Spring 2012 Writing 20: Academic Writing on Ocean Acidification

Spring 2012 ~ Writing 20: Academic Writing on Ocean Acidification Tips for Writing a Scientific Article

General tips for style and tone:

 Imagine you were going to submit your paper to a sociology or communications studies journal for publication. The writing should be geared to that audience and should be formal and professional.  First person is fine, even encouraged, but avoid statements like “We tried to do X, but it didn’t work.” That kind of informality is more typical of a student lab report, rather than a formal research article. Focus on what you were able to accomplish.  Formal writing also means no contractions and a clear, concise style.  The best way to learn how to write a research paper is to read published research papers! As you read articles, be sure to take note not only of the information in the article, but also how it is presented. What types of information do they include in the Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion? Also note that the writing style is very economical and straightforward.

Title:

 Should be clear and informative.  Include the key idea or question being addressed (sometimes titles are phrased as a question).  The title should be given on a separate title page that also lists the authors’ names and a few keywords.

Abstract:

 The abstract serves as a brief summary of the study – it is essentially a 1-2 sentence summary of each section of the paper. So, include: 1. a statement of the problem, purpose or hypothesis 2. a brief overview of methods or approach (e.g., surveys, analysis of time series data, etc.) 3. brief summary of major findings (include key numerical results) 4. conclusion or implications  Usually is longer than 250 words and in a paragraph format.  Keep it simple and to the point.  Avoid referring to figures and other sections of the text. The abstract should be able to stand alone and citations within it are rare.  Hint: Write this section last!  Hint: There is a tendency for students to want to begin the abstract with what they did (usually mentioning methods), rather than the topic being addressed. Instead, focus on the general topic and then question/hypothesis that the paper will address – one to two sentences should do it. Then tell the reader how you tested the hypothesis (methods). One useful way to approach this is to begin with an observation (e.g., “Globally, ocean acidity has increased 30% in the past 200 years …”) and then quickly move to what we don’t know about the subject (“…but we still do not understand site-specific trends in coastal acidification”). By the end of the first two sentences of the abstract, the reader

1 should know the topic and what you are trying to learn about that topic. (This technique works well in the introductory paragraph of the introduction as well.)

Introduction:

 The introduction should be brief, no more than 2 pages. It should explicitly state the aims of the study – the question you are addressing (and hypotheses, if applicable) and why it is of interest.  There should be citations in this section because you want to summarize similar work that has been done on your topic and then use those studies to highlight the key knowledge gap that you are addressing.  Similar to the Abstract, a good strategy is to begin with an observation about the topic at hand and then transition to noting what we do not yet know about the topic (thus setting up a reason for the study) and then how you will address the gap in our knowledge with your study.  Avoid direct quotes! In general, phrase information from published sources in your own words and always include a citation. It is typical to have citations almost every sentence in the intro!  Use the present tense when talking about your hypotheses and predictions (using the past tense gives the impression that you no longer have the same hypothesis).

Methods:

 In the methods, be sure to include enough detail so that someone else could replicate your study: 1. Overview of survey/ study design. Also, create an appendix that contains your survey questions and a schematic of the survey flow. 2. How we assessed our pool of subjects (i.e., demographics, MTurk qualifications). 3. How the survey was distributed (i.e., explain MTurk using relevant literature). 4. Also note that we used Qualtrics to construct the survey. 5. Description of statistical methods used for analyzing data (e.g., t-test, regression), including software used, if applicable (e.g., MS Excel, MATLAB).  Do NOT include any results in this section.  Hint: Methods are written in past tense (e.g., I observed, I recorded, etc.).  Hint: If you are looking at multiple questions or comparisons, it is helpful to the reader to set up the various sections of your paper in a similar order (e.g., Hypothesis 1, Hypothesis 2, etc.). Even in the methods, it is helpful to consistently return to your hypotheses and state how your methods will address each hypothesis.

Results:

 This section should summarize just the factual results of your study. Do not discuss the meaning of the results in this section (you will do that in the Discussion section).  Also, only include information relevant to the initial questions/hypotheses/goals outlined in your Introduction. There should be no information thrown in here that is not addressed elsewhere in the paper.  This section will be a balance between texts and figure. Remember that you want to keep these things simple – allowing the reader to “see” the data in a way that makes sense visually. While tables and figures will enable you to summarize a lot of

2 information in an efficient manner, the text of the Results is equally important. Try beginning the section with a general overview of your findings. Then break up the remainder of the results according to specific hypotheses or predictions. It is especially important to summarize the key findings that are presented in each figure and table (be sure to “point” to the figure in the text – e.g., “alkalinity did not change significantly over time (Fig. 1).” A good rule of thumb is a short paragraph for each table or figure presented.  If you include statistical comparisons, be sure to include the type of statistical analysis used, the obtained value, and significance (e.g., p<0.05).  It is a good idea to use the text to go beyond the data in the figure, giving details that are not apparent (e.g., missing data).  Hint: Always use metric measurements in scientific writing.  Hint: Results are generally written in the past tense.  Hint: The term “significant” should only be used when you have been able to reject the null hypothesis (e.g., no difference or no preference) using a statistical test. Otherwise avoid using the word “significant.”  Hint: Remember that “data” is plural and “datum” is singular.

Tables and Figures:

 Tables and figures should be numbered in the order in which they are referred to in the text.  Tables should be plain and simple with no vertical lines and minimal horizontal lines. See published papers for examples.  Figures should also be plain and easy to understand – label the axes (including units), no gridlines, use color only when necessary, etc.  All figures and tables need a descriptive caption. The table captions go above the tables; the figure captions go together on a page before the figures.  Hint: All tables and figures are supplements to the text and as such need to be tied directly to the text. This generally requires a statement about the info in the text that summarizes the key pieces of information with the number of the table/figure in parentheses at the end of the sentence. For example: “There was no association between a person’s education level and their awareness of ocean acidification (Table 1).” Avoid sentences that do little other than point to a graph (e.g., never use the format: “The results are given in Figure 1” – such sentences are much better rephrased to include useful information about the figure or table for the reader).

Discussion:

 It is a good idea to begin the discussion with an answer to the initial question that was asked or hypothesis put forward, backing up your statement with your data. Do your results support your hypothesis or not? Make sure you phrase this as “our results support the hypothesis that…” or “do not support the idea that…” or “provide evidence that…” rather than “our results prove…” or “our hypothesis was correct.”  The main purpose of this section is to comment on the significance of the results and to set them in the context of previous work. This means comparisons to published literature are essential. Compare your findings to those of other researchers and discuss what the similarities or differences may mean.  Remember that you are telling a story – be interesting but make sure your data support your conclusions. Also take care that your discussion follows a logical order and that it is

3 consistent with the organization of the results. Start each section with a statement about a particular finding and then follow with a brief discussion (referring to previous work by other authors when appropriate). Try not to be redundant with the results section.  State your conclusions simply and directly – do not assume that the reader will draw things together on their own!  It is common to include a brief section on what may have gone wrong or possible weaknesses/limitations (e.g., only 100 survey respondents), but this should be toward the end of your discussion (i.e., avoid including comments that dismiss your own data at the beginning of the discussion).  The discussion often ends with a formal conclusion paragraph. This usually restates the broad findings and suggests areas for further research.

References:

 At the end of the paper, include a references section with the citations of all your sources.  Formatting varies depending on the journal, but we’ll use the CSE Name-Year format. Here are a few examples:

Kelly, RP, Foley MM, Fisher WS, Feely RA, Halpern BS, Waldbusser GG, Caldwell MR. Mitigating local causes of ocean acidification with existing laws. Science. 2011; 332:1036-1037.

Nisbet MC, Myers T. Twenty years of public opinion about global warming. Public Opinion Quarterly. 2007; 71:444-470.

Plum Island Long Term Ecological Research Site [Internet]. Project Overview [modified 2010 Jan 8; cited 2010 Jan 16]. Available from: http://ecosystems.mbl.edu/PIE/over.htm.

General tips for formatting:

 Text should be double-spaced with 12-point font (usually Times New Roman, Cambria, or Arial), and 1-inch margins.  Number your pages. Some journals ask you to number the lines, too.  The paper should be arranged in the following order: Title page, Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, References, Tables (one per page), Figure captions, Figures (one per page), and Appendix.  Get to know your word processing program if you haven’t already! Scientific papers often require equations, special symbols, subscripts and superscripts, etc. Your final o draft should have CO2 not CO2, C not oC or “degrees C,” etc.