Cheryl L.

Mee, RN, BC, MSN

10 Lessons on Writing for Publication

• BE CONFIDENT! YOU CAN BE A

Abstract NURSE AUTHOR

• • • •
All nurses have the potential to be an author. Each
nurse can make wonderful contributions to the body
of nursing literature, whether you’re a staff nurse,
educator, manager, or even a student. Your
perspective can help others gain insights into our
profession. The biggest barrier to writing for a
nursing journal is that nurses assume that authors
easily come up with great ideas and write wonderful
articles. That’s not how it works! Investigation and
preparation before writing play a large part in any
successful author’s work. This work is time-
consuming, I admit, but if you do it, you’ll be better
prepared to write and you’ll increase your chances
of having your manuscript accepted by a journal.
The information in this article will help you write
for both formal and informal style journals.
Y
es, most nurses can be nurse authors. But many
don’t even begin to write because they believe
they don’t have the knowledge or experience.
This is a big mistake—and a waste of great
experiences and lessons. Even students can get their
work published in the right journal or newsletter—their
writing reminds seasoned nurses of their own ideals and
experiences that brought them into the profession and
of novice nurses’ needs.
Writing is not just for nurses in academic settings—
you can write about your practice and what you’ve
learned. Nurses like to read about how other nurses in
similar situations solve problems; it helps validate our
work and our commitment to the profession. You have
stories to tell and there are audiences for you.
When it comes to choosing a topic, don’t assume that
your ideas have already been written about or that your
everyday knowledge is prominent in the literature. Your
fresh, unique perspective on a well-known topic may
not be well covered yet. But even if your topic or focus
already is covered in a journal article, don’t be discour-
aged. There are over 150 nursing journals, and the
chances are good that your unique perspective will meet
the needs of one of them. You have no excuse not to
write...you can be a nurse author.

Cheryl Mee is the Editor-in-Chief of Nursing2003 and Program Director of the Nursing2003 Symposium.
Reprinted with permission from Mee C. Ten lessons on writing for publication. Nursing2002 Career Directory. 2002:22-26. Available
online at www.Nursing2003.com. Click journal information, author guideline, writing tips.
© 2002 Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.
Address correspondence to Cheryl Mee, Editor-in-Chief Nursing2003, Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, PO Box 908, 1111
Bethlehem Pike, Springhouse, PA 19477; e-mail: cmee@lww.com.

110 Journal of Infusion Nursing

 Quick tip: Talk to someone who is an experienced
author. He or she can help and advise you and may
even become your writing mentor.
• START SMALL
Another misconception is that you have to write about
a big, broad clinical topic, such as “Pneumonia.” Not
so. Big topics like these are more appropriate for a text-
book chapter. Start smaller. You’ll get your feet wet and
you won’t be discouraged by an immense project. Con-
sider writing for nursing organization newsletters or
doing a short journal piece, even a letter to the editor.
Review nursing journals to see what short columns and
departments they publish, such as a “Tips” department
of small items about making nursing practice easier.
Don’t forget your local newspaper, where news jour-
nalists highly value nurses’ opinions on healthcare. We
don’t see many editorial opinions or letters to the editors
in newspapers simply because nurses are not writing them.
But we need to get our voices in these formats. Readers
like to hear nurses’ “in the trenches” stories and opinions.
If you want to get published in your local newspaper, think
about some healthcare issue that you feel strongly about,
clarify your opinion, then develop your thoughts into a let-
ter. You’ll have a good chance of getting it published.
Quick tip: Read a newspaper or journal to find a
topic you feel passionate about, then write your let-
ter to the editor.
• TOPIC DEVELOPMENT TAKES TIME
AND EFFORT
Many nurses are intimidated by the writing process
because they are not sure what to write about. A com-
mon misconception is that the topic just pops into your
head, like a lightbulb over a cartoon character’s head.
Experienced authors work to develop their topic and
focus. You might start with an idea or an area of exper-
tise—perhaps infusion therapy. But that topic is too
broad for a journal article, so you need to focus and
refine it. Think of the particular aspects that you believe
are important and should be covered, perhaps infusion
therapy in children. Look at the critical issues and focus
in on specifics. Read up on what’s been published
recently on the topic (see the steps below for some help).
With just a bit of searching, you’ll learn more about your
topic and you’ll more clearly define your article topic.
Quick tip: Set aside a designated time just to work on
topic development. Make this a step in your process.
Vol. 26, No. 2, March/April 2003
• GATHER MORE RESOURCES THAN
YOU THINK YOU NEED
Even if you’re an expert in a particular topic, research
the topic in books, journals, on the Internet, and with
your colleagues. Read everything recently published on
the topic. Ask colleagues about the topic, including
some who specialize in the topic area, but also talk to
other nurses who don’t deal with it routinely or are new
to it. Find out what they want to know about the topic
and what they feel are the difficult concepts and issues.
Continue to gather information and read, read, read
on the topic—immerse yourself in the topic. When you
sit down to write, writing will be easier because you
know the topic so well. But write from your own experi-
ence—not just what you read. Reading helps you develop
great background information and lays the groundwork
for your writing.
Quick tip: Physically gather and keep your
resources in a system that works for you. Use folders,
index cards, computer files, a notebook, or a tape
recorder. I like to use a tape recorder when driving or
traveling (I don’t try to write while driving), and I
keep a pad and pencil by my bed (we come up with
good ideas at the weirdest times).
• KNOW THE JOURNAL
There are over 150 nursing journals, both general and
specialty, to choose from. So which one do you send
your article to? Look at the selection in your nursing
library for starters, and pick out two or three journals
that look promising, perhaps two general ones, and a
specialty journal or newsletter that relates to your
topic.
Review three recent issues of the publications that
you think are more appropriate for your work. Journals
change over the years, so reviewing older issues may be
a waste of your time. Review the journal cover to cover,
paying close attention to the table of contents and titles,
and reading a good sampling of the articles. Pay partic-
ular attention to format, style, voice, and intended audi-
ence. Read the mission statement. Determine if the
journal and its audience are right for you.
Look for the journal’s annual index, either in the
December issue or online at its Web site (the two most
likely places to find it). Review the index, scanning arti-
cle titles, to help you develop your article focus and
point you to articles you need to read before you write
your article. Read and follow the author guidelines
(again, these may be published in an issue or be avail-
111
able online, but you may need to request these; if so, go
to http://members.aol.com/suzannehj/naed.htm and
take advantage of the extensive list of nursing journals
and contact information Suzanne Hall Johnson has
compiled). Some journals are very particular about
details in the author guidelines, and if you don’t follow
them, the editor will notice. It could be a strike against
you before your manuscript is even read.
Follow author guidelines for submitting topic queries
(correspondence to determine if the editors are interested
in your ideas). You can mail or e-mail topic queries to
multiple journals to determine if the editors are interested
in your topic, but send your manuscript to only one jour-
nal at a time. If the editors indicate in the author guide-
lines that they accept phone queries, take advantage of
this opportunity to talk to them and find out what they
want. They might even help you clarify your focus or to
shift it enough to make it more appropriate for the jour-
nal—and more likely to be accepted. Or they might direct
you to another journal that would be more appropriate
for your article, especially if they’ve recently accepted
two other manuscripts on the same topic.
Ready to start writing now? Hold on...wait until
you get a positive response to your query letter, then
jump right in. Remember that the editors are saying
only that they’d like to have the opportunity to review
your manuscript, that the topic might be of interest to
them. It’s no guarantee that they will accept the article,
especially if they happen to get other manuscripts on
the topic before they get yours. Keep this in mind—
journals are a business, and the editors have an oblig-
ation first and foremost to their readers. They’ll
choose the best articles they get, not just anything any-
one writes on a topic, no matter how strong a topic it
is. Timeliness is a critical factor in editorial planning
decisions, so start writing.
Quick tip: Call an editor. Many will be happy to
help you through the initial topic development process.
• DO SOME PLANNING—IT WILL SAVE
TIME IN THE LONG RUN
Don’t forget this important step in the process. A little
planning smoothes the writing process and will save
you time when you write. Your planning can be simple
or elaborate—it’s up to you how detailed you make this
step. Here are a few steps that may help you:
Write statements to keep you focused while you’re
writing. Write a summary or purpose statement that
reflects what you want the reader to know. And follow
this with a statement covering what you want the reader
to do with this information. Refer to these statements as
you write. Take 5 or 10 minutes to write down all of the
112
major ideas you want to cover on the topic. Keep writ-
ing and don’t stop. These ideas are the major part of
your article that you can now organize.
Organize your thoughts and ideas. Use whatever tools
will help you picture the flow of your article—index
cards, diagrams and drawings, a simple outline, or your
computer’s word-processing program, where you can
easily move information with cut and paste tools. Begin
to organize your content under main headings. Limit
the number of main headings and eliminate information
that drifts from your purpose statement.
• START WRITING IN THE MIDDLE
Many authors develop writer’s block because they
waste time trying to develop great titles, opening lines,
and paragraphs. Don’t start there. Start with key vital
core information and put words down on paper, creat-
ing a first draft. Make sure you write something about
each item in your outline or plan; you can move them
around and polish them later in the process. Don’t
worry about writing perfect sentences or polishing
each line, just get all of your thoughts in black and
white. After you later organize and edit, you’ll find
that your title and first paragraph will be simpler to
write.
Quick tips: Just start anywhere to beat writer’s
block. Try moving your last paragraph up as your
first paragraph—you may be surprised at how well it
works up front.
• USE ACTIVE VOICE RATHER THAN
PASSIVE VOICE
Active voice connects with the reader and author (yes,
that’s ok too). In contrast, as you can see in the exam-
ples below, passive voice is indirect, makes your writing
vague, creates a distance between you and the reader,
and frequently contains more words, which can bog
down the reader. You won’t sound in command of the
topic and won’t attract the reader’s attention or interest.
Journals with a more formal style will still use active
voice in introduction and discussion sections to connect
with the reader. Take a look at how active and passive
voices compare:
Active: I sent the e-mail. (Passive: The e-mail was sent.)
Active: Joan picked up the IV bag. (Passive: The IV bag
was picked up by Joan.)
Quick tip: Write as though you’re talking directly
to another nurse.
Journal of Infusion Nursing
 • MULTIPLE REWRITES ARE THE NORM
Once you finish your first draft, count on three full
rewrites on your own where you edit each sentence and
reorganize content for better flow. Such rewrites are a
normal part of the writing process, not extra work. If
you know up front that this is required, you’ll be bet-
ter prepared for the time and energy devoted to this
step.
Read your first draft, saying each sentence out loud.
Is it clear? See if you can eliminate at least one or two
unnecessary words—you’ll be surprised how many you
find and at how clear the new sentences sound.
If you have a block of tedious information that’s
very detailed or difficult to grasp, consider packaging
it into a list or chart. Physically pull them out of the
main body of the article (cut and paste to a separate
file on your computer for now), then read back
through the copy to see if it’s easier to read or flows
better.
Once you’re feeling comfortable with your rewrites
and repackages, print out a few copies and ask two col-
leagues to read your article. Give each of them a clean
copy to write their comments on, and encourage them
to be very critical so you can make your article
stronger.
Quick tip: Less is more, and shorter is better.
Vol. 26, No. 2, March/April 2003
• PAY ATTENTION TO DETAIL
Again, follow author guidelines. Put together a neat,
clean package to send, and sell yourself to the journal.
Develop a concise introductory letter and consider
enclosing a resume or CV, especially if it clearly demon-
strates your expertise in the topic area.
Be careful with grammar and spelling, not only in the
manuscript but also in your cover letter to the editor. Be
sure to address your correspondence to the editor who
currently works on the journal. Refer to a recent issue
for her or his name and title. Careless errors undermine
your credibility with editors—they aren’t going to be
confident that you’ve been any more careful with the
content than you are with the presentation. Take the
time with details—after all of your hard work, this
extra effort is worth it.
Quick tip: Walk away and take a breather. You’ve
worked hard to get to this point. Relax and refresh,
then go back in a separate session to do this polishing.
In summary, plan time for each step and realize the
work involved before you start. This knowledge helps
you through the process. Following the above steps and
breaking the work into stages with timelines will help.
Best of luck in your writing.
Mark Twain said, “Writing is easy; all you have to do
is cross out the wrong words.”
113