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Introduction to Writing in Science.
Scientific writing, though formulaic, can be dynamic and enjoyable. Many scientists
develop an individual voice that differentiates them from the basic constructs taught in
high school and undergraduate laboratory classes. If we focus on less lofty goals, the
best way to create a good research paper is to focus on telling a good story. Good is, of
course, subjective and here we are not referring to quality of research (though that does
help). Telling a good story refers to the act of conveying your research. Focus on
providing an account with a gripping beginning, insightful middle, and solid tractable
ending.
It is important to remember that scientists primarily read because of the science’s
inherent interest or importance to their own research and edification. Below you’ll find a
template to aid you in writing an acceptable scientific paper, but remember that your
vocabulary, tone, pacing, and sentence structure can drastically affect a scientist’s
experience reading about your work. (A small note of caution: some divergence from
standard conventions is accepted, but if your paper is difficult to read because of style,
you will be doing a disservice to your hard work.)
Do not alter the fonts and sizes of the specific sections, but rather type over the relevant
instructions to incorporate your own material.
Other References:



Day, R. A. How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper, 5th ed.; Greenwood
Publishing Group, Inc.: 1998.
Coghill, A. M.; Garson, L. R. The ACS Style Guide: Effective Communication of
Scientific Information, 3rd ed.; American Chemical Society: 2006, pp. 291-319.
Boice, R. Advice for New Faculty Members; Allyn & Bacon: Needham Heights,
2000; pp. 103-202.
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Title: “Influential Titles: Short, Specific, and Jargon Free
Descriptions of Research Inside”
Authors, Arthur B;† Listed, Cordelia D.; Here, Edward F. (who did what? The
writing author is usually first and the Primary Investigator (responsible for
main oversight of work at the University and corresponding author (*)) last.
Sometimes the PI is listed first and the author is listed second, however, names
after the author should be listed by contribution or alphabetically.)
Location (Where was the work performed? Department of . . . , School, physical address
including country. High school affiliations for high school students and instructors should be
listed in the footnote. These authors should be indicated with the appropriate mark above in the
author list (e.g. “†”)
date submitted, accepted, published. (added by the journal, do not alter this text)
Abstract: The abstract is a short summary of your paper’s story, with key
details. If told well, it should hook the reader, who will want to learn more about
your work. Your first sentence should address the motivation of your work
(Introduce your topic. State the problem or “gap” in your field and why it is
important). Next, state the methods used to investigate the problem (What did
you do to get potentially useful data?). Now, tell the reader what you found
(Hard facts are best). Lastly, describe the implications of your investigation
(How the data bridged the gap, or starts to address the problem stated in your
first sentence). It has been suggested that abstracts are less than 250 words. This
paragraph is 125 words, which is more than enough.
Provide high school affiliation(s) here for the high school student (and teacher) that participated in the
research.

Provide name and contact information (mailing address and email) for corresponding author (typically,
the Primary Investigator who oversaw the research)
†
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Introduction:
The Introduction is often thought of as
the first section of a research paper. In
fact, you should start writing this section
as soon as possible. The purpose of the
introduction is to give the reader all
necessary information to understand the
importance of your work. Therefore, the
act of writing this section will help
identify holes in your understanding of
the research area.
Here’s a good
Introduction:
layout
for
the
Address the motivation of your paper.
Clearly describe the area and reasons for
performing the research discussed.
Define any underlying reasons that may
be connected to the main thrust of the
project, but not obvious to an informed
reader.
Tell your audience what is already
known about the research. Include
helpful references and state other’s work
as succinctly as possible. Including
relevant work by others is good
scholarship and helpful to those getting
assimilated to your topic.
Describe the methods employed to
complete your research. If there are
particular benefits to your methods,
state them. Remember to include
references for any work that greatly
benefited your methods or describes
them in detail.
Finally, state the aim of your study in
succinct terms, as well as the results
from your study and their global impact.
Describe any obvious conclusions or
extrapolations from your work. Many
people neglect to state their findings in
the final paragraph of the introduction.
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Though you will have time again to state
the results in detail and make a strong
case for your conclusions, it is very
important not to keep people in the dark
until the end. There is a lot of literature
to read. Stating your results early is one
convention in scientific writing that
should not be overlooked.
Experimental Methods:
The Experimental Methods section
describes the work you performed, not
the results (see the following section). It
should be written in the past tense and
avoid the first person. Give the full
details of what was done. Someone with
basic knowledge of your field, but not
necessarily your exact research, should
be able to repeat the details of any
experiment you describe. While writing
this section, you may notice that you
forgot to record specific conditions in
your notebook, or discover the absence
of necessary data to support your claims.
Try hard not to leave any helpful info
out, even if you have to perform an
experiment one more time to get the
information. You should begin to see a
common theme - writing early helps
direct your research and avoids leaving
gaps in your knowledge or work.
Begin this section by describing any
general methods for brevity and clarity.
State what materials were used, where
you obtained them, and any special
handling techniques that were employed
(recrystallization, distillation, degassing,
etc.) before use. Detail the special
instrumentation
(NMR,
MS,
IR,
electrochemical cell, etc.) used to carry
out specific experiments beyond normal
conditions. While your reader does not
need to know what type of thermometer
you used, they will wonder what light
source you used for a critical photolysis.
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The Experimental Methods Section
should be written in chronological order,
if possible. By chronological order, it is
meant that you follow the flow of your
paper’s figures, schemes, results, and
discussion. Chronological description of
when experiments were run is not
necessary, as it will confuse the reader
by disrupting the story and flow of your
paper.
Let us expand on “full details” from the
first paragraph. You should provide the
most cohesive description that will be
useful to others trying to repeat your
work. Not only is this useful for people
trying to use your science, but a full
description will give the reader no
reason to doubt your work or methods.
People are often careless with this
section, thinking that it will not be read
or repeated, but when other scientists
are being critics of your work, they will
turn to this section to see if you know
what you are talking about. A flawless
and coherent experimental description
leaves little room for doubt, especially
for an expert working close to your field.
Results and Discussion Section:
In this section you will be describing the
results of your experiments. To do this
you should utilize tables and graphs as
needed. You must describe the data, but
do not restate details that are better
described in your tables/graphs.
After an impassive description of the
facts, it is your job to discuss the results
and their implications. This section
should show a logical progression of
your story. If multiple experiments were
performed and data shown, be sure to
lay this out in a logical order. An
experiment’s results may suggest the
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importance or need of a second
experiment, therefore order is crucial.
The inclusion of tables and figures
should be indicated at the end of a
paragraph by inserting the words,
“<Insert Table x here>” or “ <Insert
Figure y here>”. Be sure to refer to and
explain your Figures and Tables in the
text of the manuscript. All figures (.tif
format) and tables (.doc format or
equivalent) should each be provided as
a separate attachment with your
submission. The filenames should be
consistent with their placement in the
text (e.g., “Figure1.tif” or “Table2.doc”).
All figure captions should be provided
sequentially in a separate document.
Captions for tables (and any footnotes)
can be included with the corresponding
table in the attached document.
Conclusion:
The conclusion section may seem
redundant after the lengthy discussion
section. However, it is very important to
summarize your discussion in terms of
the gap you were attempting to fill.
Rationally evaluate the findings of your
work. Oftentimes, papers will describe
future work, or work that is in progress,
as a final statement. This gives the
reader an idea of what is next and helps
to couch the importance of the current
work.
Acknowledgements: This section is
very important because people will look
upon it in a vastly different manner. If
you are thanking someone for their
scientific input, it is important to not lay
blame for any experiments or results.
You should humbly thank these people.
Other’s have suggested that you gain
permission before thanking anyone from
the individual themselves. (In peerTemplate version 20090630
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reviewed journals, a major mistake for
this section is listing too many
people/groups that are not clearly
playing a role in the work of your paper.)
However, it is common for high school
summer program participants to thank
parents and comment on their
experiences with each other and their
laboratories. In my own opinion, this
makes the Reports entertaining and will
aid your memory of the things you did
here. So, go ahead and add whatever you
like, as long as it is clean, concise, and
nice!
4. Matloubian, M.; Lo, C. G.; Cinamon, G.;
Lesneski, M. J.; Xu, Y.; Brinkmann, V.; Allende,
M. L.; Proia, R. L.; Cyster, J. G. Nature 2004,
427, 355–360.
5. For a convenient review: Im, D.-S. Trends
Pharmacol. Sci. 2003, 24, 2–4.
References:
Robson, R. In Comprehensive Supramolecular
Chemistry; Atwood, J. L., Davies, J. E. D.,
MacNicol, D.D., Vögtle, F., Lehn, J.-M., Eds.;
Pergamon: Oxford, 1997; Vol. 6, pp 733–755.
Here we’ve included references from
journals, books w/authors, volumes
w/editors, and Internet sites. Please
follow these formats. References should
be incorporated throughout your
manuscript and presented in sequential
order. At the end of a statement that
requires a citation, include the
appropriate number as a superscript
(e.g. 1 for a single reference, 2,3,8 for two
or non-sequential references, or 2-6 for
three or more sequential references).
You can and should list references more
than once if you repeat relevant material
(remember, avoid excess repetition in
your writing), or include other relevant
material from a previously cited
document, throughout your text.
However, only assign one number to
each reference/document (i.e., the
reference list should not have any
repeats) and use that same number
throughout the text.
Books:
(W/out editor)
Lehn, J.-M. Supramolecular Chemistry
Concepts and Perspectives; VCH: Weinheim,
1995; pp 139–160.
(W/ editor)
Websites:
University of Waterloo Library Home Page.
http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/ (accessed April 15,
2003).
Journals:
1. Lynch, K. R. Biochim. Biophys. Acta 2002,
1582, 70–71.
2. Hla, T. Pharmacol. Rev. 2003, 47, 401–407.
3. Watterson, K.; Sankala, H.; Milstien, S.;
Spiegel, S. Prog. Lipid Res. 2003, 42, 344–357.
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A (potentially useful) Writing Timeline:
If you are carrying out research, you’ve probably amassed a small hovel of excellent
books and primary sources from other scientists and laboratories. Perhaps one paper
has helped your understanding of the field and another has guided your experiments
with good precedent. Regardless, it is good to take notes in the margins of the first page
and organize your records. You’ll include these papers as references as you begin
writing.
The moment the problem you are working to solve can be stated, begin writing the
Introduction and Abstract. After some initial writing, take a break and think of the
logical layout of your work during downtime in the lab. Try writing an outline with a
bullet point for each paragraph you will write.
As you perform experiments, begin to write your Experimental Methods section.
(Some of my colleagues even type all of their experimental details and paste them into
notebooks. Others find this hinders observational comments, as this would require
keeping a laptop in the lab.) Make sure you have all details necessary for someone to
repeat what you have done in the lab. Be sure to collect all necessary data that support
your experiments. This will save you from frantic last minute data gathering, which is
generally obtained only through repeating experiments.
When data starts rolling in, you should start thinking about methods of presentation . . .
tables and graphs . . . what trends and conclusions can be seen. This will help direct
your next experiment. Ask, “What data should be shown? What information is
needed?” Then fill in the holes in a logical order beginning with your next experiment.
When you are ready to sit down to finally ‘write’, when your experiments are finished,
you should now have a working Abstract, a rough Introduction, all but your most recent
Experimental Methods, and (most importantly) no holes in raw, informative
tables/graphs/photos/etc.
With your data in hand, it is easiest to write first about the results and discussion.
Throughout this process you’ll realize that you need to add peripheral information to the
already established introduction, to provide the reader with a good background. Trivial
information can be distracting to your story. This should be eliminated. When done
with the Results and Discussion, give a good look at your Introduction and see if it leads
the reader directly to your work in an informed manner.
At this time, finish your Conclusion and Abstract. If you spend extra editorial time on
any part of your report, be sure to work hardest on the flow of your Abstract, first and
last paragraphs of your Introduction, and the main point of your Conclusion.
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Comments on Plagiarism:
Plagiarism - passing off other’s work as your own - is a serious offense. Do not do it.
One incident of plagiarism can cost you a career. “How so?” you might ask. You can’t
ask for a good recommendation from those who know. Your grades are affected
drastically. Always present ideas obtained from other’s work in your own words and
provide a reference to the resource where you obtained it.
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