Help with Scientific Paper Writing

    Writing scientific papers seems to be a major difficulty for undergraduate students.  One of the major learning objectives in Biology 3A and 3B is demonstration of this skill.  Throughout our year in Intro Bio you will be asked to complete several assignments aimed at honing this skill.  In Bio 3A you will write each of the parts of the paper separately.  Then you will write at least two more complete papers.  Much of your final grade in the course will depend upon your ability to complete these tasks well.

How can you learn and improve this skill?

    1. Use the supplemental textbook you bought for this course.  It clearly states how to write in the scientific format. If you want a shorter written version, check out this set of instructions written by Warren Dolphin at Iowa State University.

    2. Check out other websites.  One of the first things that will become obvious when you do this simple task, is the widespread expectation that you must meet this goal!  From Harvard to the University of California, undergraduates are asked to write scientific papers.  Check out some of these websites.  And most importantly, notice how the format and style is almost exactly the same from school to school!

http://classweb.gmu.edu/biologyresources/writingguide/ScientificPaper.htm

    This is George Mason University's Biology department website.  It is fantastic.  You can find clear statements of the entire process.  I really like the student examples and comments provided.  Check these out... and avoid the common mistakes shown.  (Also, notice how biology faculty seem to correct the same mistakes over and over!)

http://www.ento.vt.edu/~sharov/PopEcol/lab2/lab2.html

    This is an upper-division lab from Virginia Tech's entomology program.  It is a short, concise description of how to write a scientific paper.  You might check out Lab One, also.  In that lab, these upper division student learn how to use MS Excel!

http://www.mun.ca/writingcentre/scientific.shtml

    Let's go north to Canada.  University of Newfoundland's website is very British. It's produced as part of a writing program at that school, so you can also read about poetry analysis in your spare time.

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/biology/ug/research/paper.html

    Just one more  website from Columbia University.  This one is short, sweet and to the point.

Journal Standards

    Every journal has slightly different standards for formatting.  If you'd like to see these, simply got to the website of a journal and look for instruction for authors. For example, here's the Journal of Cell Biology Instructions page:

http://www.jcb.org/misc/ifora.shtml

    In biology, the Council of Biological Editors (CBE) sets the style for our papers. Here are two websites that have explicit information on CBE standards:

http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/online/cite8.html

    3. Finally, download the scientific paper scorecard that we will use when we evaluate your paper.  It clearly states what we are looking for.