Complete Guide on Crafting a Nursing Research Paper that Rocks

The General Notion of Nursing Research Paper Writing

Nursing is a complicated and broad object for the investigation that a significant number of students have to deal with to expand their knowledge. The central aim of the Nursing research paper is to explore a relevant nursing issue and find possible solutions. For example, the particular fields of nursing that can be covered in your research paper include psychiatric nursing, healthcare management, healthcare, evidence-based medicine, clinic hygiene, home-based healthcare, healthcare practices, and ethics. Hence, nursing is a branch of medicine that is about easing the patient’s pain and dealing with patients’ psyche.

While writing the research paper, you will be able to enhance your ability to assess the patient and critically analyze, develop, and communicate the plan of care. To make your paper more specific, you may investigate the chosen topic through the prism of different fields, such as pathology, anatomy, population health, pharmacology, and physiology. As you can see, the Nursing research paper requires you to conduct in-depth research and apply your analytical and critical thinking at the same time.

Meet the Basic Types of Research Paper

Before selecting the topic for your paper, you have to choose the type of the paper itself since the particular type has special requirements for the topic. Your professor may ask you to write a specific type of research paper. If yes, the following description of each will help you to understand what you should cover in your research paper. In general, there are two major types of research papers – analytical and argumentative. The first type requires you to explore and evaluate a certain issue. It means that you have to present a well-arranged analysis. For the second type, you should persuade your readers with the help of strong arguments. The following two paragraphs will provide you with more detailed information about these two types of research papers.

Analytical Research Papers

In this type of research paper, you can present a specific analysis of a literary text investigate various healthcare studies to understand how a particular scholar came to his/her results. The purpose of this paper is to analyze a set of materials or experiments and then present your point of view on an issue. Therefore, you have to create a good analytical question to be able to explore it from different perspectives. Besides, you should describe an issue as well according to one of the following common analytic designs to develop new ideas:

• Question/Answer;
• Comparison/Contrast;
• Problem/Solution;
• Cause/Effect;
• Hypothesis/Proof;
• Change Over Time.

Keep in mind that if your paper contains several paragraphs, you have to analyze only one important idea per paragraph. Therefore, your first sentence of each paragraph should be a summary statement, and the following ones have to support, expand, or clarify the first statement.

Argumentative Research Papers

Here, you have to select a debatable issue to be able to present diverse points of view on one. Consequently, you have to investigate different studies to find compelling arguments. Besides, you should choose a side and present points that both support and contradict it. In other words, you have to present each argument fairly and clearly to show the state of affairs objectively. As a result, if you address the opposition properly, you will successfully complete the following tasks:

• to present a well-rounded understanding of the chosen topic;
• to illustrate a lack of bias;
• to increase the level of trust;
• to strengthen the argument by diminishing the opposition’s arguments.

To address the opposition properly, you need to put yourself on the contrary position. Therefore, you should develop several good reasons why you may support that particular side of the argument. You have to search for the necessary facts, quotes, and evidence to refute the points that the opposition may make.

How to Choose the Topic that Is Appropriate & Truly Interesting for You

Usually, college professors provide students with a list of acceptable topics for a research paper. However, if you do not have such a list, choose the most suitable topic on your own. This part of a research paper becomes as important as the quality of it, and your mark depends on the chosen topic as well. If you select the topic that is too narrow, you will not be able to expand it further.

Moreover, if you choose an absolute topic, you may not find any relevant sources. Therefore, you should search for the current issues and then choose one of them. At the same time, it is better to select the topic that you’re interested and have proficient knowledge in since it will be easier for you to create good content and complete the paper on time. Besides, while creating a title for your research paper, you have to remember that it should not exceed fifty-one characters or twelve words. Apart from that, you are not allowed to underline, italicize, or bold the title. Hence, you have to consider a lot of aspects to choose an appropriate topic and create a good title. Consequently, selecting a topic for the Nursing Research Paper is one of the most complicated parts of the entire writing process since there are plenty of topics that have been discussed.

As a result, your topic should be:

• specific, but not too narrow;
• relevant;
• interesting for you;
• no longer than fifty-characters or twelve words;
• not underlined, bolded, or italicized.

Therefore, the following list of topics is appropriate for your Nursing research paper:

• Nursing Science During the 20th Century;
• Should Nurses Complete Additional Training?
• Nurses’ Safety on the Working Place;
• Psychiatric Nursing: the Aspects of the Field;
• The Importance of Neonatal Care Nursing.

How to Choose Appropriate Sources to Dig Facts from?

Have you finally chosen the topic to research? Now you have to look for some reliable sources. Generally, there are three types of sources of information – primary, secondary, and tertiary. You need to be aware of the peculiarities of each to know what type is appropriate for your paper. For writing the research paper, you can use all types of sources. Primary sources present the original materials which are applied for writing research papers. This source type includes research materials published in academic journals, interviews, surveys, and court records. Secondary sources analyze or describe primary sources, i.e., different books and articles that review or interpret original fieldworks are known as secondary sources. Besides, encyclopedias, dictionaries, and textbooks can be called the secondary sources. Tertiary sources are utilized to organize or locate both primary and secondary sources. They are various databases and indexes. The following list of sources provided by our nursing research paper writing service may be useful for writing the Nursing research paper:

• The National Library of Medicine (presents free and reliable information resources which nursing students can use);
• MedlinePlus (provides credible information about various disorders and links to the latest medical research);
• PubMeD (contains more than twenty-eight million citations from life science journals and different online books);
• Nursing Resources for Standards and Interoperability.

You can use different reliable websites which end in .edu or .gov. These websites are credible because various educational institutions or governments maintain them. Thus, when you find all the necessary information, you will be able to start the prewriting process to collect the ideas for your assignment.

Pre-Writing Activities to Get You Fired Up to Write Great Paper

Before you proceed to nursing research paper writing itself, you have to get the main points and arguments together. To collect as many ideas as possible, you may apply the following pre-writing activities. The first activity is called “Brainstorming.” The central aim of it is to write as many ideas as possible in the form of a list. The next prewriting strategy is called “Freewriting.” It is similar to the previous one, but here you have to write full sentences. When you’re done with it, you will get the first draft of your paper. The third strategy is called “Mindmapping.” For this activity, you have to choose a few major ideas and put them in circles. Then, draw some lines that will symbolize the supporting ideas. The last prewriting strategy is outlining, and it requires you to outline the entire research paper. If you cannot create the outline without preparation, you can complete the previous activities and then proceed with outlining. The primary purpose of this strategy is to develop the brief plan of the research paper. To cope with it, you have to create a thesis statement and several arguments with supporting ideas. As a result, it can be noticed that with the help of the prewriting strategies mentioned above, the process of writing will be much easier since all the major points will be collected.

Common Research Paper Formatting Styles

Since the Nursing research paper should be written according to a specific format, let’s take a look at the basics of one. In case of the most popular APA format, you have to develop a particular structure of the paper with the title page, the abstract, the main body, and the reference page. Second of all, you have to remember that the APA referencing style requires you to create a specific referencing that will contain the author’s/authors’ last name and the year of publication. Besides, you may provide the page number if it is available. The citation should look like this “(Smith, 2018, p. 1).” What is more, the entire paper should be typed in twelve-point Times New Roman font. As you can see, many aspects need to be taken into consideration to receive a high mark.

The Basic Structure

The Nursing research paper has a particular structure that contains the Title Page, the Abstract, the Main Body, and the Reference Page. The following paragraphs will describe each aspect of the paper in detail.

The Title Page

This part of the research paper contains the title of the paper, the running head, the author’s name, and the institutional affiliation. The running head should be placed in the page header and present the title of the paper. In addition, the title should attract the readers’ attention and should not contain any abbreviations or words that have no purpose.

The Abstract

The Abstract has to be written on the separate page. Moreover, the word “Abstract” should be typed in the center of the page. This paragraph should contain the summary of the key points of your research paper since this part introduces the topic to the readers. For example, if you choose neonatal care nursing as your topic for the research paper, you may enumerate some significant aspects of this field. The Abstract shouldn’t be less than 250 words. Plus, you need to list the paper keywords after the summary. To do that, type the word “Keywords” in italics and then enumerate keywords. The summary should not be indented, while the line with keywords should.

The Main Body

The Main Body of the research paper consists of the Introduction, the Main Body paragraphs, and the Conclusion. In the Introduction, you need to provide background information, primary arguments, and the thesis statement. You are not allowed to include any in-text citations and quotations here. Furthermore, you have to present all the arguments that were mentioned in the Abstract, describing only one point per paragraph. Insert some citations here to support your arguments. You may use some charts to present figures. To make the paper smooth, utilize some linking words. Remember that the chosen linking words have to correspond to the context. Otherwise, your readers may be confused. In the concluding section, you have to restate your thesis statement and support it with arguments mentioned in the Main Body paragraphs. Just like in the case of the Introduction, you cannot use any citations here. Thus, if your research paper is well-structured, the readers will be able to understand your ideas properly.

The Reference Page

The Reference page has to be placed on the separate page, right after the Main Body of the paper. In the center of the page, you need to write the word “References.” Then, you may enumerate all the sources that you have used. All entries should be provided in alphabetical order. Besides, each mentioned source has to be indented one-half inch.

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References

1. “A Guide to Prewriting Techniques.” Berkeley Student Learning Center, 2018, slc.berkeley.edu/you-start-writing-paper-guide-prewriting-techniques-0.
2. “Common Assignments: Writing in Nursing.” Walden University, 2018, academicguides.waldenu.edu/writingcenter/assignments/nursing.
3. Hallas, Donna, and Harriet R. Feldman. “A guide to scholarly writing in nursing.” NSNA Imprint 53.4 (2006): 80-83.
4. “Research Help: Types of Sources.” McQuade Library, 2018, libguides.merrimack.edu/research_help/Sources.
5. “Types of Research Papers.” Excelsior College OWL, 2018, owl.excelsior.edu/research/research-process/research-process-types-of-research-papers/.