Scientific Journals: Paper Structure

A scientific paper has a specific layout that should be followed like this:

1. A title
2. An abstract
3. An introduction
4. Materials and methods
5. Experimental
6. Results
7. Conclusions
8. Acknowledgements
   
9. List of references
   

Titles are precises and clear

The abstract is the least formal part of the paper and is usually a summary of the main points of the project. It is almost an introduction to what you are about to unveil to the reader so there is a little "hook" required.

The introduction usually gives a "background" of the subject that is going to be experimented with.

Materials, experimental, results, and conclusion are strictly defined by what happened in the experiments. It is to be written as clearly as possibly mentioning every detail of what went on in the experimentation.

Acknowledgments gives a proper "thank you" to others involved in the work.

List of references:

1. Scientific textbooks.
2. Newspaper articles, articles on science subjects in popular journals.
3. On-line journals (not refereed).
4. Popular science journals, e.g. New Scientist. http://www.newscientist.com
5. Review articles in scientific journals (e.g. Nutrition Abstracts and Reviews or in 'Trends' journals such as Trends in Plant Science). http://www.trends.com
6. Grey literature (i.e. information not readily available), for example, conference proceedings, research reports, annual reports.
7. Abstracting journals, e.g. Grassland and Forage Abstracts, Veterinary Bulletin http://www.cabi.org; Databases containing annotated bibliographies (e.g. by CABI).http://www.cabi.org ,On-line-searching of database titles; Current contents.
8. Science citation index.
9. Higher degree theses.
10. Scientific papers in scientific journals (including refereed on-line journals).
11. and.. The World Wide Web
    

Writing in Biology

After Adam Prowatzke, my chemistry professor, explained that writing in scholarly articles required a unique stand point, I searched to find a specific criteria. This is what I found:

-Avoid abbreviations
Unless it is a scientific acronym (DNA, RNA), units of measure or mathematical formulas. However, do not use them at the beginning of sentences.

-Acronyms
Establish an acronym early when using scientific terms like E. Coli is short for Escherichia coli. After you establish an scientific acronym you are free to use it through out the paper.

-Chemical Elements
Don't capitalize, only the first letter of the symbol (Ca or Na not CA or NA for calcium and sodium)

-Exactness
It is improper to use slang or any "fluff" in your scientific writing. It is supposed to be extremely formal and factual. Research is very crucial.

-Units
All units must be of the metric system (SI)

This information was found in V.E. McMillan's Writing Papers in the Biological Sciences

A major argument in Biology

While being in the class my professors were giving their lecture on Viruses. It was brought up in class whether viruses are alive or simply a strand of DNA inside a protein shell that wanders around on the cellular level. Viruses infect health cells but injecting their DNA into the host cell. The DNA is either going to make the cell make copies of the virus then destroy the cell or live within the cell until it decides to force the cell to make its copies. Biologists continue to argue their views on the matter even now, it has yet to be answered. You can look at the virus and compare it to what all living organisms need to be considered alive. Reproduce, get and use energy, grow,develop, and die, have DNA, and react to the environment. While viruses do have DNA and react to the environment, they cannot grow on their own.

AAAS

AAAS is a purely scientific way of writing, and even in the science fields it is not often used except in writing about genetics. It is a style of writing for only information that is expected to use in journals or for further research. It is very step heavy, meaning that each and every thing you do without exception must be recorded. Along with keeping a moment by moment record, you need to clean it up and write it in a professional style and look in your writing when it comes to writing in the AAAS Format. This style also works when you are demonstrating an excitement that has already been due to be sure you achieve the result that would expect and the other tester got. Finally, this is a trained style of writing that is learned in upper level college and so on, it is not something you can just look at and copy and have right, it is very complex.

APSA Writing and Citation

In the APSA Writing and citation style is used in any format that will be submitted for any of several things, including but not limited to legal documents, any professional paper work, or anything being shown to a governing body. This form of writing normally refers to writing that is sited from academic journals or other types of academia. This style is commonly used during radio, television, and spoken works, because it is easy to verbally site these types of works.

Ex. Of how it can be written.

(CBS News December 19th sixty Minutes)
(Albright, N 1999 announcement on china)
(Congressional Record October 20th 1997 H7)

Biology Degree

For a biology degree and career, you must take many different types of class in many different fields. For a biological degree, and in turn a career you will need to take many math and science class including biology 1 and 2, chemistry 1 and 2, physics, and Calculus. You might ask where this has anything to do with writing. But all of these require some amount of writing in order to pass the class. These along with Comp. 1 and 2 all require writing done in MLA citation methods, you must also take at least one upper level writing class where you will have to use either the MLA writing style and citation method or the APSA(American Political science organization) writing and citation method, or AAAS writing and citation method. These make up the different writing styles that you might have to demonstrate in order to attain a degree in biology and eventually use these different methods in a career.

Biology

I spoke with my biology teacher about the following:

1. For people who are studying and/or majoring Biology, something they should know before they begin:

Something important for students to know when entering the field of biology is to have a good idea and understanding of their high school biology class. Once in the class make sure to keep up with the material and when you do fall behind always seek the help of your instructor.

If you’re going on to study biology as a major study; make sure you have a passion for learning biology. Without that passion you will become bored with the endless information and details involved in biology.

2. What are some fields of work people with a degree in Biology could pursue?

Teaching, Medical, Dental, Optometry, Veterinary, Bio-technology, Agro-business, pharmaceutical.

3. What are the different regions of study within biology?

Biology can be divided up into three different areas of biology. Botany is the study of plants. Zoology is the study of animals. And microbiology is the study of microorganisms. While each of those can also be divided again into separate regions of study.