Real
LS1114 Principles of Biology Fall 2005 Winslow
Guidelines and helpful hints for writing research report on tree communities
This paper is due on 9 December and is worth 50 points. It might be 5 or 10 pages long, including tables and figures and references.
The objective of this exercise is to write about the tree community at the Shawnee Conservation District Outdoor Learning Center. You will write the paper in the format of a scientific research report.
A scientific research report typically includes a title page, an abstract, an introduction, a methods section, a results section, a discussion section, and a reference section. The best way to learn about this structure is to read papers published in peer-reviewed scientific journals, which you will want to do anyway to research your topic.
The Title
The title of a scientific paper states the specific question or topic under study. Oftentimes the study addresses the effect of one factor on another. For instance, one paper published in a recent issue of Conservation Biology is entitled "Effects of forest fragmentation on a dung beetle community in French Guiana" (Feer and Hingrat, 2005). The title may also be phrased as a question. The title page should state the title, your name, the date, and your institution (St. Gregory's University).
The Abstract
The abstract concisely summarizes everything in the main body of the paper. It may be easiest to write this section last. You should be able to decompose an abstract to find sentences corresponding to the introduction, methods, results, and discussion sections. You may read many published abstracts in the course of looking for appropriate sources for your paper. Often abstracts are available for free online, but the full-length paper may be more difficult to obtain.
The Introduction
The introduction section gives...
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