A Short Guide to Writing about Biology
Providing the reader with the tools need ed to be successful writers in college and their profession, A Short Guide to Writing about Biology emphasizes writing as a means to examine, evaluate, and share ideas. The text teaches how to read critically, study, evaluate and report data, and how to communicate information clearly and logically. Also given detailed advice on locating useful sources, interpreting the results of statistical tests, maintaining effective laboratory and field...
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Providing the reader with the tools need ed to be successful writers in college and their profession, A Short Guide to Writing about Biology emphasizes writing as a way of examining, evaluating, and sharing ideas. The text teaches how to read critically, study, evaluate and report data, and how to communicate information clearly and logically.Also given detailed advice on locating useful sources, interpreting the results of statistical tests, maintaining effective laboratory and field notebooks, writing effective research proposals and poster presentations, writing effective applications, and communicating information to both professional and general audiences.
Preface xiiiPart I General Advice about Writing and Reading Biology 11 Introduction And General Rules 2What Do Biologists Write about, and Why? 2The Keys to Success 4Eleven Major Rules for Preparing a First Draft 5Seven Major Rules for Developing Your Final Draft 10Nine Finer Points: The Easy Stuff 13The Annoying but Essential Last Pass 14On Using Computers in Writing 15On Using Computers for Data Storage, Analysis, and Presentation 18Summary 19Technology Tip 1. Getting The Most From Your Word-Processing Program 162 Locating Useful Sources 21Using Indexes 22Using Science Citation Index 23Using Current Contents Search 24Using Medline and Other Databases 24Prowling the Internet 25Conducting Web Searches: Developing Productive Search Strategies 27Final Thoughts about Efficient Searching: Technology Isn't Everything 31Closing Thoughts 32Summary 32Technology Tip 2. Using Search Engines Effectively 293 General Advice on Reading and Note-Taking 33Why Read and What to Read 33Effective Reading 34Reading Data: Plumbing the Depths of Figures and Tables 36Reading Text: Summarize as You Go 41Plagiarism and Note-Taking 42Plagiarism 42Take Notes in Your Own Words 44Split-Page Note-Taking: A Can't-Fail System 48Final Thoughts on Note-Taking: Document Your Sources 50Summary 504 Reading and Writing About Statistical Analyses 51Statistical Essentials 51Variability and Its Representation 51When Is a Difference a Meaningful Difference? What You Need to Know about Tomatoes, Peas, and Random Events 54Establishing a Null Hypothesis 56Conducting the Analysis, andInterpreting the Results 58Degrees of Freedom 62Summary: Using Statistics to Test Hypotheses 63Moving Beyond p-values 63Statistical Power 64Effect Magnitudes and Alternative Analyses 65Reading about Statistics 66Writing about Statistics 66Summary 705 Citing Sources and Listing References 71Citing Sources 71Summary of Citation Format Rules 75Preparing the Literature Cited Section 76Listing the References-General Rules 76Listing the References-Using the Correct Format 77A Sample Literature Cited Section 80Technology Tip 3. Bibliographic Management Software 79Technology Tip 4. Producing Hanging Indents 796 Revising 82Preparing the Draft for Surgery: Plotting Idea Maps 84Revising for Content 88Revising for Clarity 91Taming Disobedient Sentences-Sentences That Don't Say What the Author Means 91The Dangers of It 94Problems with And 96Headache by Acronym 96Revising for Completeness 97Revising for Conciseness 98First Commandment: Eliminate Unnecessary Prepositions 100Second Commandment: Avoid Weak Verbs 101Third Commandment: Do Not Overuse the Passive Voice 102Fourth Commandment: Make the Organism the Agent of the Action 104Fifth Commandment: Incorporate Definitions into Your Sentences 104Revising for Flow 105A Short Exercise in Establishing Coherence 107Improving Flow Using Punctuation 108Revising for Teleology and Anthropomorphism 109Revising for Spelling Errors 109Revising for Grammar and Proper Word Usage 110A Grammatical Aside: Rules-That-Are-Not-Rules 116A Strategy for Revising: Pass by Pass by Pass 116Becoming a Good Reviewer 117Receiving Criticism 119Fine-Tuning 121Sentences in Need of Revision 123Checklist 124Technology Tip 5. Tracking Changes Made To Documents 120Part II Guidelines for Specific Tasks 1277 Writing Summaries and Critiques 128Writing the First Draft 129Writing the Summary 130Sample Student Summary 131Analysis of Student Summary 132Writing the Critique 133The Critique 133Analysis of Student Critique 135Concluding Thoughts 1368 Writing Essays and Review Papers 137Why Bother? 137Getting Started 138Researching Your Topic 139Developing a Thesis Statement 140Writing the Paper 141Getting Underway: Taking and Organizing Your Notes 141The Crucial First Paragraph 142Supporting Your Argument 144The Closing Paragraph 145Citing Sources 146Creating a Title 146Revising 147Checklist 1479 Writing Laboratory And Other Research Reports 148Why Are You Doing This? 148The Purpose of Laboratory and Field Notebooks 149Taking Notes 150Making Drawings 154Components of the Research Report 154Where to Start 156When to Start 156Writing the Materials and Methods Section 157Determining the Correct Level of Detail 157Giving Rationales 159Describing Data Analysis 160Use of Subheadings 160A Model Materials and Methods Section 161Writing the Results Section 162Summarizing Data Using Tables and Graphs 163Constructing a Summary Table 164To Graph or Not to Graph 166Preparing Graphs 171(Not) Falsifying Data 173The Question: To Connect or Not to Connect the Dots? 174Making Bar Graphs and Histograms 177Learning to Love Logarithms 179Preparing Tables 182Making Your Graphs and Tables Self-Sufficient 183Putting Your Graphs and Tables in Order 186Incorporating Figures and Tables into Your Report (or Not) 186Verbalizing Results: General Principles 186Verbalizing Results: Turning Principles into Action 189What Is a "Figure"? 190Writing about Negative Results 190Writing about Numbers 190In Anticipation-Preparing in Advance for Data Collection 192Citing Sources 193What to Do Next? 194Writing the Discussion Section 194Expectations 195Explaining Unexpected Results 195Analysis of Specific Examples 197Writing the Introduction Section 201Stating the Question 202An Aside: Studies Versus Experiments 203Providing the Background 204A Sample Introduction 206Talking about Your Study Organism or Field Site 207Deciding on a Title 207Writing an Abstract 209Preparing an Acknowledgments Section 210Preparing the Literature Cited Section 210Preparing a Paper for Formal Publication 210Checklist for the Final Draft 212Technology Tip 6. Using Computer Spreadsheets for Data Collection 193Technology Tip 7. Graphing With Excel 21510 Writing Research Proposals 219What Are Reviewers Looking For? 220Researching Your Topic 221What Makes a Good Research Question? 222Writing the Proposal 223Introduction 223Background 224Proposed Research 226Citing References and Preparing the Literature Cited Section 228Tightening the Logic 228The Life of a Real Research Proposal 228Checklist 22911 Answering Essay Questions 230Basic Principles 230Applying the Principles 234Summary 23612 Presenting Research Findings: Writing Talks And Poster Presentations 237Oral Presentations 237Talking about Published Research Papers 238Talking about Original Research 242Talking about Proposed Research 242The Listener's Responsibility 242Preparing Effective Visuals 243Using Power Point 244Checklist for Being Judged 247Poster Presentations 248Layout of the Poster 250Making the Poster 252Checklist for Making Posters 25313 Writing Letters of Application 254Before You Start 255Preparing the Résumé 255Preparing the Cover Letter 258Recruiting Effective Letters of Recommendation 268Appendix A Revised Sample Sentences 270Appendix B Revised Sample Sentences In Final Form 272Appendix C Commonly Used Abbreviations 274Appendix D Suggested References For Further Reading 276Appendix E Sample Form For Peer Review 278Appendix F Some Useful Web Sites 279Index 281
