HINTS FOR WRITING BISC 220 PAPER 1
Title:
Remember that the title is often the way a search engine finds your article for someone researching that topic. You must make sure the all key words are included and that the title makes crystal clear your topic & all the major issues addressed.
Abstract:
The abstract must summarize each part of the paper in a few words, therefore it should be written last. It also should include the most important specific data that allows the conclusion(s). Abstracts are the only part of the paper that should be single spaced.
Introduction
The general outline of an introduction is to, 1) introduce the topic and the experimental questions addressed, 2) get the reader interested enough in the importance of the topic to continue to read the paper, 3) present any background information necessary for the reader to follow the experimental design or to understand the data that will used to draw conclusions and outline BRIEFLY how the experimental questions will be addressed (methods), 4) and present (briefly) the reasoning for a hypothesis for the experimental question(s), if possible. As a general rule, the introduction should not be more than 1-2 pages and should not go into great detail or depth about anything. In general, an introduction should introduce rather than explain.
Materials and Methods
Although the M&M section is the least important in your paper (see points assigned in the rubric in the Information folder at the top of the lab conference) students have a hard time, initially, deciding what details to leave in and what to omit. Please do not think of M&M as writing a protocol for someone to follow step by step, but more as a description of what you did to answer your questions experimentally. This would include how to find crucial information needed to repeat the protocol. Less initial direction from me (in the form of more words here), but more individual feedback about your choices, seems to be the best way for you to learn to write this section. Please come see me after you have a draft to talk about of at least part of your M&M. Although this section is the least important in your paper, and I don’t want you to focus on it to the detriment of the more important parts; it is a valuable skill to learn how to distinguish the crucial from the trivial and how to explain what you did, intelligibly, in the fewest words possible.
Results:
The results section mustcontain both figurative data and a text description analyzing the most important data in the figure. The text SHOULD include simple conclusions that can be made entirely from the data presented in that figure or table. Conclusions that synthesize data from more than one source (either published by other authors or from a different experiment in your study) should be saved for the discussion. Conjectures or inferences made from the data are also material for discussion, not results. For example, it is desirable to conclude in the results text that comparison of Km and Vmax values in the uninhibited vs. inhibited reaction gave a pattern consistent with some type ofreversible inhibition (if it did) but you should wait until the discussion to make the conjecture that ONPG has high or low affinity for the enzyme. Km is related to the affinity of the substrate for the enzyme and you have measured and presented Km values in a table, but affinity isn’t directly measured by these data. ONPG’s high affinity for beta-galactosidase is implied by the low concentration of substrate required to achieve Vmax/2 and that is why you would save this type of analysis and conclusion for the discussion section.
Figure Legends: Many of you had trouble with writing the figure legend for the Ras Mol assignment. The legend must summarize, briefly, how the data were generated or refer the reader to where that information can be found, ie., the appendix or another previous figure legend. That said, a legend for this course should NOT interpret the data. In some scientific disciplines, figures and tables have captions rather than legends. Captions (like those found around text book images and tables) do summarize the important points in the data and in some journals, particularly those where space is at a high premium, the legend takes the place of the text summary. For us, writing for the mythical Journal of BISC 220, the legend should supply information needed to understand how the data was generated and why, but the data in the figure or table should be organized and presented so effectively that the reader is able to analyze the data him/herself. Your goal in the figure is to visually make the major points. Don’t rely on the legend to do that.
Discussion:
Don’t be repetitive in the discussion but do start out with a transition sentence that reminds your reader of the goals of the study, BRIEFLY. Since the introduction should have already explained any necessary background information, the discussion should launch quickly into explaining the conclusions made from the data analysis in the results section and relating the findings from these data to other studies from outside sources or to theoretical information that the data support or refute. Please don’t repeat or include simple data analysis that should be in the results section. The discussion builds broader conclusions from all the evidence (multiple experiments) and from outside studies. The discussion considers alternative explanations of the results, relates theory to data, or presents future directions that the experimentation should take to address ambiguities. In this paper, the discussion should have addressed the theory behind the pattern of Vmax and Km values that allowed you to conclude that IPTG was a particular type of reversible inhibitor.
The discussion should be largely positive even when that’s a challenge. It should always end with conclusions from this study in your own words. Please don’t end your paper with a citation of someone else’s work. Don’t end with ambiguities unless you can phrase them affirmatively.
Don’t end in a repetitive restatement of ground already covered. Do end by, briefly, summarizing the most important findings of this study and, if possible, take those conclusions to some broader application. In this paper, that’s not really relevant, but in the other papers for this course, you should be able to address a broader context.
References:
You must include reference citations for all information that is not common knowledge. Any sentence that needs a source citation must have it in or at the end of that sentence. We are using the name, year system for this course. Refer to CBE format for more information on the name year system or use the internet source suggestions posted previously. Always use primary published sources whenever possible. There are pdf files of reference articles posted to the reference and information folder at the top of the lab conference. Those references give other references. For example, if you refer to the latose operon work by Jacob and Monod, you should not cite the secondary source such as the Juers or Ring article, but cite, preferably, the original paper published by Jacob and Monod. You can find the citation information for it in the Juers or Ring reference list.
The formal for citation of the lab manual in the body of the paper is (BISC 219 Lab Manual, 2005) because it is considered a book with editors, not authors.
Appendix:
The appendix comes last. Nothing should be in the appendix that isn’t referred to somewhere in the body of the paper, or in a figure legend. All figures in the appendix (such as standard curves) must have numbers and each figure must have a proper legend. Other data, such as linear regression formulas and equations, are best put in table form.