Writing an effective scientific paper is not easy. A good rule of thumb is to write as if your paper
will be read by a person who knows about the field in general but does not already know what
you did. Before you write a scientific paper read some scientific papers that have been written in
the format of the paper you plan to use. In addition to the science, pay attention to the writing
style and format.
Abstract: An abstract is a succinct (one paragraph) summary of the entire paper. The abstract
should briefly describe the question posed in the paper, the methods used to answer this question
the results obtained, and the conclusions. It should be possible to determine the major points of a
paper by reading the abstract. Although it is located at the beginning of the paper, it is easiest to
write the abstract after the paper is completed.
Introduction: The Introduction should (i) describe the question tested by the experiments
described in the paper, (ii) explain why this is an interesting or important question, (iii) describe
the approach used in sufficient detail that a reader who is not familiar with the technique will
understand what was done and why, and (iv) very briefly mention the conclusion of the paper.
Materials and Methods: The Materials and Methods section should succinctly describe what
was actually done. It should include description of the techniques used so someone could figure
out what experiments were actually done. The details of a published protocol do not need to be
reproduced in the text but an appropriate reference should be cited – e.g., simply indicate “were
done as described by Hughes et al. (4)”. Any changes from the published protocol should be
described. It is not appropriate to indicate volumes of solutions added – instead indicate the
relevant information about the experiment such as final concentrations used, etc.
Results: Begin each paragraph with an opening sentence that tells the reader what question is
being tested in the experiments described in that paragraph. Write the opening sentence in bold
font for emphasis. (Sometimes a complete sentence is used and sometimes a short phrase is used
– either style is OK but the style should be used consistently throughout the manuscript.) Any
results that include multiple data points that are critical for the reader to evaluate the experiment
should be shown in tables or figures. However, the results should be summarized in
accompanying text. When referring to a particular table or figure, they should be capitalized
(e.g., Table 1, Figure 6, etc.) The text of the Results section should be succinct but should
provide the reader with a summary of the results of each table or figure.
Not all results deserve a separate table or figure. As a rule of thumb, if there are only a few
numerical results or a simple conclusion describe the results in the text instead of in a table or
figure.
Your paper should focus on what worked, not things that did not work (unless they didn’t work
for reasons that are interesting and provide biological insights). Other things must be concerned:
-Tables and Figures -Discussion
-Citations -Reference lists
-Format -Flow. -Abbreviations.
-Past, present, and future tense. -Third vs first person.
-Empty phrases. -Specify.
-Parentheses. -Proofreading.
For example if you want to write about Algebra for k-12, you need to study Algebra 1 and Algebra 2. provide Algebra 1 Help and Algebra 2 Help as well as you provide Algebra 1 Answers and Algebra 2 Answers. Then you can do steps above.
