Dear Novice Writer,
When I was in your shoes and preparing my first paper, I consulted a book on how to write. I found there a sentence encouraging the reader to do the following:
"After standing in boiling water for an hour, examine the contents of the flask."
I had a pretty good idea what was wrong with the sentence but, at the time I couldn't figure out how to revise it, and the author didn't tell me.
From: How to write and Illustrate a Scientific Paper (2nd ed.) Bjorn Gustavii.
No one knows how to write a scientific paper without practice and help. Many science students practice this skill when they are asked to write lab reports. This guide will describe some best practices for scientific writing and give you some additional sources to explore.
If you have read scientific papers, you will have noticed that a standard format is frequently used. This format allows a researcher to present information clearly and concisely. Scientists communicate new ideas by publishing their research in a specialized format called the journal article.
This form usually includes 6 parts:
1) abstract (a summary of the article)
2) introduction (a brief review of why they chose this experiment)
3) materials and methods (what organisms and equipment were used)
4) results (what was found)
5) discussion (what it means)
6) references (the list of journal articles and books that the scientist referred to in the paper).
