RESEARCH PLANNING AND

REPORT WRITING
Course: M.Phil/PhD
by
Rizwan Ullah Khan [email protected].
pk
ICS Gomal university
 Scienti c writing
Basic Rules:
- The writing shall interest ,inform and
persuade the reader.
- Remember you are writing for the reader,
write clearly in an understandable
manner to the reader.
- - Avoid digression
- Do not over explain, Avoid over
statement
 Scienti c Writing – Basic Rules …..
Conti……
-Consistent tenses and precise
wordings.
Avoid complicated examples.
-Make sure the subject and verb
agree.
-Cite sources as well as ndings.
-Proof read, Spell check
 Basic Rule
….conti….
Best writing is simple and direct. It's
easily understood and is forceful
and memorable.
It’s a wrong concept that
complicated writing sounds
serious , is scholarly and
authoritative.
 Scienti c Writing …conti…
-Shall describe original research
results
Should have a proper Title,
Abstract,
Introduction, Materials and
methods, Results and
Discussion.
 Scienti c writing
…conti…
• Title:
• -Should be in fewest possible words
that accurately describe the contents.
• -Omit all waste words i.e. “ A study
of…..” , “Investigations of ….” ,
“Observations on ….” etc
 Title
- An improperly titled scienti c writing may
never reach the audiences attention for
which it was intended.
• -Be speci c.
• -If the study is of a particular species, name
it in the title.
• - If inferences made are limited to a
particular region, name the region in the
title.
 Scienti c writing … conti…
Abstract
A well thought / prepared abstract enables
the reader to identify the basic contents
and the concept.
Creates reader’s interest and helps in
decision making whether to read the
document ( thesis, paper etc )
 Abstract ….conti…
-Shall state the principal objectives and
scope of investigation.
-Shall concisely summarize the results and
principal conclusions.
- Should not include details of methods
unless the study is methodological i.e
primarily concerned with methods
 Abstract … conti….
- Must be brief ( not exceeding 250 words-
thesis 500 words)
Shall convey the essential details in min.
number of words.
-No repetition of information already
contained in the title.
Abstract together with the title must be self
contained (as often published separately
from the paper in abstracting services).
 Abstract … conti…
-Shall contain no reference to the literature,
table or gure.
-Omit obscure abbreviations and acronyms.
Word usage in scienti c writing
-In reporting and recording research try to
be accurate and precise. Avoid ambiguous
and tardy statements.
Aim for economy of words i.e. because
(instead of based on the fact that..),
both(instead of both alike), same(instead
of one and the same), summarize(instead
of summarize brie y)etc
 Scienti c writing
Writing the Introduction
Begin with introducing the reader to the
pertinent subject of research.
Common Mistake
Introducing the authors and their areas of
study in general terms with out
mentioning their major ndings.
Writing the Introduction… conti
Questions to address in writing an
introduction:
-What is the problem?
Describe the problem under investigation.
Summarize relevant research to provide
context and concept so that your reader
can understand the experiment.
 Writing the introduction ..conti…
Why is it important?
-Review relevant research to provide
rationale(what are con icts or un-
answered questions, un-tested hypotheses,
un-tried methods in existing research).Does
your experimentation address all these ?
- Which /what ndings of others are you
challenging?
 Writing the Introduction ..conti…
What is the solution or steps towards the
solution do you propose?
- Brie y describe your experiment:
hypotheses, research question(s), general
experimental design or method you are
going to adopt.
 Writing the Introduction ..conti….
Move from general to speci c i.e problem in
general to your experiment.
-Engage the reader by answering:
What did you do? Why did you do?
 Writing the Introduction ..conti…
Make clear links between problem and
solution, question asked, research design,
prior research and your experiment.
Be selective not exhaustive in choosing
studies to cite and amount of detail to
include.
More relevant an article is to your studies,
more space it deserves in the introduction.
 Writing Materials and methods
Purpose of materials and methods section is
to provide enough details for a competent
worker/researcher to repeat your study
and reproduce results.
- Scienti c methods require that your results
be reproducible(to undergo copying) and
you provide a basis for repetition of the
study by others.
 Materials and methods ..conti
Equipment and materials available
shall be described exactly i.e. Hitachi
Spectrophotometer model 2319 Serial #
11239.
I,e name of instrument, model number and
serial number.
 Materials and methods .. conti
Source of material shall be given as there
could be variation in quality among
suppliers.
If an equipment is modi ed for the study, it
should be precisely and carefully described.
Methods used to prepare the reagents,
bu ers etc shall be described in detail.
 Materials and methods …conti
- Provide all details required to repeat the
method, if required. If the method has
been previously published in a reputable
journal , name of the method and
literature reference is enough to give.
- Show your material and method write up
to a friend/colleague and ask if he/she
would have di culty in repeating the
experiment.
Materials and method .. Conti…
• Question to ask:
- How did you study the problem?
Brie y explain the scienti c procedure you used..
- What did you use?
Describe materials, subjects and
equipment(chemical,experimental animals,
apparatus,reagents etc) used.
- How did you proceed?
Explain the steps you took in your
experimentation including the assay.
Materials and method …conti….
- Use past tense to describe what you did.
- Quantify where applicable i.e.
Concentration M,Mm,N etc, time 24hr
clock, temperature in centigrade
 Materials and method..conti…
• What to Avoid
Do not include details of common
statistical procedures
• Do not mix results with procedures
 Results and Discussion
• Results
- Give your ndings
- Present the data-solid and condensed with
important trends extracted and describe in
simple words.
• -The results provide new knowledge you are
contributing to the world.
• -It is important that your ndings be clearly
and simply stated
 Results …. Conti.
• Do not say in expressing results:
• “ It is clearly evident from Fig 1 or Table 1
that bird species richness increased with
habitat complexity” BUT say “Bird species
richness increased with habitat
complexity-Ref Fig1 or Table1
 Results…conti……
- Do not be too concise. The reader can not be
expected to extract information from the data
- Combine the use of text, tables, gures to
condense data and highlight main features.
• Use symbol~ to mean approximately equal to.
Number( gure) at the beginning of the
sentence must be spelled.
• Put a space between number and unit i.e. 75
kg.
• In case of percentage no space is given i.e.75%
• Note 0.32 is correct VS .32. Write numbers as
156 - 2,456 – 21,270 – 1,425,346
 Results…conti……
- QUESTION TO ADDRESS:
- What did you do?
- How to address?
- For each experiment or procedure
- a) Brie y describe experiment with out
details of method.
- b) Report main results supported by
selected data
 Results…conti……
- Order multiple results logically with most to
least important & from simple to complex.
- -Use past tense to describe the what happened.
- -Avoid
• Do not repeat table data.
• Do not interpret results
• Do not use extra words but only those which
describe the results precisely.
• Example: It is shown in table 1 that X induced Y
• The correct way is X induced Y
(Ref.Table1)
 Discussion
• Discussion:
• -Discuss what scienti c principles have
been established or reinforced.
• -What generalization can be drawn.
• - How your ndings compare with the
ndings of others or compare with the
expectations based on previous work?
 Discussion
• Discuss: Are there any theoretical/
practical implications of your work.
• - When you address these questions, it is
critical that your discussion rests rmly on
the evidence presented in the Result
section.
 Discussion
• Continuously refer to your results(but do not
repeat)
• Important:
• Do not extend your conclusions beyond those
which are directly supported by your results.
- Be sure to address the objectives of the study
and discuss the signi cance of the results.
- - Do not leave the reader thinking” So What”
and end discussion with a short summary or
conclusion regarding signi cance of your work
 Discussion
• E ective Discussion: Questions to address
• 1)-What do your observations mean?
- How to address: Summarize the most
important ndings at the beginning.
- 2) What conclusions can you draw?
- - How to address: For each result
- a) Describe the pattern, principles and
relationship your results show.
- b) Explain how your results relate to
expectations.
 Discussion …conti….
• c) Explain how your results relate to the
literature cited in your introduction.
• d) Do they agree, contradict or are there
exceptions to the rules?
• e) Explain plausibly (likely to be accceptable)
any agreement, contradictions or
exceptions.
• f) Describe what additional research might
resolve contradictions or explain
exceptions.
 Discussion …conti….
• How do your results t in to a broader context:
• How to address?
• -Suggest the theoretical implications of your
results.
• -Suggest the practical application of your results.
• -Extend your ndings to other situations or other
species.
– -Give a broader picture. Your ndings shall
help to understand a broader topic.
 Discussion …conti….
- Move from speci c to general i.e.
• Your ndings ------to----- Literature, theory
etc.
• Ask yourself: Did I ignore or bury the issue?
Did the study achieve the goals i.e.
resolved the problem, answered the
questions, supported the hypothesis
presented in the Introduction?
 Discussion …conti….
- Your explanations shall be complete i.e.
give evidence for each conclusion, discuss
possible reasons for expected and
unexpected ndings.
- Avoid
- Do not over generalize discussion
- -Do not ignore deviations in your data.
- - Avoid speculations that can not be
tested in foreseeable future
 References
- Variety of styles are used by di erent
journals.
• Citation in text may be referred to by number
or by author name.
• Citations are arranged numerically or
alphabetically.
• ..... Fructose may be comparable to glucose
in terms of mediating pathology through non
enzymatic reactions because it has been
reported that fructose is much more reactive
[1,7]
 References
• -The existence of crystallization inhibitors
was rst observed in 1960(Hamilton 1965).
- ….. molecules exhibited a potent capacity
as crystallization inhibitors of calcium
salts in urine(Grace et al 1996; Graham et
al 1998a;
Graham et al 1998b).
 References.........
• Whatever system you use , the references must
include:
• 1- All authors listed on the publication or on the
chapter if citing a book.
• 2 – The title of the paper or chapter if citing a book.
• 3 – Name of the journal or book
• 4 – Editor if a book is cited.
• 5 – Volume #
• 6 – Complete paging i.e rst and last paging of the
work cited.
• 7 – Year of publication.
 References.........
• Format from selected Journals
• American Journal of Physiology:Vallalobos
AR; Parmella AR; Renfro JL Chlorine
uptake across the venticular membrane of
neonate rat choroid plexus. Am.J.Phsiol
276: 1288-1296, 2010.
 References.........
• Book Reference:
• Ausubel F.M, Brent R.T, Moore D.D and
Seidman J.G Current Protocol in Molecular
Biology. New York: Wiley, 2011, p 23-5-27
 References.........
• Yallow,R.S, I.D.Hamilton and S.A. Berson
1999. Immunoassay of endogenous
plasma insulin in man J.Clin. Invest.39:
1157-1167