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WRITING THE RESEARCH PAPER
The goal of a research
scientist is to publish his or her work. A researcher must be able
to communicate the results of experiments to fellow scientists. The
way to do this is in a scientific journal or, in the case of a high
school student, a competition such as the Science Talent Search. Your
research paper for publication or presentation should follow very
specific rules and have a very definite format.
Keep the following points in mind:
1. Do not write too much when you write your paper.
2. Make sure that your final report is printed, double- spaced on
white paper. All the drawings must be done neatly in black. Simply
staple your paper once in the upper left-hand corner. Do not include
fancy covers.
3. Always use correct grammar and punctuation.
4. The abstract should be included in your paper immediately after
the title page.
5. Research papers are usually arranged with the following section
headings:
 •
Title
• Abstract
• Introduction
• Materials and Methods
• Results
• Discussion
• Conclusions
• Literature Cited
• Acknowledgments
6. Do not begin each section on a new page.
Each section should follow immediately after the previous section.
7. Do not use a table of contents.
WRITING THE ABSTRACT
The abstract
is a one- to two-paragraph summary of your entire paper. It should
consist of no more than two hundred words. The abstract includes your
hypothesis, a summary of your problem, and the results that you obtained.
If the abstract does not describe the project, list the hypothesis,
or discuss the results of the project, the judge will probably not
receive a good first impression of your paper. |
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