Scholarly Activity Summary: the five-paragraph report
Five prescribed paragraphs in a pitch structure, not an academic one — and the brief tells you to use declarative sentences and simple words, which is the opposite of the register most nursing coursework rewards. It reports on something you actually attended; there is no way to write it from reading alone.
Editorial process
Last reviewed · July 26, 2026
What is the scholarly activity summary really testing?
Before anything else: this is a report on an event you personally attended, not an essay about a topic. The requirement is to participate in a scholarly activity outside clinical or professional practice — a conference, seminar, journal club, grand rounds, morbidity and mortality meeting, interdisciplinary or quality improvement committee — and then document it. That 'outside clinical practice' clause is a real constraint. Your ordinary shift, your usual unit huddle, and the in-service you were rostered to attend are professional practice, not scholarly activity. If you have not attended something that qualifies, the writing problem is not the problem you have. Practically, that means capturing the host, the date, the format and one or two concrete take-home points while you are still in the room. Those are the details nobody can reconstruct afterwards, and they are what make the report verifiable rather than merely plausible.
The five sections are prescribed and their shape is unusual, so do not quietly rewrite them into an academic essay. Overview, Problem, Solution, Opportunity, Program Competencies Addressed is a business-case structure — it moves from situation to problem to resolution to benefit. The brief reinforces this with an explicit style instruction most students read past: 'Use declarative sentences with simple words to communicate each point. Less is more.' That is a direct request for plain, compressed prose, and it contradicts the hedged, citation-heavy register that graduate nursing writing usually rewards. Writing this one in your normal assignment voice means ignoring a stated instruction. In practice the instruction means one claim per sentence and no throat-clearing: “The committee reviewed thirty falls incidents from the previous quarter” rather than “It could be argued that the committee undertook a review process.”
Take the five section names as a specification, not as suggested headings — each one asks for something the others do not:
Section | What it has to contain | How it is usually lost |
|---|---|---|
Overview | The event itself — who ran it, what it was, where and when you attended, and why you chose it | Written as a summary of the topic rather than of the activity |
Problem | The gap the activity existed to close, in the brief's two moves: Educate (current state, why it is a problem, for whom) and Inspire (what a nurse gains by taking part) | A general clinical problem you find interesting, with no link to the event |
Solution | How the activity addressed that gap, and the take-home points you actually left with | Restating the agenda instead of what changed in your understanding |
Opportunity | Objectives met, and the future professional goals this activity opens up | Generic career aspiration that would read the same after any event |
Program Competencies Addressed | Only the competencies from your own ISP that the activity genuinely touched | Claiming the full list, which the preceding paragraphs then contradict |
The Problem section is the one most often misread. It asks for the problems the scholarly activity was designed to solve — the gap the conference or journal club or committee existed to close — not a general clinical problem you find interesting. The brief even splits it into two moves, Educate and Inspire: state the current state of the topic and why it is a problem and for whom, then say what a nurse could achieve by participating. Answer both.
The final section cannot be invented. 'Program Competencies Addressed' asks for a list drawn from your own Individual Success Plan, which means this paragraph is a mapping exercise against a document specific to you. Pick only the competencies the activity genuinely touched; a list that claims every competency in the plan is less credible than a short honest one, and it is checkable against what you described in the preceding paragraphs.
On formatting, read the instruction precisely. APA format is not required for the body of the assignment, but in-text citations and references must follow APA if you use sources at all. Solid academic writing is still expected. So this is not a licence to write loosely — it is permission to skip the title page and running head apparatus while keeping the citation discipline.
Likely learning objectives
Inferred from the brief — check these against your own rubric.
- 01Recognise which activities qualify as scholarly rather than as ordinary professional practice, since the distinction is stated and decides whether the assignment can be written at all.
- 02Write to a prescribed non-academic structure, which likely tests whether a stated format can be followed rather than replaced with a familiar one.
- 03Compress to declarative sentences on instruction, since the brief explicitly asks for simple words and states that less is more.
- 04Frame a problem from the activity's perspective — what it was designed to solve — rather than from a general clinical interest.
- 05Map a real activity honestly onto named program competencies, where a short accurate list is likely more credible than an exhaustive one.
Read the full question
Review every instruction before using the planning guidance that follows.
Turn the brief into deliverables
- 01A summary report of one scholarly activity, submitted as the assignment.
- 02Five paragraphs, following the Scholarly Activity Summary structure: Overview, Problem, Solution, Opportunity, Program Competencies Addressed.
- 03Include who, what, where, when, and any relevant take-home points.
- 04Include the appropriate program competencies associated with the scholarly activity, using the list from your Individual Success Plan (ISP).
- 05Include future professional goals related to this activity.
- 06The activity must be outside clinical practice or professional practice.
- 07APA format is not required for the body, but in-text citations and references must use APA documentation guidelines.
- 08Solid academic writing is expected.
- 09Stated style instruction: declarative sentences, simple words, less is more.
How do you structure the five-paragraph summary?
Overview — the activity, its audience, and its value to you
One paragraph covering what the activity was, who it was aimed at, and the benefit to you, with the who/what/where/when detail placed here so later sections are free to analyse rather than describe.
Problem — what the activity was designed to solve
State the current state of the topic, explain why it is a problem and for whom, then say what a nurse could achieve by participating — the brief's Educate and Inspire moves, in that order.
Solution — how the activity addressed that problem
Describe the practice solution the activity proposed or demonstrated and connect it explicitly to the problem set out in the previous paragraph, as short prose or bullets.
Opportunity — objectives met and growth as a nurse
Define the opportunity the activity captured, cover the objectives and goals that were met, and answer directly how participating helps you grow as a nurse.
Program Competencies Addressed — mapped from your ISP
List the program competencies the activity genuinely addressed, taken from your Individual Success Plan, and tie each to something you described earlier in the report.
What counts as a scholarly activity, with evidence?
Recommended databases
- Your own Individual Success Plan (ISP) — the required source for the final section
- The activity's own materials: agenda, programme, slide deck, minutes, certificate of attendance
- AACN and IPEC competency frameworks
- CINAHL / PubMed, only if you need evidence for the Problem section
Search sequence
- 1.Open the ISP first and extract the competency list verbatim — the last paragraph depends on it and no external source can substitute.
- 2.Gather the activity's own documentation next; the who/what/where/when detail comes from there, not from a database.
- 3.Search the literature only for the Problem paragraph, and only enough to establish the current state of the topic — this is a report, and a literature review would displace the structure you were given.
- 4.If the activity was a journal club or committee, look for evidence on what that format achieves, so the Solution and Opportunity paragraphs rest on more than your impression.
- 5.Keep citations light. APA applies when you cite, but the brief does not ask for a referenced paper and the stated style instruction favours compression.
Reference shortlist
These are authoritative starting points, not a ready-made bibliography. A qualified reviewer must confirm that each source fits the assignment and supports the claim beside which it is cited.
Nothing here is cleared for citation until you have read it.
- 01
AACN Essentials
American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) · 2021
The national competency framework most RN-to-BSN program competencies are derived from. Use it to interpret the wording of your ISP competencies, not to replace them — the brief specifically requires the ISP list.
- 02
IPEC Core Competencies for Interprofessional Collaborative Practice
Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) · 2023
Directly relevant if your activity was an interdisciplinary committee, grand rounds or M&M meeting, since the brief also requires ongoing contribution to interdisciplinary initiatives. Supplies precise language for the Opportunity paragraph's claims about collaboration.
- 03
Journal club as a tool to facilitate evidence based practice in critical care
Indian Journal of Critical Care Medicine, via PubMed Central · 2019
Evidence for the Problem and Solution paragraphs if your activity was a journal club — what gap the format is designed to close and what it achieves. Does not help with the Overview or the competency mapping.
- 04
The nurses perceived educational values and experience of journal club activities - A cross-sectional study in Qatar
Heliyon, via PubMed Central · 2024
Supports the Opportunity paragraph with reported benefits of participation — keeping current with research, appraisal skill development, professional development credit — so your growth claim rests on more than assertion.
Review before submission
Common mistakes
- Writing an essay about a clinical topic instead of a report on an event. The five sections document something you attended; there is no version of this assignment that can be written from reading alone.
- Counting ordinary work as the scholarly activity. The brief requires participation outside clinical or professional practice, so a rostered in-service or a routine unit meeting does not qualify.
- Replacing the prescribed sections with an introduction-body-conclusion shape. Overview, Problem, Solution, Opportunity and Program Competencies Addressed are named, and the structure is part of what is assessed.
- Ignoring the stated register. 'Use declarative sentences with simple words... Less is more' is an instruction, and answering it in hedged, citation-heavy graduate prose disregards it.
- Writing the Problem paragraph about nursing in general rather than about the gap the activity was designed to close.
- Leaving the Solution paragraph unconnected to the stated problem, which breaks the pairing the structure depends on.
- Listing every competency in the Individual Success Plan. Each claim is checkable against the earlier paragraphs, so an inflated list weakens the report rather than strengthening it.
- Reading 'APA format is not required for the body' as permission to drop citations. In-text citations and references still follow APA whenever a source is used.
- Omitting future professional goals, which are named in the brief but sit outside the five section headings and are therefore easy to lose.
Submission checklist
- One specific, real, datable activity identified, and it took place outside clinical or professional practice.
- Five paragraphs, using the prescribed headings in the prescribed order.
- Who, what, where and when all present, with take-home points.
- The Problem paragraph covers both moves — the current state and why it is a problem, then what a nurse could achieve by participating.
- The Solution paragraph explicitly resolves the problem named in the paragraph before it.
- The Opportunity paragraph answers how the activity helps you grow as a nurse, concretely.
- Competencies taken from your own ISP, each defensible against something described earlier in the report.
- Future professional goals related to the activity included.
- Sentences are declarative and compressed, matching the stated style instruction rather than a default academic register.
- Any sources cited in APA, even though APA is not required for the body.
Use this guide to plan and review your own work. Follow your institution's rules and read our academic-integrity policy.
Written by
Aaron Bishop
MA, Education
assignment interpretation and research-methods coaching across disciplines
Aaron leads the EssayCrackers editorial desk. He works on how assignment briefs are read — what a rubric is actually asking for, and where students most often answer a different question than the one set.
Reviewed by
Dr. Nathan Cole
PhD, Rhetoric & Composition
Argumentation and thesis development
Nathan teaches first-year composition and directs a university writing center. He reviews EssayCrackers guides for argumentative soundness and citation accuracy.