Transcript HOW TO WRITE A SCIENTIFIC PAPER

Red Lion Area Senior High School
PARTS OF A LAB REPORT:
1. TITLE PAGE
2. ABSTRACT (Optional)
3. INTRODUCTION
4. METHODS (PROCEDURE)
5. RESULTS (DATA)
6. DISCUSSION (CONCLUSION)
7. LITERATURE CITED
TITLE PAGE
ON A SEPARATE SHEET OF PAPER:
Name of experiment or exercise
•
Your name
•
Name of lab partners
•
Name of class
•
Date experiment done
•
Date report submitted
Color variation in M&M's
By: Heather Fogell
Lab Group #1: Olive Science, Itza Greatclass
AP Biology
Experiment Date: February 1, 2004
Write-up Date : March 3, 2004
INTRODUCTION
The Introduction…
• supplies background information needed to understand
the study.
• may provide a theoretical basis and historical context
for the work done in the lab.
• Specifies the problem and hypothesis.
To write the introduction…
• Give background information on your topic and more
specific information on the exact areas that you are
studying
• Cite information that has been published in research
articles or books related to your study.
• Clearly SPECIFY THE PROBLEM being investigated or
the objective of the study.
• Toward the end of this section you should EXPLICITLY
STATE YOUR HYPOTHESES!!
INTRODUCTION
M&M’s are a popular snack food made by M&M Mar’s
Company. First developed in 1941 and famous for
“Melting in your mouth and not I your hands” each
candy consists of chocolate covered with a hard
colored coating (1). In the 1980’s variations were
added that contained peanuts, pretzels, coconut,
and coating colors were added that mirrored
traditional holiday colors (2). This study explores the
allocation of coating colors within the king-size
packages of peanut M&M’s. Specifically, are the
same amount of each color candy in each
package?. It is hypothesized that color assortment is
random and the same amount of each color is not
present in each king-size package.
ABSTRACT
WHAT IS AN ABSTRACT?
• a single, tightly written paragraph that briefly
summarizes the major elements of the lab
report
• a minimum of one sentence each describing
the objectives, methods, results, and
conclusion
HELPFUL TIPS: This section is easiest to
write last and is done on a separate sheet of
paper!!
ABSTRACT
If the different colors of M&M's are
equally distributed in each package, then the
frequency of each color appearing within each
bag will be the same. Ten bags of traditional
M&M's were purchased and the candy within
each was separately divided by color. Results
were then gathered and analyzed for variation of
color frequency within the sample bags. The
different colors of M&M's were not equally
distributed in each package. Therefore the
frequency of each color appearing within each
bag is not the same.
METHODS (PROCEDURES)
• Describe the procedures that enabled you to collect your data
• DO NOT simply list the "materials"
• Include details that would permit someone to repeat your work
based on their reading of this section
• For most labs, the methods will come from a lab manual
handout. (The degree to which your manual/handout may be
used for citing methodology is up to your instructor.)
• AVOID insignificant details such as the name of the company
that made your pipette or the day of the week on which your lab
occurred.
• The predominant verb tense in this section is past tense.
HELPFUL TIP: This section is often the most straightforward to
write and is therefore a good place to begin your report.
METHODS
RESULTS (DATA)
PRESENT FINDINGS:
•
•
•
usually in the form of numerical data
Provide data that have been condensed to some degree rather than raw data.
If you are presenting calculated means, include some measure of data variability
(e.g. standard deviations).
USE TABLES OR FIGURES:
•
•
•
DO NOT simply refer readers to tables and figures!! Results must be verbally
expressed in this section.
Draw the reader's attention to particularly noteworthy data or the presence of
meaningful trends
If possible, support this with statistical analyses, keeping in mind that statistical
significance may conflict with your sense of biological significance.
HELPFUL TIP: The text of this section should summarize the data, but
stop short of interpreting their meaning or drawing major conclusions
about their importance.
Results
As seen in table #1, none of the
bags have the same amount of each
color. Figure #1 shows brown is
the most frequent in bag one and
orange is the least. Figure #2
shows blue is the most frequent in
bag two and green is the least.
Figure #3 shows red is the most
frequent in bag three and yellow is
the least.
TABLES
*May be used to organize large groups of numbers
1) Include a table heading at the top,
summarizing the table’s contents. It is
usually a SINGLE sentence fragment and
may lack a verb.
2) Use superscripts and footnotes to provide
additional information about the contents of
the table.
3) Each table should be on its own piece of
paper or neatly integrated into the end of the
results section.
Table #1 - Number of M&M's of each color per bag.
C ol or
Red
Orange
Green
Yellow
Brown
Blue
Bag #1 Numbe r of
M&M's
Bag #2 Numbe r of
M&M's
Bag #3 Numbe r of
M&M's
10
5
7
8
13
7
8
7
5
10
7
13
13
10
8
7
5
7
FIGURES
(GRAPHS/PHOTOS)
*Can be particularly useful to display trends in data.
FIGURE LEGENDS
1) Every figure requires a separate figure legend at the bottom.
2) Figure legends should provide just enough information to allow the reader to interpret
the figure. Unlike table headings, figure legends may consist of several sentences. The
first sentence is often a sentence fragment (a conceptual title).
FIGURES
1) Each figure should be centered on its own separate piece of paper or neatly integrated
into the end of the results section.
2) All axes should be labeled. The letters and numbers on the X (horizontal) and Y
(vertical) axes should be large enough to clearly read.
3) Include a key inside complex figures to identify symbols, lines, or bars.
DISCUSSION
(CONCLUSION)
Interpret your data and evaluate the meaning of your results.
The Discussion includes the following…
• Briefly summarize trends or important results
• Was your hypothesis, as stated in the Introduction, supported by the data?
• Do your results contradict, reaffirm, or extend previously published findings?
• Answer the problem.
When writing this section…
• Don't be afraid to report "negative" data (e.g., lack of relationships among
variables).
• If your data seem unreasonable, provide reasons that might help explain this.
• If possible, connect your findings with the results from published studies by
using literature citations.
• DO NOT discuss every aspect of your data and DO NOT provide every
conceivable explanation for the obtained results.
• Speculation should be limited and clearly identified as your own speculation.
• The last paragraph should be a STRONG STATEMENT of the TAKE-HOME
MESSAGE.
DISCUSSION
LITERATURE CITED
• All citations that appear in the body of your
lab report must be listed in this section.
• Use the author-year or numeric format to
arrange the citations.
• There are many ways of formatting citations.
Check with the course instructor.
CITATIONS W/IN THE PAPER
•
•
Appropriate literature can be cited in the Introduction, Methods, and Discussion sections.
Citations most commonly appear at the end of a sentence inside parentheses as illustrated in the
following examples:
–
Growth rates are positively correlated with rainfall (Jones 1993).
–
Growth rates are positively correlated with rainfall (Jones 1993, Roy and Smith 1988).
–
Growth rates are positively correlated with rainfall (Jones 1993, Roy and Smith 1988, Williams et al. 1937).
** “et al.” shows that Williams had two or more coauthors. All author’s names should appear in the complete citation in the
Literature Citation section.
•
•
The above format is preferred although some writers will explicitly insert the cited author's name(s)
into a sentence:
–
Jones (1993) found that growth rates are positively correlated with rainfall.
–
A positive correlation between growth rates and rainfall was found by Jones (1993).
Numeric internal citations can be done in the order they are cited and referenced by number in the
literature cited section.
FORMAT FOR VARIOUS SOURCES OF
CITATION
RESEARCH ARTICLES
•
Booth, D.A. 1995. Cognitive processes in odorant mixture assessment. Chemical Senses
20:639643.
•
Drews, D., Vaughn, D.B. and Anfiteatro, A. 1992. Beer consumption as a function of
music and the presence of others. Journal of the Pennsylvania Academy of Science
65:134-136.
•
Keeling, L.J. and Hernia, J.F. 1996. Social facilitation acts more on the appetitive than
the consummatory phase of feeding behaviour in domestic fowl. Animal Behaviour 52:1
1-15.
BOOK
•
Schmidt-Nielsen, K. 1990. Animal Physiology: adaptation and environment. 4th ed.
Cambridge University Press, New York, NY.
MORE CITATION FORMATTING
EDITED VOLUME
•
Hocutt, C.H., Baily, R. and Stauffer, J.R. 1992. An environmental primer for less
developed countries, with an emphasis on Africa. Pages 39-62 in Cairns, J., Jr.,
Niederlehner, B.R. and OIvos, D.R. (eds.). Predicting Ecosystem Risk. Princeton
Scientific Publishing Co., Inc. Princeton, NJ.
WORLD WIDE WEB DOCUMENT
•
Basic information in the citation: Author's name(s). Date of publication. Title of work.
Available from: Protocol: address and path. Accessed date of visit.
Example:
•
Collins, F. and Patrinos, A. 1996 August 16. NCHGR---DOE guidance on human
subjects in large-scale DNA sequencing [monograph online]. Available from:
http://www.ornl.gov/TechResources/Human_Genome/archive/mchgrdoe.html. Accessed
1997 January 6.
MORE CITATION FORMATTING
ELECTRONIC JOURNAL ARTICLE
•
Basic information in the citation: Author's name(s). Date of publication. Title of work. Title of serial
[serial online] Volume number: pages. Available from: protocol, address, and path.
Example:
•
Martin, E.P. 1996. Phylogenies, spatial autoregression, and the comparative method: a computer
simulation test. Evolution [serial online] 50:1-14. Available from: Infotrac Expanded Academic
Index.
ELECTRONIC CORRESPONDENCE
•
Basic information in the citation: Author's name(s). Date of message. Title or subject line [type of
medium]. Available from: protocol, address, and path.
Examples:
•
Smith, J. 1997 February 13. Re: Scientific style [email to Keck, A.]. Available from: ajkOO 1
@alpha.momingside.edu
•
Doe, J. 1997 February 13. Citation formats [discussion online]. Available from: Bibliographic
lnstruction List B1-L via listserv@bingvmb. cc.binghamton. edu