Lab Exercise Scientific Reports Contents Objectives Introduction Activity. Assembling a Scientific Report 4 Resutls Section 6 Objectives - Become familiar with the style of scientific writing - Retrieve information from a scientific paper - Produce your own scientific report Introduction The principle means of communication in science (as well as nearly all disciplines) is through the written word. Even when oral presentations are given, these are usually available in a written format. Recording your work in a written form provides you with a reference to recall the events that took place, tells others what you have accomplished, and serves as a historical record of your thoughts and ideas. As are most of us today, practicing scientists are bombarded with information. To aid them in sorting through this information and find that which is most relevant to their interests, written scientific reports and papers have a standardized writing style and format. You will be asked to write one or more reports on your laboratory activities. These reports should follow the guidelines provided below.
Guidelines for Writing Reports Format and Content Style: Your writing should be brief and concise. It should accurately relay all necessary information without including that which is not necessary. For most of us, this is a difficult goal to achieve. It is only through practice, e.g., writing and critically reading scientific papers and reports, that one becomes a proficient communicator. The lab reports you will be required to write will start you in this process. To start you on your way, here are a number of commonly made style errors to be aware of and avoid:. All scientific names must be in correct form: genus name capitalized, specific epithet in lower case, and the name is italicized or underlined. 2. Use metric units of measure. 3. For numbers greater than ten, use numerals. If a sentence begins with a number, always spell it out. 4. Make sure your sentences are complete with a subject and a verb. 5. Divide the report into proper paragraphs. 6. Avoid using the first person. Instead of saying I or we, use an impersonal style (e.g., say Two ml of Benedict s solution was added to two ml of unknown solution A instead of I then added two ml of Benedict s solution to two ml of the unknown solution A ). 7. Use the past tense. 8. Avoid the use of slang or overuse of contractions. Format: The standard format of a scientific paper or report consists of five major parts: I. Title II. Introduction III. Procedure IV. Results V. Discussion VI. Bibliography I. TITLE: The title should be a short, usually less than ten words, descriptive statement of what the report is about. It should be specific enough to inform the reader of the contents of the report. You should take pains to avoid being too general and especially avoid ambiguity. Many times, scientists simply scan the table of contents of a journal to determine which papers to spend time reading. Thus, a poorly written title may result in your paper or report not being read despite its importance. II. INTRODUCTION: This paragraph describes the experiment. It should include background information and a statement of purpose. For instance, the former should acquaint the reader with appropriate terminology, definitions, and perhaps history associated with the topic. The statement of purpose is exactly that: what was the experiment trying to determine? In doing an experiment on photosynthesis, the background information should include a definition of photosynthesis and the chemical equation which summarizes the basic concept. The purpose(s) may be to determine how white light versus green light affects the rate of photosynthesis. Finally, the introduction should include a hypothesis of the expected result(s). For instance, include a statement hypothesizing that white light is more effective for photosynthesis than green light. 9. When finished, reread your paper watching carefully for ambiguity. III. PROCEDURE: This section describes the equipment used in conducting the experiment and the collection of data. For example, describe the manometer apparatus and its purpose. In addition, the lamp wattage, the plant source (Elodea), the distance from the light source, and length of time the activity was run need to be included in the equipment used portion. In describing the collection of data, explain how the activity was conducted, what was being measured; basically, what was actually done during the 2
experiment. For example, the rate of photosynthesis was indirectly measured by the amount of released oxygen as determined by the movement of the ink in the U-shaped glass tube. IV. RESULTS: The results illustrate the data in a clear and concise manner. The use of graphs, figures, and/ or tables is most appropriate in this section. A brief description of the data should be included. For instance, include a statement pointing out that the table or graph indicates that white light is indeed more effective for photosynthesis than green light. V. DISCUSSION: The interpretation of data and any conclusions are given in this section of your lab report. First, return to your hypothesis(es) and state whether the data support it(them). While doing the experiment, raise questions as to why something may or may not have occurred. In the discussion portion, explain why the results were the way they were (or in some cases, why they were NOT the way they were supposed to be!!). Finally, in general terms, explain what was learned from the experiment; come to some conclusion. For example, one may conclude that the quality of light plays a significant role in affecting the rate of photosynthesis. VI. BIBLIOGRAPHY: The Bibliography or Literature Cited section lists all of the literature the author(s) cited in the body of the report. Only those sources actually cited within the body of the report should be included in the bibliography. In this exercise you will use the Name-Year citation format. Here the citation elements should be placed in the following order:. Author or authors (the first author s name is listed last name first, a comma, and then the first name or initial. Subsequent authors are listed first name or initial followed by the last name. A period is placed after the author name(s). 2. The year the paper was published followed by a period. 3. The title of the paper followed by a period. 4. The name of the journal or book in which the paper appeared. This is followed by the volume number of the journal, a colon, and finally the page numbers on which the paper appeared. This is then followed by a period. Citations within the Report: In scientific writing, the format of citations within the body of the report are probably different from what you may be use to using in other disciplines. The most common system used in scientific reports is the name and year system. Here, when you are citing a reference, you place the author s last name and the year of the publication at the end if the sentence. These are placed within parentheses and the name and year are separated by a comma. For example, one might write Overall, vegetation has been found to grow faster in warm, moist environments (Doe, 984). If the author s name is used in the sentence, the year of the publication, in parentheses, follows the author s name. For example you could rewrite the above sentence as Doe (984) found that as a general rule, vegetation grows faster in warm, moist environments. If the work you are citing has two authors, both authors are listed: Smith and Doe(998) described the effect of fertilizer on plant growth. However, if the work has three or more authors, the first time it is cited in your paper, list all three authors. After that, if the same work is cited again list it as (Doe et al., 992). For works that have more than four authors, always use et al. even the first time the work is cited. Should you cite two different works published by the same author(s) in the same year, simply add an a after the year to the first work you cite, a b after the year for the second work you cite and so on. For example, the citation might look like: (Doe et al., 99a; Doe et al., 99b). Examples of Bibliography Listings Comita, Liza S. and Stephen P. Hubbell. 2009. Local neighborhood and species shade tolerance influence survival in a diverse seedling bank. Ecology 90(2): 328-335. Derome, N., Duchesne, P. and L. Bernatchez. 2006. Parallelism in gene transcription among sympatric lake whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis Mitchill) ecotypes. Molecular Ecology 5: 239-249. 3
Activity. Assembling a Scientific Paper To begin this exercise, select the Scientific Reports simulation in The Science of Biology section on the BiologyOne CD. The first screen of this simulation is an introductory screen. To begin the exercise, click on the forward arrow in the lower right corner. You are first asked to select one of the five topics shown. The scientific paper you will construct is an actual published paper on that topic. Record your topic in the Results Section of the lab module. On the next screen, you will be asked to place portions of the paper in the appropriate section of the report (see below). The first component of the report you need to place is the title. Record the title in the results section. To add the title to the report, simply click on the title and drag it to the top of the report space above the introduction section. The title section will highlight when the title is over it. Clicking on the Add to Section button will then lock the title into that location of the report. Now sentences which belong in the body of the report will appear in random order. Read each sentence for the type of information it contains. Based on your assessment, drag the sentence to a location over the report section in which you believe it belongs. Each sentence is referenced with a number. Record the sentence number in the appropriate location of the Report Section. Click on the Add to Section button to lock the sentence in the report. Repeat this process until all sentences have been placed. When all sentences have been placed, check your work by clicking on the Check Your Work button. This will review the sentences you ve placed in each section. Incorrectly placed sentences will be identified for you to move to the appropriate section. Record your changes in the results section. When all sentences are correctly placed, click on the Write Citation button. In the lower middle of this screen you will be presented with the components of citation. Simply click on them in the appropriate order to have Simulation Screen for Placing Sentences drag sentences into paper be sure to note sentence number Sentence to place in report buttons for adding & checking work 4
the citation entered. Check your work by clicking on the Check Your Work button. Rewrite the citation if necessary. When the citation has been correctly written, record it in the results section. An illustration of this screen and its elements is shown below. Simulation Screen for Writing Citation use buttons to check work click on citation elements to add 5
Lab Exercise Name Results Section Activity. Assembling a Scientific Paper Topic: Title: Introduction: (record sentence numbers below - you may not need all spaces) Methods: (record sentence numbers below - you may not need all spaces) Results: (record sentence numbers below - you may not need all spaces) Conclusion: (record sentence numbers below - you may not need all spaces) 6
Write the Citation to the paper you selected below: 7