Nurse educators are responsible for developing writing skills in students. Although writing is traditionally viewed as a subjective discipline, there are objective tools to measure improvements in writing. Tartaro and Levy1 introduced a multiple-choice test that covers applications of rules from the publication manual of the American Psychological Association (APA). By administering the test at the beginning and end of a course, they documented improvements in student scores. Although the test measures knowledge of APA standards rather than writing quality, improved knowledge of the standards indicates an improvement in a particular area of writing competency. Similarly, a common measurement tool in technical writing is an editing test. In editing tests, students are presented with a document that contains a series of mistakes in grammar or formatting and then asked to identify the errors. Student performance on such a test, measured before and after a writing intervention, indicates whether the intervention is effective in improving editing skills. As editing is a part of writing, improved test performance would imply improved writing skills.

Submitted by: Miriam R. B. Abbott MA, Instructor, Mount Carmel College of Nursing, 127 S Davis Ave, Columbus, OH 43222 mailto:[email protected].

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