Free Biology Research Paper Writing Guidelines for College Students
Now that you’re confronted with the challenge of composing a biology research paper, here are some guidelines to set you off on the right foot. Scientific papers differ from the other subjects in that they have a strict format that must be followed so let’s tackle each section piece by piece.
- Compose a Title
- Create an Abstract
- Invent an Introduction
- Make a Methods Section
- Craft a Results Section
- Write a Discussion Section
- Create a Literature Cited Section
- Include a Tables Section
- Add a Figures Section
Place your title at the top of the first page of your work along with your name. Be sure to avoid vague titles, instead putting as much detail as possible as to the exact outcome of your findings.
At no more than 250 words, the abstract should be one succinct paragraph and avoid superfluity. Craft roughly one sentence each of your background, hypothesis/predictions, methods, and results.
Outline the purpose of your work and reasons for your investigation. Familiarize your reader with past research on the subject, bringing them up to speed on how you plan to expand what has already been done. You should also include the hypothesis you have probed and what outcome you predicted from that.
The purpose of this section is to explain your experiment in enough detail that a fellow researcher could later replicate it themselves. Outline what materials and apparatus you used and lay out all the factors that may have affected the outcome of your final findings. Write your methods section in the past tense, not as a series of instructions.
Now is the time to present the data you have discovered, drawing attention to patterns and anything of notable significance. You should also include tables and graphs in this section, being sure to introduce them instead of just putting them there without explanation.
Use this section to review and defend your findings. Explain whether or not your hypothesis was supported and compare your outcomes to those of previous researchers.
Here, you should list all the literature you have referenced, using the proper scientific format.
In this section, place tables relevant to your study. They should consist of three horizontal lines with the data inserted correctly and no vertical lines.
This is where you add graphs related to your research. Formatting rules can differ so be sure to check how yours should be configured.
Keep these guidelines in mind and you’ll be on your way to composing a robust and successful Biology research paper.