cast ballots to elect officers, board members, and members of the Nominating Committee. This important activity is incorporated into the Congress schedule on Thursday, March 19, from 7 to 9 AM in Rooms E409-E4 10. Candidate presentations and interview opportunities are important in preparing to vote. Delegates may bring notes to the polling area. Appropriate delegate identification (delegate badge) is required to receive a ballot.
Specialty Discussion Groups at Congress This year, specialty discussion group sessions will be held twice to allow Congress attendees to participate in more than one group. The sessions will be held on Tuesday, March 17, from 7:30 to 8:30 AM, and Thursday, March 19, from 8 to 9 AM. The meetings are informal and do not offer contact hours. They provide a central location for nurses to gather and discuss common interests. The groups will meet at the Dallas Convention Center. AORN will provide rooms for members to meet and discuss special interests and topics. Room numbers will be published in the Congress News.
JANUARY 1992, VOL 55, NO 1
From Thesis to Publication PREPARING YOURSCHOOL PAPER FOR PUBLICATION Susan V. M. Kleinbeck, RN
S
tudents absorb a great deal of knowledge in the process of developing and writing a major school paper, thesis, or dissertation. The style of writing and the format required by faculty, however, generally is not acceptable to journal editors. Success in writing is measured by how effectively the interest of the audience can be captured. The audience in school is the instructor; the audience of a journal is the subscriber. Students who wish to publish should translate the information in their academic papers into the language used in specialty journals.
Susan V. M . Kleinbeck, RN, MS, CNOR, was an assistant professor of nursing at Wichita (Kan) State University at the time this article was written. She earned her nursing diploma at St Francis Hospital School of Nursing, Wichita, Kan, and her bachelor of science and master of science degrees in nursing at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. 204
Write for the Audience
P
erioperative nurses who return to school for post-RN degrees frequently are required to write major papers. Although the specific topic may be selected by the student, the professor defines the style of writing to follow (eg, American Psychological Association, Turabian), the number of pages required, the objectives that must be met, and the date the paper is due. Success depends on the content of the paper and how closely the professor’s directions are followed. The best reward is a grade of A+ and a “well done” note on the title page. The format is even more stringent for a master’s thesis or dissertation. These projects are divided into sections or chapters that follow the research protocol. A problem is defined and analyzed based on an in-depth literature review of multiple sources. Students spend hours, days, and weeks developing, writing, rewriting, and testing their research questions. At the completion of the project, the student often is an expert in the area he or she explored. Success occurs when the advisor or committee accepts the final product. The thrill of turning in your thesis book, the last requirement before graduation, is explosive. Can your thesis be published so other operating room nurses might learn something from all your work? The answer is yes, you can publish the information, but not in the school’s format. You must write in the style of the journal publishing it and direct it to the audience that reads the journal.
,
JANUARY 1992, VOL 55, N O 1
Rewriting is Unthinkable
I
f you spend an entire semester or longer writing about a subject, the idea of rewriting one more time is abhorrent. The first thing to do, therefore, is put the manuscript away for a couple of weeks. Then force yourself to read it again and highlight anything you believe would help other nurses. Think about your new audience. Ask yourself who would benefit from the information. Who could use the results of your library searches, analyses, and conclusions? Select a journal based on the interests of the readers. Choose the journal that attracts the readers with whom you want to share your information. For example, if you want to share with perioperative nurses, select the AORN Journal. Once the specialty group is identified, reread the highlighted segments of the project. Forget about style or format, and let your mind wander without editing the highlights. What news or facts might be of interest to your selected audience? Is there data that might make a difference in patient care or in the management of patient care? Could educators use the content to teach students? These exercises will help you shift from concentrating on a school paper to thinking like an author preparing a manuscript. Expect conversion from thinking like a student to writing like an author to take some time. Continue to explore, question, and ponder the issue of your audience’s needs. One author suggests three criteria to guide content selection.’ Is it new? Is it true? 0 Is it important?
Writing an Outline
0
utlines are like road maps. They tell you where you are going and where you have been. This guide or map is essential to successful publishing. Before writing an outline, authors usually have a series of ideas competing for attention. These ideas often are free floating and without a logical order.
AORN JOURNAL
Writing an outline puts the ideas on paper, so the author can test the relationship between each idea and see the logical sequence of ideas. The object is to list the major ideas and the steps in which they will be developed. Outlines can be in the form of single words, phrases, sentences, or questions. The skeleton outline for this article included the phrase subheadings that precede each topic. A more detailed, complete sentence or question outline is advantageous because each statement can serve as the first sentence of succeeding paragraphs.
Query Letter
A
fter the audience and the journal have been selected and the outline is com.plete, write to the editor of the journal and ask if he or she is interested in an article about your topic. Most editors welcome fresh ideas from novice or experienced authors. Give enough information in the query letter so the editor can determine readers’ interest in your topic. If you mail a copy of the outline along with the letter, you often will receive feedback or suggestions with the response. Each journal publishes author guidelines. These instructions provide the format including margin requirements, page limitations, reference style, and many other details particular to that publication. Editors, like teachers, recognize and appreciate authors who study the guidelines and prepare a manuscript in the requested style.
Talk the Rough Draft
T
he secret to writing is not to edit as you write. Pretend to be talking to a nurse in the audience. Write as though you were talking, and resist the temptation to go back and change words. Use the outline to guide a description of what you see as the problem, what others have said about it, and what you know about the topic now. Offer recommendations for implementing the new information in the nurses’ work settings. If your audience 205
AORN JOURNAL
JANUARY 1992. VOL 5 5 , NO I
includes clinicians, tell them how to apply the knowledge to patient care situations. Administrators prefer strategies for managing employees, equipment, supplies, or budgets. Include the literature review, but compress it into one or two paragraphs for your new audience. Expand the conclusion and nursing implications sections. Suggest examples the audience can see as applicable to their work setting.
It is Never Right the First Time
A
fter finishing your first draft, put the manuscript away for a while. The next reading should be from a fresh, critical point of view. Edit and rewrite with an aim to be more clear, succinct, brief, and convincing. Replace dull words with sparkling ones, cancel redundancies, and smooth awkward sentences. Editors call this revision because it comes from reviewing-looking at the words again to make sure they are right. After revising your manuscript, ask one or two colleagues who belong to the target audience to read the article. Consider your colleagues’ suggestions, make any changes, and mail copies of the manuscript to the editor.
Summary
W
riting to share knowledge with colleagues is a professional responsibility. 1 encourage graduates of advanced degree programs to publish new information in a format that the working nurse can read and use. Success is seeing your thesis transformed into a published manuscript that will capture the interest of other nurses. 0 Note 1 . L Debakey, The Scientific Journal: Editorial Policies and Practices - Guidelines for Editors, Reviewers, and Authors (St Louis: The C V Mosby Co, 1976).
206
Delegate Voting for National Officers Delegates representing the AORN members are empowered to cast ballots to elect officers, board members, and members of the Nominating Committee. This important activity is incorporated into the Congress schedule on Thursday, March 19, from 7 to 9 AM in Rooms E409-E4 10. Candidate presentations and interview opportunities are important in preparing to vote. Delegates may bring notes to the polling area. Appropriate delegate identification (delegate badge) is required to receive a ballot.
Specialty Discussion Groups at Congress This year, specialty discussion group sessions will be held twice to allow Congress attendees to participate in more than one group. The sessions will be held on Tuesday, March 17, from 7:30 to 8:30 AM, and Thursday, March 19, from 8 to 9 AM. The meetings are informal and do not offer contact hours. They provide a central location for nurses to gather and discuss common interests. The groups will meet at the Dallas Convention Center. AORN will provide rooms for members to meet and discuss special interests and topics. Room numbers will be published in the Congress News.