| General Information |
A Guide to Writing
in the Biological Sciences
The Scientific Paper: General Info |
A well-written scientific paper explains the scientist's motivation for doing an experiment, the experimental design and execution, and the meaning of the results. Scientific papers are written in a style that is exceedingly clear and concise. Their purpose is to inform an audience of other scientists about an important issue and to document the particular approach they used to investigate that issue. Please do not think that good English
is not critical in science writing. In fact, scientists try to be so concise
that their English should be better than that of workers in other disciplines!
If you have read scientific papers, you
will have noticed that a standard format is frequently used. This format allows
a researcher to present information clearly and concisely. For this class, you
should prepare your paper in the accepted standard fashion. You will learn
short-cuts and various deviations from this format with experience. General organization The following sections should be
included in your report:
(1) Abstract
(2) Introduction
(3) Methods (4) Results
(5) Discussion (6) Literature
Cited
Other sections can be included as
necessary. It is important to understand the differences between sections
and to put information in the appropriate location. Students frequently
begin discussing their results in the Results section or present some of their
results in the Discussion section.
Reading scientific papers (such as the
articles you will use as your references for the Introduction and Discussion)
will give you good ideas and guidance as well. After all, these are
peer-reviewed and published scientific papers, and they can serve as useful
models for your own writing. Remember to pay attention to issues of
plagiarism, however. One useful way to avoid making errors in this regard
is to read a section from your source, then restate in writing what you remember
of the main points. You would then cite the source of that information in
the text. For excellent guidance on this topic, consult V.E. McMillan's
1997 book, Writing Papers in the Biological Sciences.
St. Martin's Press, N.Y. for further advice. McMillan (1997) also gives thorough
instructions on how to write a scientific paper in biology. You should
examine articles in recent issues of Ecology
and other journals (in the library) as models of good scientific writing. |
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| Practical tips for scientific writing | ||||||||
| Specific Information for Writing Assignments | ||||||||
| Short answers for tests | ||||||||
| Summary of a scientific article | ||||||||
|
The Scientific Paper |
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| First page | ||||||||
| Abstract | ||||||||
| Introduction | ||||||||
| Methods | ||||||||
| Results | ||||||||
| Discussion | ||||||||
| Literature Cited | ||||||||