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CHAPTER 1?THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD 1 An Introduction to the Scientific Method 1 Ask a Question 2 Look for Answers to Your Question 2 Turn Your Question into a Hypothesis 2 Design an Experiment to Test Your Hypothesis 3 Define the variables.? 3 Design the procedure.? 4 Make Predictions about the Outcome of Your Experiment 4 Collect Data 5 How to handle variability and unexpected results.? 6 Organize the Data 7 Try To Explain the Results 8 Revise Original Hypotheses To Take New Findings into Account 8 Share Findings with Other Scientists 8 CHAPTER 2?FINDING PRIMARY REFERENCES 11 Current Journal Articles 12 Electronic journals.? 13 References Cited in ?Hits? 14 Books 15 The Internet 16 Connecting to the Internet 16 General Navigation 16 Search Tools 17 Evaluate Internet Sources Critically 17 CHAPTER 3 ?READING AND WRITING SCIENTIFIC PAPERS 19 Types of Scientific Writing 19 Hallmarks of Scientific Writing 19 Scientific Paper Format 20 Styles for Documenting References 22 Strategies for Reading Journal Articles 22 Determine the topic.? 22 Acquire background information on the topic.? 23 Read the Introduction.? 23 Read the Results section selectively.? 23 Read the Discussion section.? 23 Skim the Materials and Methods section.? 24 Read the article several times.? 24 Strategies for Reading your Textbook 24 Study Groups 26 Avoid Plagiarism: Paraphrase What You Read 26 The Benefits of Learning to Write Scientific Papers 27 Credibility and Reputation 27 Model Papers 28 CHAPTER 4?STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS FOR PREPARING A LABORATORY REPORT OR SCIENTIFIC PAPER 29 Timetable 29 Format Your Report Correctly 30 Computer Savvy 31 Getting Started 33 Reread the Laboratory Exercise 33 Audience and Tone 33 Start with the Materials and Methods Section 34 Writing Style 35 Details: To Include or Not To Include? 35 Avoid listing materials.?35 Avoid any reference to the container.?35 Avoid lengthy descriptions of routine procedures.? 36 Avoid giving ?previews? of your data analysis in the Materials and Methods section.?37 Include all relevant information needed to repeat the experiment.? 37 Cite published sources.? 37 Do the Results Section Next 38 Tips for Writing the Body of the Results Section 39 Specify the visual that contains the data that you are describing.? 39 Eliminate unnecessary introductions.? 40 Visuals 42 Tables.? 42 Line graphs.?43 Bar graphs.? 45 Pie graphs.? 48 Organizing Your Data 48 Standard curves.?52 Think Ahead to the Discussion 53 Equations 54 Make Connections 54 Write the Discussion 55 Write the Introduction 55 Effective Advertising 56 Write the Abstract 56 Write the Title 57 Documenting Sources 57 Citation and Reference Formats 58 The Citation-Sequence System 59 The Name-Year System 59 Electronic Journal Articles 59 Sources from the Internet and the World Wide Web 63 Unpublished Laboratory Exercise 65 Personal Communication 65 CHAPTER 5?REVISION 67 Getting Ready to Revise 67 Take a Break 67 Look at the Big Picture 67 Get Feedback 68 Tips for being a good peer reviewer .68 Have an informal discussion with your peer reviewer.? 70 Revise Again 70 Conventions in Biology 71 Present tense or past tense?? 72 Active and passive voice. 72 Numbers 74 Standard Abbreviations 75 Punctuation 75 The comma.? 75 The semicolon.?79 The colon.? 79 The period.? 79 Parentheses.? 80 The dash.? 80 Clarity 81 Eliminate wordiness.? 81 Eliminate ambiguity.? 84 Use connecting words and repetition to improve flow.? 85 Grammar 85 Make subjects and verbs agree.?85 Write in complete sentences.? 86 Revise run-on sentences.? 87 Word usage 89 Spelling 93 Global Revision 94 Organization.? 94 Content.? 95 Style.? 95 CHAPTER 6?A ?GOOD? SAMPLE STUDENT LABORATORY REPORT??99 Laboratory Report Mistakes108 CHAPTER 7?POSTER PRESENTATIONS113 Why Posters? 113 Poster Format 113 Size 113 Font (Type Size and Appearance) 114 Poster Esthetics 115 Nuts and Bolts 115 Poster Content 115 Title Banner 116 Introduction 116 Materials and Methods 116 Results 116 Discussion or Conclusions 117 Literature Citations 118 Presenting Your Poster 118 CHAPTER 8?ORAL PRESENTATIONS??119 Organization 119 Plan Ahead 120 Write the Text 120 Prepare the Visuals 121 Rehearsal 124 Delivery 125 Presentation Style 125 Integrating Visuals 125 Interacting with the Audience 126 Group Presentations 127 Fielding Listener Questions 127 Feedback 127 APPENDIX 1?WORD PROCESSING BASICS IN MICROSOFT WORD??129 1. Good Housekeeping Habits 129 1.1 File Organization 129 Creating folders in Windows Explorer.? 130 Creating folders in Word. 131 1.2 Saving your Files 133 Naming and saving files manually.? 133 AutoSave.? 135 Backup files.? 136 1.3 Protecting your Files Against Viruses and Worms 136 1.4 Removing Files 136 Deleting files using Word.?137 Removing or archiving files using Windows Explorer.? 137 2. Formatting a Document 138 2.1 Menu Bar and Toolbars 138 2.2 Paper 140 2.3 Margins 141 2.4 Font Style and Point Size 142 2.5 Page Numbers 142 2.6 Page Breaks 143 2.7 Line Spacing 143 2.8 Aligning Text 144 2.9 Justification 145 2.10 Indentation 145 2.11 Tabs 145 2.12 Creating a Table 146 Tables with no lines.? 146 Navigation in tables.? 147 Inserting and deleting rows or columns.?147 Changing column width or row height.? 147 Other table commands.?147 2.13 Lists That Begin with Numbers or Bullets 147 2.14 Style 150 2.15 Templates 151 3. Editing the Text 152 3.1 Views 153 3.2 Cut, Copy, and Paste 154 3.3 Find and Replace 154 3.4 Spelling and Grammar 155 AutoCorrect. 155 Automatic spelling and grammar checker.155 Manual, systematic spelling and grammar check.?157 3.5 Word Count 158 3.6 Tracking Changes Made By Peer Reviewers 158 4. Special Functions in Scientific Papers 159 4.1 Greek Letters and Mathematical Symbols 160 4.2 Superscripts and Subscripts 164 4.3 Italics 165 4.4 Customizing Your Toolbars 165 Adding commands to toolbars.? 166 Removing buttons from toolbars.?167 4.5 Shortcut Keys 167 4.6 AutoCorrect 168 Replacing long chemical names with a simple keystroke combination. 168 Inserting symbols or special characters using just one keyboard key. 169 Italicizing scientific names of organisms automatically.? 169 Inserting expressions with sub- and superscripts.? 170 4.7 Tables Inserted in the Document 170 4.8 Figures Imported from Another Program Such as Excel 171 4.9 Equations 172 4.10 Leaving Space for Sketches 172 4.11 Hanging Indent to List References in the Name-Year System 174 APPENDIX 2?MAKING XY GRAPHS IN MICROSOFT EXCEL 175 The Microsoft Excel Screen 176 Title bar 176 Menu bar 177 Toolbars 177 Formula bar 178 Entering Data in Spreadsheet 178 Terminology 180 Using Chart Wizard to Plot the Data 180 Modifying Graphs 184 Chart Type 184 Source Data 185 Chart Options 186 Location 186 Add Data 186 Add Trendline 186 Format Data Series 186 Format Plot Area 188 Format Chart Area 188 Format Legend 188 Format Axes 188 Format Axis Label 188 Inserting Greek Characters and Other Symbols in Axis Labels 189 Copy and Paste from Word document 190 Select Symbol from Character Map 190 Applying CBE Guidelines to Figure A2.7 192 Importing Graphs into Microsoft Word 192 Trendlines 194 Example: Standard Curve for a Protein Assay 196 Multiple Lines on One Set of Axes 198 Multiple Trendlines on One Set of Axes 200 Figures as an Appendix to the Lab Report 203 Importing Tables into a Word Document 205 APPENDIX 3PREPARING ORAL PRESENTATIONS WITH MICROSOFT POWERPOINT 207 Starting PowerPoint 207 Choosing a Slide Layout 208 Sample Presentation 208 Creating a Title 210 Adding New Slides 211 Formatting Text 211 Adding Images 213 Copy and Paste 213 Insert | Picture 214 Drawing Toolbar 214 Adding a Table 216 Adding a Graph 216 Navigating among Slides 216 Saving and Printing Presentations 217 Revising and Polishing Presentations 218 Moving Slides 219 Adding and Deleting Slides 219 Copying Slides 219 Spell Check 220 Special Effects 220 Background 221 Slide Master and Title Master? 221 Adding Headers and Footers? 223 Slide Transitions? 225 Multimedia Files? 227 Delivering Your Presentation 227 Running the Show 228 Navigating among Slides during a Slide Show 228
Library of Congress Subject Headings for this publication:
Biology -- Authorship -- Handbooks, manuals, etc.