Short Guide to Writing About Biology, A

by Pechenik, Jan A.

Edition:

6th

ISBN13:

9780321385925

ISBN10:

0321385926

Format:

Paperback

Pub. Date:

1/1/2007

Publisher(s):

Longman

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Summary

Provides students with the tools needed to be successful writers in college and their profession, while emphasizing writing as a way of examining, evaluating, and sharing ideas. Students are taught how to read critically, study, evaluate and report data, and how to communicate information clearly and logically. Teaches students to think as biologists and to express ideas clearly and concisely through their writing. Courses preparing students for a profession in the field of biology.

Author Biography

Jan A. Pechenik is professor of biology at Tufts University

PREFACE

xvii

PART I General Advice about Writing and Reading Biology

(128)

1 INTRODUCTION AND GENERAL RULES

(20)

What Do Biologists Write about, and Why?

(3)

The Keys to Success

(9)

Ten major rules for preparing a first draft

(4)

Six major rules for developing your final draft

(3)

Eight finer points: the easy stuff

(2)

The annoying but essential final pass

(1)

On Using Computers in Writing

(4)

On Using Computers for Data Storage, Analysis, and Presentation

(1)

Summary

(3)

TECHNOLOGY TIP 1. GETTING THE MOST FROM YOUR WORD-PROCESSING PROGRAM

(6)

2 LOCATING USEFUL SOURCES 21 Using Indexes

(11)

Using Science Citation Index

(1)

Using Current Contents

(1)

Using Medline and Other Databases

(2)

Prowling the Internet

(1)

Conducting Web Searches: Developing Productive Search Strategies

(4)

Final Thoughts about Efficient Searching: Technology Isn't Everything

(1)

Closing Thoughts

(1)

Summary

(1)

TECHNOLOGY TIP 2. USING SEARCH ENGINES EFFECTIVELY

(5)

3 GENERAL ADVICE ON READING AND NOTE-TAKING

(19)

Why Read and What to Read

(1)

Effective Reading

(2)

Reading Data: Plumbing the Depths of Figures and Tables

(4)

Reading Text: Summarize as You Go

(2)

Plagiarism and Note-Taking

(9)

Plagiarism

(1)

Take notes in your own words

(6)

Split-page note-taking: A can't fail system

(2)

Final thoughts on note-taking: Document your sources

(1)

Summary

(1)

4 READING AND WRITING ABOUT STATISTICAL ANALYSES

(20)

Statistical Essentials

(12)

Variability and its representation

(3)

When is a difference a meaningful difference? What you need to know about tomatoes, coins, and random events

(2)

Establishing a null hypothesis

(2)

Conducting the analysis, and interpreting the results

(4)

Degrees of freedom

(1)

Summary: Using Statistics to Test Hypotheses

(1)

Moving Beyond p-Values

(2)

Statistical power

(1)

Effect magnitudes

(1)

Reading about Statistics

(1)

Writing about Statistics

(4)

5 CITING SOURCES AND LISTING REFERENCES

(11)

Citing Sources

(4)

Summary of Citation Format Rules

(1)

Preparing the Literature Cited Section

(5)

Listing the references—General rules

(1)

Listing the references—Using the correct format

(3)

A Sample Literature Cited Section

(2)

TECHNOLOGY TIP 3. BIBLIOGRAPHIC MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

(1)

TECHNOLOGY TIP 4. PRODUCING HANGING INDENTS

(3)

6 REVISING

(46)

Preparing the Draft for Surgery: Plotting Idea Maps

(5)

Revising for Content

(3)

Revising for Clarity

(6)

Taming disobedient sentences—Sentences that don't say what the author means

(3)

The dangers of It

(2)

Problems with and

(1)

Headache by acronym

(1)

Revising for Completeness

(2)

Revising for Conciseness

100

(7)

First commandment: Eliminate unnecessary prepositions

102

(1)

Second commandment: Avoid weak verbs

103

(1)

Third commandment: Do not overuse the passive voice

104

(1)

Fourth commandment: Make the organism the agent of the action

105

(1)

Fifth commandment: Incorporate definitions into your sentences

106

(1)

Revising for Flow

107

(4)

A short exercise in establishing coherence

109

(1)

Improving flow using punctuation

110

(1)

Revising for Teleology and Anthropomorphism

111

(1)

Revising for Spelling Errors

111

(2)

Revising for Grammar and Proper Word Usage

113

(6)

A grammatical aside: Rules-that-are-not-rules

118

(1)

A strategy for revising: Pass by pass by pass

119

(1)

Becoming a Good Reviewer

119

(8)

Receiving criticism

122

(2)

Fine-tuning

124

(1)

Sentences in need of revision

124

(3)

Checklist

127

(3)

TECHNOLOGY TIP 5. TRACKING CHANGES MADE TO DOCUMENTS

123

(6)

PART II Guidelines for Specific Tasks

129

(160)

7 WRITING SUMMARIES AND CRITIQUES

130

(9)

Writing the First Draft

131

(1)

Writing the Summary

132

(1)

Sample Student Summary

133

(2)

Analysis of student summary

134

(1)

Writing the Critique

135

(3)

The critique

135

(3)

Analysis of student critique

138

(1)

Concluding Thoughts

138

(1)

8 WRITING ESSAYS AND REVIEW PAPERS

139

(12)

Why Bother?

139

(1)

Getting Started

140

(1)

Researching Your Topic

141

(1)

Developing a Thesis Statement

142

(1)

Writing the Paper

143

(5)

Getting underway: Taking and organizing your notes

143

(1)

The crucial first paragraph

144

(2)

Supporting your argument

146

(2)

The closing paragraph

148

(1)

Citing Sources

148

(1)

Creating a Title

149

(1)

Revising

150

(1)

Checklist

150

(1)

9 WRITING LABORATORY AND OTHER RESEARCH REPORTS

151

(74)

Why Are You Doing This?

151

(1)

The Purpose of Laboratory and Field Notebooks

152

(4)

Taking notes

153

(3)

Making drawings

156

(1)

Components of the Research Report

156

(3)

Where to Start

159

(1)

When to Start

160

(1)

Writing the Materials and Methods Section

160

(6)

Determining the correct level of detail

160

(3)

Giving rationales

163

(1)

Describing data analysis

163

(1)

Use of subheadings

163

(2)

A model materials and methods section

165

(1)

Writing the Results Section

166

(33)

Summarizing data using tables and graphs

167

(1)

Constructing a summary table

168

(1)

To graph or not to graph

168

(6)

Preparing graphs

174

(4)

(Not) falsifying data

178

(1)

The question: To connect or not to connect the dots?

178

(4)

Making bar graphs and histograms

182

(3)

Learning to love logarithms

185

(2)

Preparing tables

187

(3)

Making your graphs and tables self-sufficient

190

(1)

Putting your graphs and tables in order

190

(1)

Incorporating figures and tables into your report (or not)

191

(1)

Verbalizing results: General principles

191

(3)

Verbalizing results: Turning principles into action

194

(1)

What is a 'figure"?

194

(1)

Writing about negative results

195

(1)

Writing about numbers

195

(1)

In anticipation—Preparing in advance for data collection

196

(3)

Citing Sources

199

(1)

Writing the Discussion Section

199

(7)

Expectations

200

(1)

Explaining unexpected results

201

(2)

Analysis of specific examples

203

(3)

Writing the Introduction Section

206

(7)

Stating the question

207

(1)

An aside: Studies versus experiments

208

(1)

Providing the background

209

(3)

A sample introduction

212

(1)

Talking about Your Study Organism or Field Site

213

(1)

Deciding on a Title

213

(2)

Writing an Abstract

215

(1)

Preparing an Acknowledgments Section

216

(1)

Preparing the Literature Cited Section

216

(1)

Preparing a Paper for Formal Publication

216

(2)

Checklist for the Final Draft

218

(7)

TECHNOLOGY TIP 6. USING COMPUTER SPREADSHEETS FOR DATA COLLECTION

198

(23)

TECHNOLOGY TIP 7. GRAPHING WITH EXCEL

221

(4)

10 WRITING RESEARCH PROPOSALS

225

(12)

What Are Reviewers Looking For?

226

(1)

Researching Your Topic

227

(1)

What Makes a Good Research Question?

228

(1)

Writing the Proposal

229

(5)

Introduction

229

(1)

Background

230

(2)

Proposed research

232

(2)

Citing references and preparing the literature cited section

234

(1)

Tightening the Logic

234

(1)

The Life of a Real Research Proposal

235

(1)

Checklist

235

(2)

11 ANSWERING ESSAY QUESTIONS

237

(7)

Basic Principles

237

(5)

Applying the Principles

242

(2)

12 WRITING A POSTER PRESENTATION

244

(7)

Layout of the Poster

246

(2)

Making the Poster

248

(2)

Checklist for Making Posters

250

(1)

13 WRITING FOR A GENERAL AUDIENCE: SCIENCE JOURNALISM

251

(8)

Science Journalism Based on Published Research

252

(3)

The simple statement and bullet leads

252

(1)

The narrative lead

253

(1)

The surprise or paradox lead

254

(1)

Science journalism in action: An example

254

(1)

Journalism Based on an Interview

255

(4)

14 PREPARING ORAL PRESENTATIONS

259

(13)

Talking about Published Research Papers

260

(4)

Preparing the talk

260

(2)

Giving the talk

262

(2)

Talking about Original Research

264

(1)

Talking about Proposed Research

265

(1)

The Listener's Responsibility

265

(1)

Preparing Effective Slides and Overheads

266

(1)

The Pros and Cons of PowerPoint Presentations

267

(3)

Checklist for Being Judged

270

(2)

15 WRITING LETTERS OF APPLICATION

272

(17)

Before You Start

273

(1)

Preparing the Résumé

273

(3)

Preparing the Cover Letter

276

(11)

Recruiting Effective Letters of Recommendation

287

(2)

APPENDIX A: THE DISASSEMBLED PARAGRAPH RECONSTITUTED (FROM CHAPTER 6)

289

(1)

APPENDIX B: REVISED SAMPLE SENTENCES

290

(2)

APPENDIX C: REVISED SAMPLE SENTENCES IN FINAL FORM

292

(2)

APPENDIX D: COMMONLY USED ABBREVIATIONS

294

(2)

APPENDIX E: SUGGESTED REFERENCES FOR FURTHER READING

296

(2)

APPENDIX F: SAMPLE FORM FOR PEER REVIEW

298

(1)

APPENDIX G: SOME USEFUL WEB SITES

299

(2)

APPENDIX H: USING THE PAPER VERSIONS OF LEADING INDEXING SERVICES

301

(2)

INDEX

303

Short Guide to Writing About Biology, A

9780321385925

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Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents