CH801 Week 7

Writing II - Developing and Writing a Research Paper:

Instructors Outline

Reference literature:

ACS Style Guide: A Manual for Authors and Editors by Janet S. Dodd

How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper by Robert A. Day

Handbook of Technical Writing by Gerald J. Alred, Charles T. Brusaw, Walter E. Oliu

The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White

Writing a Thesis: Substance and Style by R. Keith van Wagenen

MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers by Joseph Gibaldi

Introductions to Developing and Writing a research paper:

Scott’s ppt presentation (Scott’s power point presentation can be found on the previous page in the ‘course notes’ section)

Process, “Outlining”: Find a journal template. Start with figures/tables, schemes then write around data. Who to send paper to (editors)

Read and go over the assigned primary literature for grammar, style, and content.

(have overheads or powerpoint of the articles)

  1. Phagemid Encoded Small Molecules for High Throughput Screening of Chemical Libraries. Jun Yin, Fei Liu, Martina Schinke, Christian Daly, and Christopher T. Walsh, J. Am. Chem. Soc.2004, 126, 13570.
  2. C2-Symmetric Bicyclo[2.2.2]octadienes as Chiral Ligands: Their High Performance in Rhodium-Catalyzed Asymmetric Arylation of N-Tosylarylimines. Norihito Tokunaga, Yusuke Otomaru, Kazuhiro Okamoto, Kazuhito Ueyama, Ryo Shintani, and Tamio Hayashi, J. Am. Chem. Soc.2004, 126, 13584.
  3. Fluorescence Emission from Dendrimers and Its pH Dependence. Dongjun Wang and Toyoko Imae. J. Am. Chem. Soc.2004, 126, 13204.
  1. FTIR Spectroscopy of Buried Interfaces in Molecular Junctions. Yongseok Jun and X.-Y. Zhu. J. Am. Chem. Soc.2004, 126, 13224.

Discussion with students (20 min):

What makes a good paper, science vs. presentation?

Does effective writing make a better paper?

Discuss the papers you have been asked to read. Which was a good paper and which was

a particularly poor paper? What attributes gave it such a designation?

  1. Purpose
  2. Results
  3. Audience
  4. Authorship
  5. Mechanics
  6. Who writes the paper?
  7. Structure
  8. Title
  9. Abstract
  10. Introduction
  11. Experimental Design
  12. Figures
  13. Schemes
  14. Results
  15. graphs
  16. tables
  17. Conclusions
  18. Proper citation
  19. plagiarism: paraphrasing, quoting, and ideas
  20. Where is proper citation necessary
  21. Drafts and revisions
  22. The importance of allowing time for revision
  23. Allowing others who are not directly associated with the work to aid in the revision process

Reading Assignment for the Students:

Read Chapter 10, starting at page 121, in Graduate Research-A Guide for Students in the Sciences

Read Publications and Openness (page 9), The Allocation of Credit (page 12), Authorship Practices (page13) in the booklet On Being A Scientist Responsible Conduct in Research