Commentary from Camp Leadership: Make it Look N.I.C.E.

Leslie Nicoll, PhD, MBA, RN, FAAN

Jenny Chicca, PhD, RN, CNE, CNEcl

Writer’s Camp Senior Leadership

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Remember, you only get one chance to make a first impression.

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We know you put a lot of work into your writing. You plan, you write, you revise—and then you hit submit. You hope that your words will land with your audience: editors, peer reviewers, and readers. But sometimes, they don’t. Sometimes, your audience gets distracted by issues in the writing itself.

As editors, we’ve seen many manuscripts with real promise that struggle with problems such as inconsistency or inaccuracy. These issues can lead to rejection. But even when a paper is published, such problems can still undermine the work—readers may question your credibility, misunderstand your message, or fail to translate your findings into practice. And that is bad for nursing.

So here’s a simple goal: make your work look N.I.C.E.—Neat, Intentional, Correct, and Eye-catching—and you’ll dramatically reduce avoidable problems in your writing.

Neat

To make your article look N.I.C.E., start by making it Neat. Here, we’re talking about consistency. As you write and revise, look for consistency in:

• Capitalization
• Terminology
• Verb tense
• Formatting

For example, if you capitalize the name of a committee—such as Faculty Council—make sure it is capitalized the same way throughout the paper. If you use a particular term—such as clinical reasoning—stick with it. Don’t switch back and forth between near synonyms; that will only confuse your reader.

The same applies to tense and formatting conventions, including reference style (both in-text and in the reference list) and rules for numerals (for example, spelling out one through nine and using Arabic numerals for 10 and above, if that is the journal’s style).

Two practical tips:

• Keep a running list of capitalized terms and key phrases as you write (a digital or literal sticky note works fine).
• Use the Navigation Pane or search function in your word processor to check for consistency. For example, search for every instance of “Faculty Council”—is it treated the same way each time?

These small habits go a long way toward making your writing look Neat.

Intentional

You can also make your writing look N.I.C.E. by making it Intentional. In other words, everything in your paper should be there for a reason.

One simple tool is selective emphasis. Bold or italics can draw attention to key words or phrases—just as we’ve used bold here to highlight the words in the N.I.C.E. acronym. But use these sparingly. If everything is emphasized, then nothing is.

Another powerful tool is Intentional use of headings and subheadings. Headings should lead the reader through your argument. They can be:

• Topic-based
• Statement-based
• Question-based

For example, in a recent article in The Writer’s Camp Journal on plain language, the author (JC) used statement-style headings such as¹:

• Ingredient 1: Write for your reader.
• Ingredient 2: State your main points before going into details.
• Ingredient 3: Stick to your topic.

Those same ideas could have been expressed as questions or as simple topic headings—but whatever approach you choose, be consistent.

You can also be more Intentional by applying plain language principles to your writing. If you want to explore this further, the full article is well worth reading.¹

Where and how you place in-text citations also impacts the Intentionality of your article. Of course, citations need to appear close to the information they support—but you still have choices about how to integrate them into your sentences, and those choices affect how your writing looks and reads.

For example, consider this sentence:

“Patients with cancer often experience pain (Black, 2023), nausea (Jones & Bartlett, 2019), vomiting (Smith et al., 2020), and dry mouth (Black, 2023).”

Nothing here is wrong, but the repeated parenthetical citations interrupt the flow of the sentence and make it visually cluttered. The same information can usually be presented more cleanly:

“Patients with cancer often experience pain, nausea, vomiting, and dry mouth (Black, 2023; Jones & Bartlett, 2019; Smith et al., 2020).”

This version is easier to read and easier to look at, while still doing exactly what citations are supposed to do. As with everything else, this is a matter of judgment and intention, not just rule-following. And, as a separate question worth thinking about, you should also consider whether all of those citations are actually necessary—but that is a discussion for another article.

Finally, punctuation can be an Intentional rhetorical tool. Two especially useful marks are parentheses and the em dash.

Parentheses can be used intentionally to add information that is helpful but not essential to the main sentence.

• They can be used to add brief clarification:

“The workshop will be offered in a hybrid format (in person and via Zoom).”

• They can be used to qualify or narrow a statement:

“The student administered 5 mg of medication to the patient (adjusted for age and weight).”

• And they can be used to insert a complete, secondary thought:

“Students are encouraged to reflect on their patient interactions (reflection supports the development of clinical reasoning and professional judgment).”

In each case, the sentence still works if the parenthetical material is removed—that is the test of whether parentheses are being used well.

The em dash is even more versatile. It can replace commas, semicolons, colons, brackets, or parentheses—and it can sharply focus the reader’s attention. In complex academic prose, a well-placed em dash is often a gift to the reader.

Correct

We would be remiss if we didn’t include Correct. By this, we mean more than basic proofreading.

Check:

1. Facts, dates, and names, including accents and diacritics—the accent in Martínez is not optional. Without it, the name is misspelled.
2. That every in-text citation appears in the reference list and every reference is cited in the text. Revisions often break this alignment. Be fastidious in checking!
3. Also make sure that your references are Correct. As the author, it is your responsibility to ensure that your references exist and the details you provide are accurate.²

Other common accuracy problems we see include:

• Confusing your and you’re, or its and it’s.
• Inconsistent or missing Oxford (serial) commas.
• Incorrect placement of quotation marks and parentheses relative to punctuation.
• Failing to use quotation marks for exact wording from sources or from speakers.

The good news is that many tools can help: your word processor, reference managers, and even AI-assisted tools can all help identify and fix these problems. Used wisely, they can make it much easier to keep your writing Correct.

Eye-catching

Finally, make your writing look N.I.C.E. by making it Eye-catching. This means using visual elements to help engage and guide your reader, such as:

• A figure or image to capture an idea that is hard to express in words.
• A graph, chart, or infographic to make data easier to grasp.
• A table to present relationships or dense information clearly.
• A bulleted list to highlight key points.

Yes, you want your work to be Neat, Intentional, and Correct—but you also want to keep your reader’s attention which is where Eye-catching comes into play.

Conclusion

Writing is essential to advancing our discipline, and we know how much work authors put into their manuscripts. Many of the problems we see, however, are not about ideas or data—they are about presentation. Making your writing look N.I.C.E.—Neat, Intentional, Correct, and Eye-catching—helps your work land with its audience and, ultimately, reflects positively on you.

References

1. Chicca J. Plain language as a recipe for effective writing. The Writer’s Camp Journal. 2025;1(3):15. doi:10.5281/zenodo.18036423
2. Nicoll L. Reference managers, artificial intelligence, and the integrity of scholarly writing. The Writer’s Camp Journal. 2026;2(2):8. doi:10.5281/ZENODO.20101699

Authors: Leslie H. Nicoll and Jenny Chicca

Reviewed and Edited by: Anjie Raber

Copyright © 2026 Writer’s Camp, Leslie H. Nicoll and Jenny Chicca

Citation: Nicoll LH, Chicca J. Commentary from camp leadership: Make it look N.I.C.E. The Writer’s Camp Journal, 2026; 2(2):10. doi:10.5281/zenodo.20139149

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Disclosure

Artificial intelligence (ChatGPT-5) was used to help develop examples.