HON 201-202: Second Year Honors, Science
GUIDELINES FOR WRITING PAPERS
SCIENTIFIC WRITING
All well written papers have a common style. In additional to being well written, they also have
a well stated and supported thesis, have logical flow, and carry the audience from beginning to
end in a logical fashion. Scientific papers are no different the other disciplines other than putting
a greater emphasis on stating the facts. However, in addition to a format you have already
learned in your English courses, there is an additional style, or format seen in scientific papers.
An excellent science paper will make reference to a number of research papers or books that
have been published on the subject. As you should know, all references must be listed at the end
of the paper in a section called "Literature Cited".
RESEARCH PAPER FORMAT
Your paper should be concise, clear, and cover the thesis, as developed from your readings. A
logical line of reasoning should then be pursued throughout the paper as you compile data from
several sources in support of your thesis. Each paragraph or section should build on the
previous. The last paragraph(s) should then bring together a summary and present as a
conclusion the reason for writing the paper. Clearly, the conclusion should be that your thesis is
correct and insightful. A well written paper will lead you to the end without a statement such as
"In conclusion…" or other similar phrases.
WRITING PAPERS FOR HONORS 201-202
Papers written for HON 201-202 will make reference to material covered in class, as well as
additional readings. Each paper must reflect an emphasis on the use of critical thinking skills
AND proper references to support your line(s) of evidence. Papers lacking either of these two
components will receive a lower grade. An excellent paper should include the following:
1. A thesis statement with a concise sentence defining the purpose of your paper.
2. Lines of evidence to support your thesis drawn from more than one source (hence
interconnecting several different sources).
3. Make reference to at least some of the readings completed for class. Also, you shall use
other sources to enhance your thesis, including Internet sites.
4. A concluding paragraph which ties the paper together and reemphasizes the thesis.
Writing papers for HON 201-202
CITATION OF REFERENCES FOR SCIENCE PAPERS
Within the body of the paper
It is very important to document the source of all your information. In scientific papers footnotes
are rarely used and citations are noted within the text by making reference to the author and date
of publication.
Within the body of the paper references are usually listed in parenthesis (unless otherwise
assigned) in one of two ways. One way is to make direct reference to the author(s): Knight and
Wallace (1989) state that plants are well adapted to fire. The second way is to place the author at
the end of the sentence within parenthesis: Plants are well adapted to fire (Knight and Wallace
1989). When more than two authors write an article or book, the first author is written, followed
by "et al." (French for "and others"); ex.: (Cragg et al. 1995).
If you need to quote an author directly, word for word, keep it short and cite the page number
along with the author and date: Park (2000, pg. 27) states that "The reluctance of scientists to
publicly confront voodoo science is vexing. While forever bemoaning general scientific
illiteracy, scientists suddenly turn shy when given an opportunity to help educate the public by
exposing some preposterous claim." The reference would then be cited as usual on the literature
cited section without reference to the specific page.
Commonly the question arises as to how much of the paper should be referenced. Clearly,
referencing every sentence is overkill. Use common sense and realize that if the information is
general knowledge (you didn't need to look it up), then it probably doesn't need a reference. If
you have obtained extensive information in one paragraph from a single source you can state that
as the first sentence. For example:
Brown and Lugo (1990) have completed extensive research on rainforest succession.
This sentence can then be followed by detailed information.
In the Literature Cited section
All authors, regardless of how many, need to be listed (last name first on the first author only),
followed by:
 the year of publication,
 name of the article or chapter (if used),
 pagination of chapter (if used),
 name of the journal or book,
 (books only) publisher and city, or
 (journal articles only) volume and pages of the article.
A number of citations are present in the syllabus. Here are a few examples:
A book with multiple authors
Carr, Nancy, Joseph Coulson, Mike Levine, Gary Schoepfel, Donald Whitfield, and Mark
Stefanski (editors). 2001. The Nature of Life, Readings in Biology. Great Books
Foundation, Chicago.
pg. 3
A journal article with multiple authors
Cragg, Gordon, Michael Boyd, Michael Grever, and Saul Schepartz. 1995. Pharmaceutical
prospecting and the potential for pharmaceutical crops. Natural product drug discovery and
development at the United States National Cancer Institute. Annuals of the Missouri
Botanical Garden 82: 47-53.
A chapter from a book
Hellman, Hal. 2001. Semmelweis versus the Viennese Medical Establishment, Childbed fever,
pp. 33-51. In: Great Feuds in Medicine, Ten of the liveliest disputes ever. John Wiley &
Sons, Inc., New York.
Use of Internet references
The Internet presents a relatively new method for obtaining information. Unlike published
articles, these references can potentially change daily. Further, in a number of cases the
reliability of information has been questioned. As a result they should be used only as
supplemental material such as:
 you need current information which has yet to be published, and
 the information is not published elsewhere.
A paper should never be based entirely on Internet information, unless you are certain the
information is reliable and correct.
The basic format of citation is similar to that of any article or book. Never the less, here is the
format, followed by some examples.
 author (in many cases this becomes anonymous),
 year the article was written (date of your visit, last update, or copyright),
 title of article,
 title of major heading or name of Internet site (in italics or underlined), and
 Internet address.
Anonymous. 2003 (visit: August 20). 2002 Hurricane Guide. South Carolina Emergency
Management Division.
http://www.state.sc.us/emd/library/brochures/hurricaneguide02/index.html
Loy, Jim. 1999 (copyright). Occam’s Razor. Jim Loy's Pseudoscience Page
http://www.jimloy.com/pseudo/occam.htm