The Scientific Paper

Writing Guide Home	A Guide to Writing in the Biological Sciences The Scientific Paper: Abstract
Writing Guide Home	First page	Abstract	Introduction	Methods	Results	Discussion	Literature Cited	Examples
General Information	An abstract is a shortened version of the paper and should contain all information necessary for the reader to determine: (1) what the objectives of the study were; (2) how the study was done; (3) what results were obtained; (4) and the significance of the results. Frequently, readers of a scientific journal will only read the abstract, choosing to read at length those papers that are most interesting to them. For this reason, and because abstracts are frequently made available to scientists by various computer abstracting services, this section should be written carefully and succinctly to have the greatest impact in as few words as possible. Although it appears as the first section in a paper, most scientists write the abstract section last. See examples of abstracts.
An introduction to writing in Biology
Practical tips for scientific writing
Professors' perspectives on student writing
Specific Information for Writing Assignments
Short answers for tests
Summary of a scientific article
The poster session
The Scientific Paper
First page
Abstract
Introduction
Methods
Results
Discussion
Literature Cited
Examples of student papers

References and Credits