Adapted for Bio152 from A Student Handbook for Writing in Biology by Karin Knisely (Sunderland, Massachusetts: Sinauer Associates, 2002).
q Descriptive and concise
Contains...
q Purpose of experiment
q Brief description of methods
q Results
q Conclusions
q Is clear, accurate and concise
q Contains background information from the lab manual and/or textbook
q Cites sources correctly (using name/year format)
q Paraphrases sources rather than quoting them directly
q Builds from general background statements toward a statement of the research question and hypothesis
q Background is useful, relevant, and concise
q Background is sufficient
q Context and rationale for experiment are clear
q Omits extraneous material (e.g. discussion of specific methods, statement of conclusions)
q Is understandable by a peer not familiar with this specific experiment
q Is clearly organized, grammatically correct, and easy to follow
q Materials are not listed separately
q Written in paragraph form, not like steps in a recipe
q Written in past tense
q Contains all information necessary to repeat the experiment (volumes, temperatures, length of incubations, mass measurements, etc)
q Omits extraneous details
q Is understandable by a peer not familiar with this specific experiment
q Is clearly organized, grammatically correct, and easy to follow
First paragraph:
q Restates experimental question
q Restates experimental design
q Restates expected results
Subsequent paragraph(s):
q Gives clear description of what the data actually show
q Refers to and cites figures and/or tables correctly
q Points out any surprising findings
q Omits extraneous material
Entire section:
q Is understandable by a peer not familiar with this specific experiment
q Is clearly organized, grammatically correct, and easy to follow
q Are clear, appropriately sized, easy to read
q Figure/table type (XY graph, histogram, table, etc) is well chosen, appropriate to the data
q Avoid redundancy--only one presentation type is used per data set
q Titles are descriptive--do not simply name the axes or columns
q Captions are sufficient--each figure/table can be understood on its own
q Titles and captions are correctly placed (above tables and below figures)
q Begins with a clear statement of whether the results support the hypothesis
q This statement is correct, accurate, and concise
q If the results supported the hypothesis, there is a restatement of why this is important
q This restatement goes beyond what was said in the introduction
q Further experiments are proposed to build on these findings
q If the results did not support the hypothesis, there is an exploration of why might have occurred
q This exploration is reasonable and fits the data presented
q The most likely explanations are stated first and given most emphasis
q Explanations include biological interpretations rather than simply sources of error
q Explanations are followed with suggestions of experiments to test them
q These suggestions are reasonable, concise, and well explained
q Section is understandable by a peer not familiar with this specific experiment
q Is clearly organized, grammatically correct, and easy to follow
q Everyone who assisted in the preparation of this paper is acknowledged (lab group members, peer reviewers, etc)
q Full names are provided
q A brief description of what each person contributed is included
q All cited references are listed
q No sources are listed that were not cited
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