In addition to being good verbal communicators, speech-language pathology (SLP) students must also communicate effectively and efficiently in writing. These writing skills cover several areas. First, SLP students should develop good general writing skills. These skills include good content development, organization, clarity, and mechanics. Second, SLP students should be able to write professionally. Clinical writing skills like Individual Education Plans (IEPs), evaluation reports, and progress reports are part of a professional SLP’s daily job requirements. Finally, SLP students should develop good scholarly writing skills. All students progressing to a Master’s program in Communication Sciences and Disorders will be involved in research and writing research papers for classes or even publication. Writing assignments in the SLP courses are designed to help students develop these general, clinical and scholarly writing skills. This website provides resources to help address these three important areas of writing.
General Writing Skills
Some students feel that if they are not in an English class they do not need to worry about using good general writing skills for writing assignments. This is not true! How students write is as important as what they write. In the speech-language pathology courses at Columbia College, all of the instructors expect students to turn in written assignments that are logically developed in content, are well organized and clear, and use standard written mechanics.
To make sure that content is logically developed, students must make sure that they understand what they are writing about. This means allowing plenty of time to review the material that is assigned. Procrastination is the most common cause of a poorly written paper. Students should make sure they understand assignments and review any sample written assignments available. If students do not understand the assignment or the material they are writing about, they should talk with instructors for clarification.
Organization and clarity can be best addressed through three stages of writing: prewriting, writing and re-writing. Prewriting involves planning what to write. Writing an outline, jotting down main ideas, or using a graphic organizer can help in this stage. The writing stage is the first draft of a paper. This is just getting ideas down on paper in a narrative form. Finally, re-writing involves editing a paper for content, organization and mechanics. Most students skip this stage of writing and the results are often less than desirable. Many of the SLP writing assignments will have specific formats for organization. If so, review what is required and the prescribed format. Also be sure to review any written sample assignments available. If a specific format is not required, follow what has been emphasized in the English composition courses. Papers should include an introduction paragraph with a thesis. Subsequent paragraphs should support the thesis and a conclusion paragraph should summarize the main points.
Finally, students should make sure that they follow the rules of standard written mechanics. This includes things like spelling, grammar, punctuation and usage. Even if a paper has outstanding content and organization, mechanical errors can significantly take away from what is being communicated. See Dr. Nancy Tuten’s Writing in the Disciplines: Grammar, Mechanics, Usage for more information in this area. If students are not particularly adept at correcting their own mechanical errors, they should ask someone else to proof-read their papers or visit the Columbia College Academic Skills Center in the library for assistance.
General writing skills should be thought of as the umbrella of writing skills that students will use in all of their SLP courses. All writing assignments should be logically developed in content, be well organized and clear, and demonstrate the use of standard written mechanics. The resources below are helpful in improving general writing skills.
Glenn, C., Miller, R.K., Webb, S.S., Gray, L., & Hodges, J.C. (2004). Hodges’ Harbrace
handbook (15th ed.). Boston: Thomson.
Meline, T. & Hargrove, P. (November, 2006). Writing for publication. Poster session
presented at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention,
Miami, FL.
Clinical Writing Skills
Clinical writing skills include writing that speech-language pathologists do every day in their different clinical settings. Although the format of these written reports vary based on the setting in which the SLP works, most professionals have to regularly write evaluation reports, therapy or lesson plans, and progress reports. Other professional writing might include educational information for clients and family members, in-service information for co-workers, therapy logs, insurance reports, and grant proposals. As mentioned above, general writing skills are important for all of these writing tasks but some specific content and formatting is required for these clinical writing items.
Evaluation reports summarize information about a client and how he/she performed on a speech, language, hearing, swallowing, and/or cognitive evaluation. Format and length of this report varies depending on the clinical setting but most evaluation reports include the following: client identifying information, case history, performance on speech, language, hearing, swallowing, and/or cognitive formal and informal assessments, impressions, and recommendations. In the SLP program at Columbia College, students will have many opportunities to review evaluation reports as well as write evaluation reports. Sample Speech-Language Evaluation Report
Therapy or lesson plans guide the therapy process and include both long term goals and short term objectives. A long term goal is what an SLP expects a client to be able to do over a specific period time. Short term objectives (or behavioral objectives) are specific behaviors that an SLP wants to elicit in therapy to work toward the long term goals. Students will have opportunities in both SLP classes and field experiences to review and write therapy plans. Sample Speech-Language Therapy Plan
Progress reports demonstrate a client’s performance on goals and objectives stated in the treatment plan. Again, the length and format of a progress report will vary greatly depending on the professional setting but most progress reports include therapy goals, objectives, the time period covered, and a measure of the progress made. In both classes and field experiences, SLP students will gain experience in writing progress reports in a variety of formats. Sample Speech-Language Progress Report
Good clinical writing skills for evaluation reports, therapy plans and progress reports are essential to being a competent SLP. In addition to observation reports that students will write for most of their SLP classes, they will have the opportunity to develop these clinical writing skills throughout their curriculum at Columbia College. The resources below are helpful in developing good clinical writing skills in the field of communication sciences and disorders.
Dodge, E.P. (2000) The survival guide for school-based speech-language pathologists.
San Diego: Singular Publishing Group.
Hegde, M.N. (2003). A coursebook on scientific and professional writing for speech-
language pathology. Boston: Delmar.
Meyer, S.M. (2004). Survival guide for the beginning speech-language clinician, (2nd
ed.). Austin: Pro-ed.
Scholarly Writing Skills
Although most undergraduate students don’t get the opportunity to complete major research projects, most will as they progress to their graduate programs in communication sciences and disorders. One of the goals of the SLP program at Columbia College is to familiarize students with scholarly writing in the field and to help them learn the basics of writing in a scholarly manner. Some writing tasks that students will complete in the program will include using the American Psychological Association (APA) citation format, summarizing and analyzing informal and peer-reviewed articles, and finding and evaluating professional resources.
In the field of communication sciences and disorders, APA format is the accepted professional writing style. Any scholarly paper assignment that students write in SLP courses will follow this format. Students are asked to purchase the Pocket Guide to APA Style by R. Perrin in the Survey of Speech-Language Pathology course (SLP 258) and refer to this guide throughout the program. The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.) is available in the department and at Edens Library for additional reference information.
In many of the SLP courses students will be asked to summarize and/or analyze either articles from magazines/newspapers or from peer-reviewed journals. To be able to do this, it is important to be familiar with scientific writing. It is also important to know how to write a summary without plagiarizing.
Finally, in the upper level SLP courses, students will be asked to find and evaluate appropriate professional resources for papers and presentations. Many students think the best way to find information online is through a search engine like Google. This isn’t usually the case when searching for scholarly information. Edens Library has excellent resources for searching online databases and for evaluating online sources.
Scholarly writing skills emphasized in the SLP program at Columbia College include using APA citation format, summarizing and analyzing informal and peer-reviewed articles, and finding and evaluating professional resources. The resources below are helpful in developing good scholarly writing skills.
American Psychological Association (2001). Publication manual of the American
Psychological Association (5th ed.). Washington, D.C.: APA.
Hegde, M.N. (2003). A coursebook on scientific and professional writing for speech-
language pathology. Boston: Delmar.
Hegde, M.N. (2003). Clinical research in communication disorders: Principles and
strategies (3rd ed.). Austin: Pro-ed.
Meline, T. & Hargrove, P. (November, 2006). Writing for publication. Poster session
presented at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention,
Miami, FL.
Perrin, R. (2004). Pocket Guide to APA Style. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Summary
As stated above, writing skills are very important for students as they progress through the speech-language pathology program at Columbia College. Students are encouraged to use the referenced resources as well as consult with their SLP instructors to become competent writers in all areas. Developing good general, clinical, and scholarly writing skills will greatly contribute to students’ success as future communication sciences and disorders professionals.
