Writing a Formal Science Paper Part I: The Introduction

The introduction of a paper in science prepares the reader for the results and discussion to
follow. By giving the reader context, relevance, and the previous work that has been done in
the field, the writer is setting the stage for the rest of the work to be presented. If the reader
fully understands the direction from which the work comes, the meaning of the science can be
better understood.

Major components:
Background

What has been done in the past on this topic?

Where does the field stand in this area?

What questions have been answered, and what questions remain unanswered?

Relevance

Why is this important?

How does this affect peoples lives?

Hypothesis/Description of Current work

What does the current work propose based on what is known?

Why is this the proposition? How is it grounded?

Why is this important to find out?

Please see the handy example to see how this plays out in a real science paper!

Writing a Formal Science Paper Part II: Procedure

After youve introduced why youre doing the work, you want to dive into your major results.
Behind the scenes, youve been doing some serious data analysis in order to connect the
resultsto the hypothesis youve made. Now you want to describe your methods so that the
experiment can be reproduced/validated and others can build upon your results

Major components:
Materials

What did you use to perform the experiment? (In real literature you would often need to
give brand names so that others could replicate the experiment exactly, but you do NOT
need to worry about that!)

What amounts of reagents did you use? Specifically, how much of each chemical was
used in the experiment. It is best if you report these amounts in whatever was
measured (grams, mL, etc) and converted to moles when appropriate.
*If you use a solution, it is CRUCIAL that you report the concentration (molarity) of the
solution

Methods

What did you do in the lab to get your results? How did you measure your reagents and
with what precision? What kind of visual markers did you use to determine when a step
was completed? How did you ascertain that your measurements were precise? How
many replications of the measurements did you do?

How did you manipulate the materials? Explain the state of the glassware (eg, Solution
was added into a clean, dry buret. Describe how you measured the amounts of
reagents that you did.

How did you perform your data analysis? BRIEFLY. This should just be a statement of
general methods that will be explained in more detail in your data analysis section.

Tips:

Report your methods in third person (please see pink note in the example!)
Give the amounts in parentheses after the reagent name is described, eg: Starch
solution (1 mL) was added to the beaker. (see yellow note in the example!)

Always define your units (see green note)

Please see the handy example to see how this plays out in a real science paper!

Writing a Formal Science Paper Part III: Results and

Discussion (Data Analysis)
After youve introduced why youre doing the work, you want to dive into your major results.
Behind the scenes, youve been doing some serious data analysis in order to connect the results
to the hypothesis youve made. Now you want to:
1. Present your data in a way that it is clear to the reader. You want the reader to come
to the same conclusions you did without telling them! Let the data speak for itself. This
involves making figures (charts, graphs, tables) that are appropriate for the data being
presented.
2. Use figure captions wisely. The first tool you have to tell your reader what the data is
saying is your figure caption. A good figure caption will answer the questions:
What is the data? What information is being presented in the chart, graph or
table? What units is it in? What are the variables? (often on the x and y axes)
How was it determined/acquired? What method did you use to acquire the
data? This should just be the name of a method, as you already described your
method in detail in its appropriate section.
What is the limitation? What is the error associated with the measurement?
How is it depicted in the figure? (Standard deviation? Error bars?)
3. Describe the data in your own words. Explain what each figure is depicting, but let the
figures do the work. The explanation follows the figures.

Please see the handy example to see how this plays out in a real science paper!

Writing a Formal Science Paper Part IV: The Conclusion

The conclusion of the paper provides the reader with a clean summary of what the results are,
what they mean, and reminds the reader about the overall relevance of the data. By reminding
the reader why this topic area is important, how the results fit the context, and what the results
mean with respect to the big picture, the writer is helping to tie the story together. Even for the
savviest journal article reader, a large amount of data presented all at once can be difficult to
make meaning from. Many of the major components echo the introduction, but they are used
in a different way.

Major components:
Restatement of Background/Relevance

What has been done in the past on this topic? Where does the field stand in this area?
o Does the background support the results found in this study?

What questions have been answered, and what questions remain unanswered?
o Does this study answer any of these questions? Does it raise further questions?
What might be done next?

Why is this important? How does this affect peoples lives?

Summary of Results of the Study

What do the results indicate about the system being studied?

o Is this consistent with what was proposed in the introduction?
o If it is different, why do you believe this is the case?
o What does this mean for other work in the field that has been done or is being
done currently?

How do the results impact the state of the field?

Describe results in a way that the reader can easily grasp onto that they might have
missed in the thicket of the data analysis/ results section.

Please see the handy example to see how this plays out in a real science paper!