How Smart are the Students Applying for Graduate Education: Writing Assessment

Students in graduate schools are expected to show a set of competencies that will predict their success in academics and later in professional fields. Graduate nursing students in advanced practice roles must also demonstrate a level of competencies to become effective leaders, scholars or healthcare providers.  The contemporary expectations for a nursing practice based on evidence require practitioner’s ability to synthesize evidence and relate information in writing. At graduate level, many cognitive competencies are assessed through the students’ ability to express critical thinking and creative or fresh perspective in scholarly writing. At a college, 25 freshmen advanced practice nursing students are prepared to meet the challenges of an academic graduate-level writing during a 3-day orientation. Prior the orientation, the students are given a topic and asked to write a 2-page creative essay.  Experienced faculty graded each student’s essay and provided a detailed feedback in an originally-created rubric. Several deficiency were noted and summarized back to the students during day 2 in a general session. During the second day of the orientation, a writing specialist provided tutorial for achieving excellence in writing. After the tutorial, the students were asked to edit their papers and resubmit by the third day of the orientation.  A second feedback was provided to the students by the same faculty to ensure consistency. The purposes of this activity are to discuss findings from a writing assessment and to share tips and tools for developing good writing skills that will prepare students to meet the demands of graduate education and multiple writing assessments.