What Is Scholarly

Writing

Adapted from Walden University Writing Center

 This open access textbook (free)
is intended to guide best practices
in the journey of scholarly writing
in the context of the nursing
The profession.

Scholarship of This resource is designed for

students in undergraduate nursing
Writing in programs and may also be useful
for students in other health-related
Nursing post-secondary programs,
graduate students, and healthcare
Education providers.

https://pressbooks.library.ryerso
n
.ca/scholarlywriting/
 Known as academic writing.
What Is
Scholarly
Writing ? It is writing used in all academic
fields.
What is Academic
Writing
Scholarly writing is not better than
journalism, fiction, or poetry; it is
just a different category.
 Formal language and
tone expected

Scholarly Original thought with

careful citation
Clear and direct
statements

Perspective

Grammar and Wording is specialized,

composition are requiring previous
important foundations knowledge on the part
• Not google translate or of the reader
translation services
 colloquialisms, slang,

Avoid biased
contractions, 
language,

rhetorical second person

questions, pronouns
 Introduction
• background information or purpose

Thesis Statement
• the brief articulation of your paper's central argument and purpose

Body of paragraphs
• Main Idea: Your topic sentence stating the concrete claim the paragraph is advancing.
• Evidence: Paraphrase or direct quotations from the source material you are using to support
your topic sentence's claim
• Analysis: Your explanation and evaluation of the evidence; explaining the evidence you
provided and its relevance in your own words

Writing Process
• Lead Out: Concluding; preparing your reader to transition to the next paragraph (and the next
claim).

(3:01)
Conclusion
• Summaries main ideas
• it provides closure for the reader while reminding the reader of the contents and importance
of the paper.
• For most course papers, it is usually one paragraph that simply and succinctly restates the
main ideas and arguments, pulling everything together to help clarify the thesis of the paper. 
• Dies not introduce new ideas

Headers may be required

• clarify your logic and organization for the reader by establishing a hierarchy of sections in the
paper.
• In APA 7, all heading levels use title case

Crash Course in the Writing Process

• (3:01)
 Those insights
The author is
must be Not based on

Original Thought
expected to
grounded in personal
have insights
research, critica experience or
on the issue at
l reading, and opinion.
hand
analysis
 Citing of sources and the presence of a
reference list

Cited evidence with analysis

Careful
Citation The writing is informed by and shows
engagement with the larger body of
literature on the topic at hand

All assertions are supported by relevant

sources.
 Needs Improvement:
• I think that childhood obesity needs to be prevented because it Is bad and it causes
health problems.

Better:

Original • I believe that childhood obesity must be prevented because it is linked to health
problems and deaths in adults (McMillan, 2010).

Thought Good:
Example • Georges (2002) explained that there "has never been a disease so devastating and yet so
preventable as obesity" (p. 35). In fact, the number of deaths that can be linked to obesity are
astounding. According to McMillan (2010), there is a direct correlation between childhood obesity
and heart attacks later in their adult lives, and the American Heart Association's 2010 statistic
sheet shows similar statistics: 49% of all heart attacks are preventable (AHA, 2010). Because of this
correlation, childhood obesity is an issue that must be addressed and prevented to ensure the
health of both children and adults.

Notice: that the first example gives a personal opinion but cites no sources or research. The second
example gives a bit of research but still emphasizes the personal opinion. The third example, however, still
gives the writer’s opinion (that childhood obesity must be addressed), but it does so by synthesizing the
information from multiple sources to help persuade the reader.
 Reading retention and comprehension
involve remembering and understanding the
Critical main ideas

Reading for
Writing
Creating Citation fro Critical reading begins the process of taking
m Reference Entries action.
(1:57)
instead, you
you are not simply absorbing the
are interpreting, categorizing, questioning, you are engaging in higher-order thinking
information
and weighing the value of that information.
 Citations in your
paper are Failure to cite

Why Cite?
necessary to properly could
provide credit to result in
the proper plagiarism.
sources
 Here is an example of citations within a paragraph:

True and Noble (2009) found many students are highly confused about citation. They also indicated some students receive erroneous
information about citations or some professors are too lenient with them, causing even more confusion. In fact, Jones (2011) found 99
out of 100 students agreed citing work could seem like a "complex, maddening process" (p. 64).

Elements
Sources are cited narratively or parenthetically in each sentence in which they are used. The author
and date citation can be left out, however, in contiguous following sentences that further explain the

How To Cite
same source as long as the sentences clearly signal that the same source is being discussed.

Parenthetical citations appear within the ending punctuation of a sentence.

Publication years appear after the authors.

Quotation page numbers appear after the quotation. Note that the page number is represented as p. 64,
and a paragraph would be represented as para. 4. If a quotation spans multiple pages, use pp.

The full word "and" is used for citations in the narrative, and the ampersand symbol (&) is used for
parenthetical citations.
 Citation issues can appear when writers
• use too few citations,
• use too many citations,
• use too much information from a source in place of
blending the source information with their own
informed analysis and commentary on the
How Often information
to Cite Ask
• Did provide adequate commentary on cited material
• Did I begin and end paragraph in my own voice
• Did I use cited material to support my thoughts
• Did I rely too much on one source
• Do I have too many direct quotes
 Crash Course In Scholarly
Writing Video (3:03)

Note that this video was

Crash Course In scholarly Wri
ting
created while APA 6 was the
style guide edition in use.
There may be some examples
of writing that have not been
updated to APA 7 guidelines.