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1. Sections placed in the following order: Title, Abstract, Results, Discussion, Literature Cited
2. Sections should be labeled (e.g., ABSTRACT or Abstract or Abstract to set them apart from the text)
3. The text should be double-spaced.
4. Information in tables and the Literature Cited can be single-spaced.
5. Watch plagiarism: You must put everything into your own words, and you must cite the reference from which those ideas came.
6. Do not quote someone's words as you might do in a history or literature paper; scientists don't do that in standard research papers.
7. Choose one of the two methods of referencing papers, and consistently and correctly use them throughout your paper.
8. Writing should be in the past tense.
9. Writing should be in the third person.
10. Proper grammar and punctuation should be used throughout.
11. Spelling/no typos is also important.
12. Writing and flow/transitions
13. Descriptive title
ABSTRACT
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14. Abstract short and concise
15. Abstract is thorough
16. No citations in abstract
RESULTS
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17. Recap the purpose for the experiment and summarize the crosses done
18. Description of the phenotypes of the F1 flies
19. Write out the F2 results in the text
20. Numbers 10 and over are written as numerals whereas numbers under 10 are written out as words unless the numbers are part of a ratio
21. Include the F2 results in a table
22. Reference the table in the text
23. Calculate the actual observed ratio based on your data
24. Explain that a Chi-square test was done and why
25. State what the Chi-square value was
26. Describe why the BLAST searches were conducted. Describe each of the three searches that you conducted for each of your two wild-type gene sequences and
their results, as reported in the BLAST assignment. Describe the search parameters (which algorithm was used, and which taxa (organisms) were excluded or
included) for each search. For results of the first search, report the top non-Drosophila match (organism and gene name) for each of your two genes, along with the E
value and amount of overlap. For the second search, report which model organism(s) had a DNA sequence with the best match to your gene, as well as the name of
the matching gene, the E value and amount of overlap. For the third search, report which model organism(s) had an amino acid (protein) sequence with the best
match to your protein sequence, as well as the name of the matching protein, the E value and amount of overlap. Keep in mind that the matches are to the DNA or
protein sequences from organisms, not to the organisms themselves.
27. Do not include any interpretation of the results in the results section!!
DISCUSSION
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28. Recap the purpose for the experiment and summarize the crosses done
29. State the number of degrees of freedom, critical alpha value, and corresponding critical Chi-square value.
30. State the p value(s) associated with your Chi-square value, and conclude whether the hypothesis is rejected or supported by the data based on your Chi-square
analysis (p values)
31. If your hypothesis is not rejected, list one or two other experiments that could be done to continue your work
32. If your hypothesis is rejected, come up with one or more reasons why, state what you would do differently next time, list one or two other experiments that could
be done to continue your work
33. You set up your Parental cross between males with one mutant phenotype and females with a different mutant phenotype. Discuss the results that you would have
expected had you done the reciprocal cross. Would the F1 and F2 results have been different? If yes, what would have been expected?
34. In your own words, discuss the wild-type functions of the two genes that you worked with this semester as determined from the two reference papers provided for
you (be sure to cite them).
35. Discuss the results of the three BLAST searches, including the apparent biological significance (or not) of the match between your query sequences and the top
non-fly hits based on the E value and the amount of overlap. For the two model organism searches, discuss whether the apparent significance of the match appears to
be different for the amino acid (blastp) search vs. the DNA (blastn) search, and discuss why or why not.
LITERATURE CITED
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36. Be sure that you format references correctly and include all of the information necessary
37. You need at least four references for this paper, and one must be primary literature. You automatically have the two references that we provided for you that
explain the wild-type functions of your Drosophila genes.
38. Remember that if a source has more than one author, that when cited, the order of those authors must not change.
OTHER
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39. Inaccurate science (genes, mutations, genus, and species need italics; gene and allele should be used correctly; other)