Useful Tips For Writing A Biology Research Paper

Writing a good research paper for Biology is a way of learning the technical skills necessary for your later career when you need to write up your lab reports and prepare work for publication. This is where you learn to present yourself and your biology skills to potential employers and to make your work accessible to the general public.

It is no longer possible for scientists to say ‘trust me, I’ve studied this, I know’. These communication skills are vital for all scientists in this internet age when a simple search by anyone – trained or untrained – can pull up a host of information and misinformation. Your teachers can only offer you the opportunity to learn but only you can take the chance and improve your abilities.

Format for your research paper

• Abstract – a summary of your work.
• Introduction – This part of your paper should present your working ideas pointing out the areas in biological research you intend to defend by your work.
• Materials and Methods – This should not be a step-by-step guide to how you performed your research, merely a general statement that will allow another biology researcher to repeat your work or allow a reader to understand your objectives.
• Results – in this section you should show your findings. Do not in this section attempt to present any form of interpretation of your raw data.
• Discussion – here is where you interpret your results. You should use the data you have achieved, but also you may use generally known information to help your reader understand your results.
• Literature cited – as your skills advance you will be expected to use previously gathered information from other researchers to help interpret your results.

Tips to improve your work

• Your Abstract will appear at the top of your paper – that does not mean you should write it first. An Abstract is a summary of your biology paper, logically this means it cannot be written until after you have finished writing the rest of your work.
• Make sure you keep your tenses straight in your writing. In academic papers of this sort you should always use the past tense for your own results and present tense when you are comparing it with generally accepted knowledge.
• Poor grammar and spelling may make it difficult for your reader to understand what you are trying to say.
• Remember the audience – if you are writing “pop science” you will use different language to that which will be read by academics.