Undergraduate's Guide to Writing Chemistry Papers

Undergraduate’s Guide to Writing Chemistry Papers

2018-2019 Edition

Binyomin Abrams

Department of Chemistry, Boston University

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permission requests, write to the author, at:

Binyomin Abrams

Department of Chemistry, Boston University

Boston, MA 02215, USA

Table of Contents

Writing 1: Introduction to Scientiﬁc Writing 3

Writing 2: Preparing Appropriate Exhibits 11

Writing 3: Making Claims and Building an Argument 23

Writing 4: Structure of Abridged Scholarly Papers 33

Writing 5: Conventions of Scientiﬁc Writing 45

Writing 6: Research, Scientiﬁc Literature, and Annotated Bibliographies 61

Writing 7: Adding Motivation – Introduction Sections 77

Writing 8: Sharing your Process – Experimental Sections 85

Writing 9: Getting your Work Funded – Research Proposals 95

Writing 10: Making and Delivering Eﬀective Research Presentations 99

2 · Undergraduate’s Guide to Writing Chemistry Papers

WRITING 1: INTRODUCTION TO SCIENTIFIC WRITING

Before we can begin discussing how to approach the scientiﬁc writing that you will do in this

course, we must ﬁrst preface with a little bit of background about this type of writing – technical

writing for the sciences. While scientiﬁc writing shares many common aspects with other forms

of argumentative writing, discipline-speciﬁc conventions and nuances also play an important

role. Although this guide will focus on the practices important in writing chemistry papers,

most of the details are common across other scientiﬁc disciplines.

1.1 Why do we write?

If you ask most scientists, they’d probably prefer to avoid the writing altogether and focus

solely on the actual science. That said, when pressed, they will admit that it is also one of

the most crucial and time-consuming parts of what they do. Communication about scientiﬁc

results is absolutely essential to the enterprise of science. Discovery without communication is

pointless.

There are many diﬀerent types of writing that a career scientist engages in. Grant proposals

are the main vehicle by which scientists petition funding agency for money to maintain their

research programs. A researcher will spend a signiﬁcant portion of time and eﬀort writing

grants and, if they are successful in acquiring funding, they will have to write periodic progress

reports and summaries to the agencies.

Once the experiments are complete, the ﬁnal step in the Scientiﬁc Method involves the

dissemination of ﬁndings through two diﬀerent, but simultaneous, approaches that a researcher

will take in order to spread his work into the greater scientiﬁc community: (1) make oral

presentations at conferences, and (2) publish scholarly papers. Publication is considered the

most desirable and necessary method of communication as it creates an accredited record of

the results and allows for the greatest dissemination of the information across both distance

and time. In general, the purpose of publishing a scholarly paper is to convey the ﬁndings of an

experiment(s) that has been performed (primary), to persuade the greater scientiﬁc community

to adopt one’s own perspective on a given topic (secondary), and to justify the funding that

has been received (tertiary).

Scientiﬁc research is a team sport. After individual research groups perform experiments,

and those experiments are validated and duplicated, they attempt to persuade others to accept

or reject their hypotheses by presenting and interpreting the data. The scholarly paper is the

vehicle of persuasion. After the paper has been submitted, it is given to other scientists for

review. If the ﬁndings stand up to criticism, they become part of the accepted body of scientiﬁc

4 · Undergraduate’s Guide to Writing Chemistry Papers

knowledge until they are later disproved. These scholarly papers make up the primary sources

in scientiﬁc literature.

1.2 What do we write?

A research scientist will never write a ‘Lab report.’ While it is unclear as to the exact historical

origin of the dreaded lab report, it is clear that only students in science courses are ever asked

to produce these ridiculous types of papers. The sole goal of the lab report is to convey the

speciﬁc ﬁndings that a student achieved in a pseudo-scientiﬁc situation, where the outcome of

the experiment is well-known and documented, to a teacher looking for the results. Outside of

undergraduate instructional courses, this type of paper simply does not exist. These papers are

absent of any scientiﬁc motivation (clariﬁcation: a grade is not motivation) and are plagued

with stylistic horrors that are designed to streamline the grading process.

Whatever the history, or reasons, behind the lab report, it is clear that it is not a genuine

form of scientiﬁc communication. It is for this reason that we do not believe in teaching that

form of writing. Instead, we will focus on developing the skills necessary to formulate a cogent

and persuasive scientiﬁc argument in a manner that is consistent with the writing found in

Journal Articles, the most ubiquitous vehicle of scientiﬁc communication in the literature. This

approach is geared toward making students good scientists, rather than just good students.

Some, but certainly not all, of the major diﬀerences between a lab report and a journal

article are:

• Motivation: in journal articles, the Introduction will typically include a signiﬁcant amount

of details about the motivation behind the project/experiment. Here, motivation refers to

an over-arching reason why the science, or the speciﬁc outcome, has global ramiﬁcations

and interest. Why were the researchers interested in pursuing this research? Why were

funding agencies willing to fund the research? And why might other people be interested

in the results? In lab reports, students are not motivated by external factors; rather,

they are performing a ‘cookie-cutter’ experiment that is mandated by faculty for the sole

purpose of getting a grade.

• Methods: the experimental protocol described in a journal article is a novel approach,

or variation on an approach, that is being published. For students writing lab reports,

however, the formulaic laboratory procedure is not novel and usually does not need to

be presented in such detail. Certainly, routine tasks like cleaning glassware or titrations

would never be described in the scientiﬁc literature.

• Sample calculations: many instructors prefer to see a student’s sample calculations and

raw data presented in the Results section of lab reports. Neither calculations nor raw

data are ever presented in the body of a true scientiﬁc paper or journal article. Rather,

the important formulas are presented along with the ﬁnal results, and the rest of the

information (data and calculations) will be presented – in the rare occasions that they

are sophisticated enough or interesting enough to be included at all – in the Supporting

Information section (more on this later).

• Arguments vs. data dump: the writing in journal articles must be extremely persuasive,

as the entire function is to promote a set of ﬁndings to the broader scientiﬁc community.

Writing 1: Introduction to Scientiﬁc Writing · 5

When discussing the validity and consequence of these results, it is critical that the ar-

gument presented be compelling. Lab reports, however, are usually seen as a vehicle for

the dissemination of a student’s results to an instructor. As such, it is rarely necessary

for the student to justify results, rather simply that they be presented.

• Appropriate references: in writing scientiﬁc papers, previous work and background in-

formation are always referenced. The most appropriate sources for references are other

journal articles (in peer-reviewed journals), books, and scientiﬁc databases. Internet refer-

ences are not appropriate for scientiﬁc papers. Here, “internet references” refer to private

websites or non-peer-reviewed information sites such as Wikipedia or other random web-

sites, even course academic sites. Books accessed online (such as through Google Scholar)

or journal articles found online are not considered internet references. Avoid using reg-

ular search engines; at minimum, replace your traditional internet search with a search

of scholar.google.com. If another reference cannot be found, the internet can be used

(sparingly, if ever).

In general, introductory college labs are not well suited to the type of scientiﬁc writing that

we will be exploring in this course. That said, in courses that focus more on quantitative analysis

– where the outcome of each experiment is much more student and sample dependent – the

inquiry approach and nature of the course opens up the possibility of writing our experimental

reports in the journal article style. It should be mentioned, however, that the scholarly papers

that you will be writing will, clearly, not have the same scope or depth as articles that are found

in journals.

1.3 To whom are we writing?

Possibly as important as the content of the paper is knowing who will be reading the paper –

the Audience. Scholarly papers are always written with speciﬁc audiences in mind. These are

often determined by the type of publication; for example, the Journal of the American Chemical

Society is going to attract a more specialized audience than Scientiﬁc American. Scientists must

gear their writing toward their particular audience in order to have the greatest impact. The

main potential audiences of a scientiﬁc work are as follows, in order from most knowledgeable

to least:

• Experts: these are people with expert knowledge of the general ﬁeld of chemistry on

the whole and advanced knowledge of the speciﬁc sub-discipline (such as biochemistry,

computational chemistry, etc.). Journal articles and communications are generally written

for this audience.

• Scientiﬁc: while not experts in the speciﬁc sub-discipline, or even the discipline, of the

author, these readers are experts in another scientiﬁc ﬁeld; such as biology, physics, or

mathematics. Most scientists try to keep current on the major breakthroughs in other

ﬁeld and will therefore read select journal articles, usually in the cross-discipline journals

such as Science and Nature.

• Student: this is you. Writing for a student audience is designed to instruct individuals

starting at a basic level. Textbooks and lab manuals are good examples of writing done

with a student audience in mind.

6 · Undergraduate’s Guide to Writing Chemistry Papers

• General: the general audience includes all readers, regardless of background, who are

interested in the ﬁeld. Often readers will have no training whatsoever in the discipline, but

are interested in the topic. News articles and popular science articles are good examples

of works written for a general audience.

Each speciﬁc audience requires the writer to be aware of the limitations and the expectations

of the readers. There is very little assumed knowledge when we write for a general audience –

meaning that we would be careful to explain all pertinent concepts and procedures in suﬃcient

detail. Conversely, it would be grossly inappropriate to include that same level of detail when

writing for a scientiﬁc audience, much more so for an Expert audience. Similarly, the emphasis

on motivation is likely to change for diﬀerent audiences. A general audience is unlikely to care

about a new experimental approach that would be very exciting to other scientists.

There are two key diﬀerences between the type of writing discussed above and the realities

of classroom writing that we need to discuss so that you can attempt to look beyond them:

• Your audience (instructors and graders) are already familiar with the research goals and

methods (and possibly even the expected results) of your experiments. Instead of trying to

convince an unfamiliar audience of the validity of your research, you may feel that all you

need to do is convince a familiar audience that you have properly performed an experiment

that they designed. Our goal, however, is to help you develop an understanding of writing

as it actually happens in the ﬁeld of chemistry. Thus, you must imagine your instructor

and graders not as ﬁgures in a class, but as representatives of a larger group of readers who

belong to that particular academic area. Consequently, the vast majority of the writing

we will do will be for the scientiﬁc and expert audiences. Finding the correct balance

of information to present for your desired audience is one of the more nuanced parts of

scientiﬁc writing.

• Unlike in an actual research setting in which you design your own research for some speciﬁc

purpose, in a classroom you (mostly) perform the experiments given to you because

that is what you are expected to do. This leads to the problem of understanding and

communicating the purpose or motivation for the experiment, which is discussed in the

next section.

1.4 Moving from student to scientist mindset

1.4.1 Writing doesn’t just mean writing

While it can be easy to think of writing as the act of putting pen to paper (or ﬁngers to keyboard

keys), the writing process is preceded by analysis and research eﬀort. In the case of scientiﬁc

writing, it is necessary that we ﬁrst analyze the data that are recorded from experiment before

anything else. After all, without thoroughly understanding what we’ve achieved experimentally,

how can be begin to think about communicating those results with others?

The process of going from fully-analyzed experimental results to written paper is the main

objective of this work. Our goal is to develop the skills, ubiquitous to all genres of science and

engineering, necessary to go from experiment to paper.

Writing 1: Introduction to Scientiﬁc Writing · 7

1.4.2 Important things to keep in mind

Students new to science, and science writing, almost always make the same mistakes. One of

the most glaring is that they use overly complex terms/words (e.g. eﬃcacious vs. eﬀective;

proximal vs. close). When students start reading the scientiﬁc literature, or even just science

textbooks, many ﬁnd themselves challenged by the depth and diﬃculty of the concepts being

presented. It is very easy to mistake the diﬃculty of the science with complexity in the writing.

In reality, scientists strive to write their complicated concepts in the most concise, precise, and

simple language possible.

Another challenge is the need to change how we think about the purpose of experimentation

and inquiry. Novices in science tend to think of the purpose of labs as “to get the right answer”

or “to properly replicate someone’s work.” As a result, lab reports tend to be thought of as

the vehicle for “this is what I got” (presenting raw data or numerical results) or “I got the

right/wrong answer because ...”. Journal articles, on the other hand, are about “I did this

research and this is my best understanding of why I got what I got. These results do (do not)

make sense in light of ...”. The bottom line is that numbers and tables are not answers; rather,

writing strong scientiﬁc papers requires one to develop the ability to research and explain the

chemistry. Consequently, most students ﬁnd that they have to change how they think about

sources and references. The biggest mistake made by novice scientists is deciding on the meaning

of their data even before they’ve done their research and analyzed their results. This practice

often leads to a very immature relationship with the science and the scientiﬁc literature – these

students will oftentimes write their entire paper before ever engaging outside sources (if ever).

To prepare a paper that makes a strong argument, it is necessary to do enough research in the

literature to develop a thorough understanding of the chemistry behind the experiment, and to

use that knowledge when analyzing the data and explaining the results.

1.4.3 Objectives versus motivation

Before we start down the path to writing a scholarly paper, we must ﬁrst clarify the purposes

behind what we are doing. For some students, it can be very diﬃcult to correctly diﬀerentiate

between the diﬀerent levels of motivation and objectives in their labs. For each experiment

performed we will look at the purpose, objective(s), and motivation.

• Educational purpose: the (educational) purpose of a given experiment is the set of goals,

and topics, that the instructor intends for students to learn from any given exercise.

Clearly, this is not the motivation behind the student’s performance of the experiment

• Lab objectives: these are the practical items that must be accomplished in the lab (create

a standard curve, digest a sample, etc.). These are the objectives that students will list

in their laboratory notebooks and they serve as the focus of the practical performance of

the experiment.

• Motivation: the over-arching goal of the science that is being studied. Rarely, if ever, will

this be provided in the lab manual. The motivation for any given experiment is a good

scientiﬁc, or humanistic, reason why the topic or substances being studied are of interest.

For the sake of argument we’ll also assume that the student’s motivation is not simply to get an ‘A.’ Rather,

that the student is interested in learning.

8 · Undergraduate’s Guide to Writing Chemistry Papers

This is the Motivation that you will need to provide in the Introduction sections of your

papers or grant proposals.

Worked example: determining molecular size from a monomolecular ﬁlm

Let’s consider an experiment in which the size of a molecule is determined by preparing a

monomolecular ﬁlm of stearic acid at a water interface and analyze it on the three levels men-

tioned above.

• Educational purpose: the main educational motives behind this lab might have been for

the students to gain basic lab skill proﬁciency (pipettes, balances), learn about calibration

(uncertainty, error), practice basic statistics (mean, standard deviation), gain conﬁdence

in the lab environment, and develop skills working problems with unit conversions and

dimensional analysis.

• Lab objectives: the two major objectives in the lab were to calibrate a micropipette and to

ﬁnd the mass of stearic acid needed to make the monomolecular ﬁlm using the calibrated

pipette.

• Motivation: very little was discussed about why determining the size of molecule is so

important to study. In fact, there are many possible correct answers, and it is up to you

to determine one or more.

1.4.4 Diﬀerence between Data, Results, and Argument

As we continue discussing scientiﬁc writing some terms will keep repeating themselves: Data,

Results, and Argument. In the context of the scientiﬁc process, Data are the facts that will

be collected in the experimental (lab) setting or will be computed based on those experimental

measurements. In other words, data are facts about the physical world.

Results, on the other hand, are the outcomes or consequences of the data. Most experiments

involve recording substantial amounts of data, but there are usually few results. Finally, the ﬁnal

outcome of doing science is to prepare and disseminate an Argument based on your experimental

results. In this context, your Argument is the takeaway message based on your results and a

thorough understanding, and discussion, of the principles guiding the science.

The process of doing science begins with observations (data) and culminates with delivering,

whether in writing or in person, a strong argument. It is this argument that will take its place

in the overall scientiﬁc discourse. We will discuss the components of logical arguments, and

how to organize them, in later chapters.

Continuing our worked example: molecular size determination

Continuing with our example of the determination of molecular size, consider the following

breakdown:

• Data: volume measurements, concentrations, and surface areas are just some of the data

recorded in this experiment. None of these would likely appear anywhere in a paper

written about the experiment.

Writing 1: Introduction to Scientiﬁc Writing · 9

• Results: the computed surface area of the molecule (with uncertainty) and how it compares

to other similarly recorded values are the results of the experiment.

• Argument: it is impossible to decide what the argument would be without knowing the

results. The Argument is not about telling someone something that they already know;

rather, the goal of scientiﬁc communication is to Argue the meaning, validity, conse-

quences, and future of some experimental outcome(s) that have never before been observed.

This is the main goal of writing in the sciences.

1.5 This guide

The remainder of this Undergraduate’s Guide to Writing Chemistry Papers is organized to

guide a novice through the process of crafting a strong, scholarly paper. While some of the

conventions presented in this work are speciﬁc to papers in the ﬁeld of Chemistry, most of

the practices discussed are applicable across the board in scientiﬁc disciplines. Moreover, the

concepts surrounding crafting a strong argument are similar, if not identical, to those in the

humanities and social sciences.

Writing Chapter 2 focuses on a superﬁcial, yet crucial, aspect of science writing: crafting

eﬀective and appropriate exhibits based on experimental data. These tables, ﬁgures, equations,

formulas, and schema will be those that are brought in the paper in order to showcase the result

of the experiment. They need to have a scientiﬁc look or no one will take your work seriously.

The next section (Writing Chapters 3 and 4) deals with how to craft a strong argument, and

how to organize that argument into the beating heart of an excellent paper. Then, in Writing

Chapter 5, the nuances and details of proper formatting for technical writing are discussed.

An in-depth discussion of research practices, the scientiﬁc literature, and bibliographies can be

found in Writing Chapter 6.

The remainder of the guide covers the other sections of scholarly papers (Introductions and

Experimentals, Writing Chapters 7 and 8), research proposals, and research presentations.

1.6 End-of-chapter assignment

1. In your own words, brieﬂy list the diﬀerences between journal articles (i.e., scholarly

papers) and lab reports.

2. For which audience do you think it is easiest to write? Most diﬃcult to write? Explain,

including a good reason for each of your choices.

3. Scientiﬁc writing is all about presenting a strong, cogent argument.

(a) How can the choice of sources used (and cited) in preparing a paper aﬀect (positively

or negatively) the strength of the argument made? Explain brieﬂy.

(b) Why is it important to ascertain the Results and Motivations behind an experiment

before conceiving the argument that you intend to use when writing your paper?

Explain brieﬂy.

ment? Explain brieﬂy.

10 · Undergraduate’s Guide to Writing Chemistry Papers

4. Consider one of the labs that you recently completed:

(a) Provide an analysis of the Educational purpose, Lab objectives, and Motivation of the

experiment.

(b) What Data did you collect? What are the Results?

WRITING 2: PREPARING APPROPRIATE EXHIBITS

2.1 Exhibits – the start of developing a good argument

All writing is about making an argument – a dynamic form of rhetoric designed to answer

questions and pose new ones. In scientiﬁc papers, these arguments serve as a mode of dissem-

inating the results of a few diﬀerent types of scientiﬁc studies: developing new techniques and

methodologies, studying a novel and interesting system, refuting/conﬁrming previous results or

beliefs, extending and reﬁning previous work, and more. As scientiﬁc papers, especially ones

in a strictly regimented ﬁeld like chemistry, all of these diﬀerent papers would share many

structural and conventional similarities. Where these papers would diﬀer substantially is in the

argument being made.

Before we can begin to identify what makes a strong argument – that will be the subject of

later chapters – we must ﬁrst (a) ﬁgure out what our results mean and (b) format them as Ex-

hibits that would be useful for making a persuasive argument. Exhibits are the materials/items

in your paper that you are oﬀering for explanation, analysis, or interpretation. Exhibits are the

grounds on which you will base the argument that you intend to make. As such, they are the

ﬁrst things that we prepare after ﬁnishing the experiment.

In scientiﬁc papers, the exhibits will either be brought as part of the background material

or they will be used to present the results of the experiment. In the sciences, given the often

substantial amounts of data, exhibits will often be presented as ﬁgures or tables. The remainder

of this chapter will be dedicated to learning how to clearly communicate the results of an

experiment in Tables and Figures – a highly underestimated, yet essential, skill to master.

2.1.1 Choosing the appropriate exhibit: tables and ﬁgures

If you’ve ever worried about how to successfully convince someone of your point of view, you

know that it is important to consider both (a) what you will say and (b) how you will say it.

Choosing the points that you want to make, and the depth to which you expound on them,

is extremely important. Say too much and you will lose your audience; say too little and you

won’t be convincing.

It is rarely appropriate to include all of the data that you collect in your experiment. One

of the earliest challenges that a scientist faces is knowing what data to present – this a topic

that we will return to in later chapters. For now, we will focus on the equally-relevant task of

how to present the data that we’ve decided is important.

It can be tricky to know how and when to use a table, a ﬁgure, or a graph. Remember, the

goal is not to present large data sets – large data sets are included in Supporting Information

12 · Undergraduate’s Guide to Writing Chemistry Papers

sections; rather, our objective is to prepare an exhibit that will convey a speciﬁc and detailed

message to the reader to support your argument. In that way, exhibits become eﬃcient vehicles

of information and persuasion.

In general, the type of exhibit you choose depends on the data set that you have to com-

municate and your expected goals. Tables are best used for data that are qualitative, data

sets that include only a few points, or when you want to show the actual, speciﬁc values of

your measurements. Tables are most eﬀective when seeing the details of the values will help

to convince the reader. Alternately, tables are the appropriate choice when it is necessary to

present each value for future reference. Figures, speciﬁcally graphs, are used more as a way to

visualize the trend of your data or the relationship between diﬀerent sets of data. In this way,

ﬁgures have the ability to communicate concepts in far more eﬃcient way than a table or prose.

In addition to the type of exhibit, you will need to decide how many ﬁgures or tables you

intend to use. In general, a ﬁgure is used to communicate one or two general ideas or trends;

conversely, tables can sometimes be used to arrange, present, and contrast vast amounts of

data. The best criterion for determining if a table or ﬁgure is needed is your overall goals. If

the ﬁgure or table adds to your readers’ understanding then it is necessary.

2.2 General formatting guidelines for exhibits

2.2.1 Numbering

Figures, Tables, and Equations, are all numbered sequentially (three separate sequences) in a

scholarly paper. These numbers (i.e., Table 1, Figure 1, Equation 1) are then used to refer

to the ﬁgure in the text where you describe the data. Tables, Figures, and Equations do not

“stand alone” in scientiﬁc papers; rather, they are exhibits that support the prose, but do not

replace appropriate discussion. To aid the reader in moving between the written discussion and

the exhibits, reference statements direct the reader to the appropriate exhibit.

Both tables and ﬁgures will have a label that will include its number. The label should

precede the title (above tables and below ﬁgures). Many authors use the good practice of

bolding the label (e.g., Table 1). Good reference statements include the label of the exhibit:

‘Table 3 shows the volume of water at various temperatures’ or ‘The molecular structures of

the products are depicted in Figure 12.’ Never use directional words, such as ‘below’ or ‘above’,

to describe the location of Tables and Figures, as editors may move the actual exhibits.

Note: in books or other chapter-based documents, exhibits are numbered by the chapter

(1.1, 1.2, etc.). For your papers, this type of numbering is not appropriate.

2.2.2 Tables have titles, ﬁgures have captions

Every Table must have an appropriate title, located above the table, that gives enough informa-

tion about the table such that, in the context of your report, an outside reader can understand

what the table is showing. An example of a Table title might be: ‘Table 1: Volume of 1.0 g of

solvents at various temperatures.’

Figures do not have titles above them. The standard title that Microsoft Excel generates

is not appropriate for our purposes in both format (above the ﬁgure, large, and centered) and

content. Unlike tables, ﬁgures are captioned on the bottom, and the title is simply the ﬁrst

part of the caption located below the ﬁgure and should be descriptive and complete.

Writing 2: Preparing Appropriate Exhibits · 13

A good ﬁgure caption elaborates on the information contained within the ﬁgure; it tells

you everything that you need to know in order to interpret the ﬁgure and get the ‘take-away’

message. Generally, a caption should be a few sentences long and follow the title. The title

should describe to the reader what is being presented, while the caption should tell the reader

any pertinent information that would be needed to interpret the data being presented. In the

case of a ﬁgure with multiple lines and no legend, the caption should also serve as the legend –

e.g., ‘The trend before reaction (solid line) and after the reaction (dashed line)...’.

Captions are single-spaced (even in a double-spaced document) and have a smaller font size

than the body text. In this way, it is clear what is a caption and what is text of the paper.

Tables rarely have captions, unless there is a special note. In that case, a special character is

placed in the table (e.g., an asterisk (∗) or dagger (†)) and the note is placed below.

2.2.3 Placement in the document

It is best to try to place your table or ﬁgure close to the text that refers to it. However, it

is more essential that the exhibit be formatted properly rather than forcing it to be located

in a speciﬁc place. Editors have a habit of moving ﬁgures and tables to wherever they deem

appropriate (though they do keep them in order). Fortunately, since all ﬁgures and tables are

referred to in the text by number, it is not critical that they be placed on the same page as the

referring text. For the most part, ﬁgures and tables usually start or end a page or column (for

papers in the two-column format). Make sure that your exhibits are an appropriate size.

Conversely, equations are always located immediately before or after the text that ﬁrst

describes them, as they are part of the prose and discussion. If the equation is mentioned again

later in the paper it is referenced, but not repeated.

2.3 Preparing eﬀective ﬁgures

Figures can be a powerful way to present information in a visual medium. There are a few

types of Figures that you may ﬁnd useful to include in your scholarly paper:

• Non-data ﬁgures - You may be using or creating custom apparatuses for certain exper-

iments. Instead of tediously describing the schematic of an apparatus, it may be easier to

include a ﬁgure of the completed apparatus.

• Crystal structures - A key step in synthesizing a compound is to determine its three-

dimensional structure by slowly crystallizing a sample of the compound and irradiating

it with x-rays. The results of that analysis are presented as a crystal structure.

• Graphs - Graphs are one of the most important methods of presenting data in a visual

manner. They allow the author to present substantial amounts of data in a compact way

and allow the reader to perceive a trend in the information.

2.3.1 Considerations for preparing appropriate graphs

Consider the following when preparing graphs:

• Which variable goes on which axis: There is no diﬀerence between calling a graph “pH

vs. volume” or “volume vs. pH” – in both cases, the volume of base added is on the

14 · Undergraduate’s Guide to Writing Chemistry Papers

horizontal (x) axis. In a graph, the independent (manipulated) variable is plotted on the

horizontal axis and the dependent (responding) variable is plotted on the vertical axis

(y-axis).

• Graph type - choose the correct type of graph for the type of data you are presenting.

While Excel’s default is the bar graph, which can be useful for presenting data to be

contrasted but that is not related. For data that shows a correlation (whether linear or

non-linear), it is appropriate to use an xy scatter plot.

In chemistry, most of your graphs will be xy scatter plots. Once you’ve chosen the correct

graph type, most software allows the user to choose how the points are linked:

– No lines: most graphs will not have connected points. Since you only measured a few

data points in the experiment, it is misleading to connect them by lines – this implies

knowledge/data that is simply not there. Of course, it may still be appropriate to

include a line-of-best-ﬁt (trendline) through the data.

– Smoothed lines: example of exceptions to the previous rule are chromatograms, spec-

tra, and titration curves. Because these ﬁgures are made by taking regular and fre-

quent data points, they are plotted using a smooth line (without markers / points).

• Axes - All axes need a label and units, unless the graphed quantity is unitless (such as

pH or absorbance). There is no need to start the plot at the origin (point 0,0) unless that

point is relevant to understanding the data (e.g., if you took a spectrum between 400 and

700 nm, the x-axis range should be 400-700). Also, never add a point at the origin unless

it was actually measured in the experiment.

• Dividing lines - the default graphs produced by Excel include horizontal and/or vertical

lines at the major tick marks. Do not include gridlines on your graphs.

• Legend - Legends are only useful if you are plotting more than one set of data on the

same graph. Even then, identifying the individual plots can be done in the caption (if

there aren’t too many). Legends are always necessary for graphs that present a large

number of data sets (more than 3), and many will include a legend for graphs with two

distinct data sets (a trendline and a data set are only one set of data).

• Using space properly - You can resize the individual components of the graph to

maximize the use of the ﬁgure within your ﬁnal document.

• Color and shapes - For plots with multiple data sets, it is important to diﬀerentiate

between the them. Even if you print in color, it is advisable use diﬀerent symbols for the

markers corresponding to diﬀerent data sets. That said, make sure that data markers are

clear and reasonable shapes.

• Trendlines - Where appropriate, for showing trends in the data, add a trendline and

display its equation on the graph.

Writing 2: Preparing Appropriate Exhibits · 15

2.3.2 Examples of well-executed ﬁgures

Figure'1:'UV-Vis!spectrum!of!carboxyfluorescein!in!methanol!(5!×!10

-3

!M,!1.00!cm!

cuvette).!The!maximum!absorbance!wavelength,!λ

max

,!is!located!a t!45 5 .0 !nm.!

Figure'2:'Cryoscopic!freezing!curve!for!cyclohexane!(K

!=!20.2!kg!K/mol).!!The!line ar !

trendline!(with!equation)!is!show n !fo r!th e !fre ez in g!p o rtio n !o f!th e ! curve!(between!

60!and!160!s),!and!the!extrapolated!freezing!point!is!6.7!

C.!!

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

380 430 480 530 580 630 680 730

Absorbance

Wavelength;(nm)

y"="-0.0013x"+"6.6914

0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350

Temperature"(⁰C)

Time"(s)

16 · Undergraduate’s Guide to Writing Chemistry Papers

2.3.3 Captions are extremely important and useful

It can be tempting to think of ﬁgure captions as just a label, often relegating them to an

afterthought. In reality, however, these captions are extremely important and contain a robust

amount of information.

The goal of a caption is to make an exhibit (ﬁgure) stand alone. An eﬀective caption will

tell the reader exactly what they are looking at, guide them on how to read/understand the

ﬁgure, and draw conclusions about the implications of the ﬁgure. Look at some of the ﬁgures,

speciﬁcally their captions, in your general chemistry textbook. Does the level of detail surprise

you?

2.4 Preparing eﬀective tables

While tables and ﬁgures are both useful for showing trends (though ﬁgures are much better at

this), tables are the preferable exhibit to use when it is important that the actual values be

accessible to the reader. That said, just because you are providing data to the reader, it is not

license to dump all of your raw data in one place. It is important that your tables have a good

balance of being complete, but also as streamlined as possible.

2.4.1 What needs to go into a table

A good table should make the data easier to digest. Therefore, it is not necessarily a good

choice to make a table that will have a single column or row of data – that much could easily

be presented in the prose without being too hard to grasp.

Conversely, students often start oﬀ by mistakenly presenting too much in their tables, per-

haps in an eﬀort to make them seem more signiﬁcant. Masses of weighing jars, solids plus jars,

initial temperatures, ﬁnal temperatures, etc., are all unnecessary Raw Data (the diﬀerent types

of data will be discussed in a later chapter). For now, it suﬃces to mention that raw data is

never presented in papers (or even in Supporting Information for that matter).

2.4.2 Considerations for preparing appropriate tables

Most of the table formatting comes down to aesthetics. Consider the following important

guidelines for preparing your tables.

• Header row(s) - All tables have a header row at the top. These headers explain the

type of data that will be found in a given column. Units are always included in the header

rows, sometimes in the second row. Often, header rows are bolded or shaded so that they

are distinguished from the other rows.

• Breaking up the rows - Do not use gridlines in tables; this is simply not an appropriate

style. Do, however, use horizontal lines to create separation between the header row(s)

and the data below. Many people ﬁnd it aesthetically pleasing to also place horizontal

lines above and below the table so that it is easily recognizable.

• Row spacing - All rows should be the same height, with the exception of header rows

that can be taller than the others.

Writing 2: Preparing Appropriate Exhibits · 17

• Column spacing - It is desirable that there be uniform space between the data in each

column, which means that column widths need to be adjusted to achieve even spacing.

• Units and precision - Units are not included in the cells with the data. Instead, units

are included in the header row. Also, make sure to choose units that will lead to data

that is easy to read in the body of the table. For example, if small mass measurements

are being displayed, report the values in milligrams, and report the units (in the header

row) as mg or 10

−3

2.4.3 Example of a well-executed table

Table&6.1!"!Cereal!and!Fe!standard!addition!solutions

Solution&#

Volume&Cereal&

Solution&(mL)

Volume&Standard&

Fe&Solution&(mL)

Total&Volume&

(mL)

Average&

Absorbance

1 10 0 100 0.0012

2 10 1 100 0.0025

3 10 2 100 0.0065

4 10 5 100 0.0125

5 10 10 100 0.0250

6 10 15 100 0.0375

7 10 20 100 0.0500

8 10 25 100 0.0630

2.5 Equations, Chemicals, and Values

2.5.1 Which equations are relevant?

Chemical equations and formulas should be included if they are directly relevant to what you

are doing. Relevant chemical equations include those that describe the chemistry you are doing.

Numerical equations should only be used if they are relatively un-common, and are involved

with interpreting your data. Usually the entire derivation of an equation is not necessary, unless

the derivation itself is part of the work being presented.

2.5.2 Formatting chemical equations and the names of chemicals

In the sciences it is important the values, equations, and species be represented properly. For

example, in Biology, Latin names (binomial nomenclature) of species are always italicized.

Similar rules exist in the physical sciences for equations and values. Consider the following

guidelines:

• Subscripts and superscripts - Make sure to properly format all chemical formulae with

appropriate subscripts and superscripts. Writing C2O42− is not acceptable (it should be

written as C

2−

• States of matter in equations - Where relevant, the states of matter need to be

included in chemical equations. We write Cu

(aq), not Cu

18 · Undergraduate’s Guide to Writing Chemistry Papers

• Symbols - Always use the appropriate symbol for something. Use µ (not u) for micro,

→ for a normal equation arrow, and

)

for equilibrium. Note: ↔ means resonance and

cannot be used in place of equilibrium arrows.

• Numbering - While equations do not need a title or caption, they should have an equa-

tion number. For a good example of how to format an equation with a label, consult the

examples in your lab manual.

• Capitalization - Chemicals are not proper names. This means that the names of chem-

icals are not capitalized (HCl is hydrochloric acid, not Hydrochloric Acid).

• Italics - In equations, only variables and constants are italicized. Letters representing

atoms should never be italicized. Carbon dioxide is written as CO

(g), not CO

2.5.3 Values and units

Given their tremendous importance in scientiﬁc communication, it is very important that values

be presented in an appropriate way. Consider the following:

• Units - All measurements and values include a number and a unit. Always include a

space between the number and the unit. We write 10.5 m, not 10.5m.

• Leading zero - Numbers less than 1.0 must be reported with a zero preceding the decimal

point (i.e., as 0.123, not .123). The decimal point and the digits that follow it are called

a mantissa, not a number.

• Precision - Values should be presented in a clear way that shows how precisely the

number is known. For a value with a known uncertainty, this means only using the

appropriate signiﬁcant ﬁgures in both the value and the uncertainty. The same applies to

statistical values.

• Scientiﬁc notation - Numbers written in scientiﬁc notation are always written with ×10

(not the “E” or “e” that is the remnant of programming languages like Fortran).

Note: detailed instructions about typesetting equations and values, including how to streamline

the process, are presented in lab #1.

2.6 End-of-chapter assignment

1. Look at Writing Examples 2.1-2.5 in the pages that follow and explain the diﬀerences

between the Correct and Incorrect versions of the Tables, Equations, and Graphs. What

is the main point of each exhibit (i.e., what role does it play)?

2. Figure captions are necessary for making ﬁgures ‘stand alone.’ Explain how lack of detail

in captions negatively impacts the argument made in the paper.

3. We won’t be writing the traditional ‘lab reports’ (see Writing Chapter 1 for diﬀerences

between lab reports and scholarly papers). How might the amount and type of data

included in a table be diﬀerent in a lab report versus a scholarly paper?

Writing 2: Preparing Appropriate Exhibits · 19

4. Consider a recent lab that required the preparation of at least one table. Prepare an

appropriate table using the information in this chapter. Don’t forget to include a title for

your table.

5. Consider a recent lab (or multiple labs) and prepare two appropriate ﬁgures: one spec-

trum/continuous and one calibration curve/trendline graph. Make sure to include de-

tailed, well-written captions for your ﬁgures, so that the reader will understand the main

take-away point of the exhibit without further explanation.

Writing Example 2.1: Table

Incorrect:

Table 3

Chocolate Brands

Type of

Chocolate

Peak Absorbance

Concentration

Dove

Milk

0.956

1.912 ppm

Hersheys

Milk

0.855

1.71 ppm

Lindt

Dark

0.869

1.738 ppm

Cadbury

Dark

0.981

1.962 ppm

Correct:

Table 4 - Quantifying levels of caﬀeine in chocolate.

Brand&

Type&

Peak&Absorbance&

Concentration&

(ppm)&

Dove&

Milk%

0.956%

1.912%

Hersheys&

Milk%

0.855%

1.710%

Lindt&

Dark%

0.869%

1.738%

Cadbury&

Dark%

0.981%

1.962%

Which one of these is more clear? Can you spot all of the diﬀerence between

the two versions? Note that this is just one way to properly format a table.

Writing Example 2.2: Equation

Incorrect:

P b2 + +2Cl − −− > P bCl2

Correct:

(aq) + 2Cl

−

(aq) −→ PbCl

(s) (5.1)

Which one of these equations is better? Can you spot all of the changes?

20 · Undergraduate’s Guide to Writing Chemistry Papers

Writing Example 2.3: Reporting values with appropriate ﬁgures

Incorrect:

ε = 18713.45cm

−1

± 518.3cm

−1

Correct:

ε = (1.87

± 0.05

) × 10

−1

Which one of these equations is better? Can you spot all of the changes?

Writing Example 2.4: Graph (1) - Chromatogram

Incorrect:

-50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

500

0 20 40 60

Series1

Series2

Correct:

50"

100"

150"

200"

250"

300"

350"

400"

450"

10" 15" 20" 25" 30" 35" 40" 45"

Absorbance*(650*nm)*

Time*(minutes)*

Figure 3 - HPLC Chromatograms of chocolate content remaining in socks

after being washed with Washing Machine 1 (solid line) and Washing Ma-

chine 2 (dashed line). All absorbances were recorded at 650 nm. The

retention times for both machines are between 20 and 22 minutes.

Which one of these graphs is better? Can you spot all of the changes from

the generic Excel graph versus the properly formatted graph?

Writing 2: Preparing Appropriate Exhibits · 21

Writing Example 2.5: Graph (2) - Trend Line

Incorrect:

0.05

0.1

0.15

0.2

0.25

0.3

0.35

0.4

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

Series1

Linear (Series1)

Correct:

y = 0.0032x - 0.0063

R² = 0.9919

0.2

0.22

0.24

0.26

0.28

0.3

0.32

0.34

0.36

60 70 80 90 100 110 120

Absorbance (650 nm)

Temperature (°C)

Figure 7 - Temperature dependance on washing machine eﬃciency. Peak

absorbance at the maximum wavelength, 650 nm, is plotted against the

temperature of washing.

Which one of these graphs is better? Can you spot all of the changes from

the generic Excel graph versus the properly formatted graph?

22 · Undergraduate’s Guide to Writing Chemistry Papers

WRITING 3: MAKING CLAIMS AND BUILDING AN ARGUMENT

3.1 Starting to think about argument

All writing is about making an argument. Each ﬁeld has its conventions regarding the structural

and organizational details of research papers. Especially in a strictly regimented ﬁeld like

chemistry, these conventions dictate how papers are arranged and composed. That said, the

common goal of all papers is that they be persuasive and, thereby, contribute meaningfully to

how people think about a ﬁeld. This is the Argument, and it is the most important aspect of

writing a good paper.

Irrespective of the type of argument that you are going to make, your arguments will be

about making a strong claim that is based on grounds (evidence, data). The two most com-

mon types of grounds that we will rely on are: the exhibits that you prepare (based on your

experiments) and the research that you do (in journals and books). As a result, before you

can even begin to think about what you intend to argue in your paper, it is necessary to (a)

fully work-up your data, (b) prepare eﬀective and convincing exhibits, and (c) research in the

literature to ﬁnd information relating to your experiment and results. Additionally, it is highly

advisable that you take some time, after analyzing your data, before you start thinking about

writing your paper. Take a ‘step back’ and look at your results with fresh eyes – this will help

you see global trends, impacts, and ramiﬁcations.

3.2 Planning your paper’s argument

As we’ve already said, all writing is about making an argument. In this context, “argument” can

be used interchangeably with the paper author’s “interpretation” of the results to an audience.

These claims are made based on the exhibits that we prepare, the results of the experiment,

and a thorough understanding of the background material (research in the literature).

An argument is made up of at least three key components: a claim, data (grounds), and

warrants. According to Toulmin, these three components make up the minimum logical argu-

ment that can be made. In addition, many arguments also contain additional, but not always

necessary, components: backing (for warrants), qualiﬁers, and counter-claims with rebuttals.

For now, we will focus on the ﬁrst three components.

3.2.1 Crucial components of a logical argument

A Claim is an assertion being made about the nature of the world and is the cornerstone of

the argument. The entire purpose of writing your paper, and making your argument, is that

24 · Undergraduate’s Guide to Writing Chemistry Papers

the reader will agree with your claims. The claim is a conclusion, a statement of reasoned fact,

that is the focus of the paper. Your claim should answer a question such as “what do I want to

prove?” or “what position do I want my audience to take?” Note: this is not the same thing as

‘what value did you get?’ Rather, you should think more globally about what your data means

and what conclusions you can make based on them.

• Think about what point(s) you want to make, not what paragraphs you want to write.

What is the one idea that you want a reader to walk away from your paper with?

• Make sure that you’ve clariﬁed exactly what you want to say. Don’t be wishy-washy and

make points that weaken others, that contradict other ideas that you’ve brought, or that

are not eﬀective.

• Avoid negative proofs: ‘A is bad, so B is better’ is not a strong claim.

Data (or grounds or evidence) are the foundation of the argument; these are the facts and

evidence that are brought to support the claim that is being made. In scientiﬁc inquiries, these

grounds can be from experimental data, conclusions made from an experiment, or cited research

in the literature. Your grounds are the answer to a question like “what do I have to go on?”,

“what data do I have to support my conclusions?”, or “where must the audience start in order

to eventually agree with my claim?” Think about the exhibits that you intend to display to the

reader:

• How do you intend to present the data: in paragraph only, with the help of a table or

with a ﬁgure?

• Exhibits (data, ﬁgures, and tables) are there for you to support your argument. Never

present extra data without a good reason. Which data need to be presented at all, and

what belongs in the Supporting Information?

There is usually a large disconnect between the claim that you intend to make and the

data/grounds that you bring to support it. Warrants are the links that are used to make

the connection between the claim and the data. Warrants, whether stated or implied, are

statements that are brought to give support to the data and show how they support the claim.

• Warrants answer the question “how do I get from evidence to claim?”.

• We never assume that the reader will immediately jump to the same conclusions that we

do. For example, consider the claim that “candy X is bad” (claim) based on the fact that

it contains “20 g of sugar” (data). While this may seem like common sense (it is), in the

sciences it is important to bring warrants to bridge this gap.

• More details about the types of warrants that are commonly used in writing can be found

later in this chapter (section 3.4).

3.2.2 Putting these components together

Together, a claim, data, and warrant comprise the smallest unit of an argument. Let’s consider

the following short argument that uses only these three elements:

Writing 3: Making Claims and Building an Argument · 25

Example: Sample argument with three components

“From the substantial amount of black smoke coming out of the 4th ﬂoor of

SCI (data), we conclude that the Metcalf Science Center is on ﬁre (claim).

Smoke of this color is one of the most ubiquitous signs of ﬁre

(warrant), so

we conclude that there is a ﬁre in Metcalf (restated claim).”

Graphically, the argument in the above example can be eﬀectively represented by the Graph-

ical Representation of Argument (GRA) diagram depicted in Figure W3.1. These diagrams are

an easy way to conceive, plan, and organize your argument before you start to write. By prepar-

ing a GRA before you start to write, you can make sure that all of the important components

are present and that your argument is cogent. Then, once you’ve decided that your argument

is sound, you can write your paper with conﬁdence. This process will save you a substantial

amount of time in revisions and rewriting.

CH112%/%BUCWP% % Spring%2016%

Data:%

Smoke%is%coming%out%of%SCI.%

Claim:%

SCI%is%on%fire.%

Warrant)statement:%

Since%smok e%is%on e%of%the%most%

ubiquitous%signs%of%fire,%

Figure)2:3GRA%Diagram%for%sample%argument%about%buildings%on%fire)

Figure 3.1: Graphical Representation of Argument (GRA) diagram for the example argu-

ment outlined about a ﬁre in Metcalf. Note: this shape of GRA is not universal – yours will

likely look very diﬀerent.

3.2.3 Assembling graphical representations of arguments (GRAs)

Your graphical representation of argument (GRA) doesn’t need to look polished or fancy. The

most crucial thing is that your GRA contain the very speciﬁc components (claim, grounds,

warrants, etc.) that you want to use in your argument. Start by jotting down all of the

grounds (data, ﬁgures, tables) you might think about including in your paper. Consider using

a whiteboard or PostIt notes to make things easy to rearrange as you work – you won’t get it

right on the ﬁrst try.

Once you’ve surveyed all of your data, decide on the claim(s) that you intend to make. Jot

these down as well and add them to the board. Connect each claim that you want to make to

the data that is the foundation of that claim. It is conceivable that a single piece of data could

support multiple claims.

Next, you will need to prepare warrants to walk your audience from grounds to your claim.

There is no set number of warrants that are necessary for a given claim. Some claims are easy

to make and will require few warrant statements, while others may require many warrants. The

number is not important; rather, focus on making a strong argument that is convincing.

26 · Undergraduate’s Guide to Writing Chemistry Papers

Finally, it is important to note that the GRA diagram in Figure W3.1 was prepared before

the argument paragraph (in the example above) was written. Notice that once the argument is

diagramed, all that is left is to add ﬁller words and work on the sentencing.

3.2.4 Identifying sources that strengthen your argument

One of the biggest mistakes made by novice writers is to decide on the argument that they intend

to make before they’ve done their research and analyzed their results. This practice often leads

to a very immature relationship with scientiﬁc literature — these students will oftentimes write

their entire paper before ever engaging outside sources (if ever). Those papers will rarely, if

ever, by very good.

A common question that instructors get is “how many sources do I need to cite?” Usually,

this question is meant to illicit a number of sources that will not result in a penalty for not

providing “at least 3 sources” (or however many the teacher is looking for). The problem is

that this approach is very counterproductive. Instead of the students engaging with the sources

(reading them and using the information as the basis of their papers), the students are just

looking to put citations at the end of the paper. The real answer to the aforementioned question,

as unsettling and frustrating as it may be, is that you should cite all of the sources that you

actually consulted when preparing your argument/paper, and no more. The most important

thing to remember is that sources cannot be relegated to an afterthought. These ‘sources’

are the heart and soul of the claim that you want to make. Details about the formatting of

references are found in Writing Chapter 6.

3.3 Additional components of strong arguments

Up to this point we’ve focused on the core components of logical arguments: claim, grounds, and

warrants. In his proposed structure for logical arguments, Toulmin discusses three additional

components that can be used to strengthen an argument: qualiﬁers, backing, and counter-

arguments and rebuttals.

When a warrant is suﬃciently secure by itself, Backing is not necessary. We provide

backing for warrants to establish the reliability and relevance of the warrant statement, or

as a secondary source for the warrant. Use of backing is especially important when the leap

from data to claim is not small and would require several “steps.” In these cases, use backing

to establish a step-by-step chain that allows your audience to follow your argument without

developing questions about your logic.

• To decide if your warrant needs backing, ask yourself the question “is the move from

grounds to claim safe right now?” or “would everyone make the leap from evidence to

claim that I just made?”. If you answered either of these questions in the negative,

provide backing for your warrant(s) by citing other research papers, common knowledge,

or further experimental evidence.

• Results from other students, fundamental concepts from the ﬁeld of science, and method-

ologies are conceivable sources of backing.

Qualiﬁers are used in the wording of the claim in order to modify and limit the scope of

the claim. Words such as ‘usually’, ‘often’, and ‘under these circumstances’ can be used to limit

Writing 3: Making Claims and Building an Argument · 27

the claim. While this may seem to weaken the strength of the argument, it accomplishes the

opposite. By appropriately qualifying a claim, the author eﬀectively identiﬁes and states the

limits of their claim; this allows the reader to be conﬁdent about the reaches and limits of the

claims being made.

• You should ask yourself “what limitations do you see to the conclusion(s) that you are

trying to make?” Remember: limitations are not bad, they are just the limits of the

claims.

• Does your claim apply to all situations and samples? If not, how could you make this

clear in the most simple way. Phrases like “of the ones we sampled” or “of this type” can

qualify a claim.

Finally, Counter-claims and Rebuttals are used as a way to explore, and often explain,

the limits to the claim. A counter-claim is a possible objection to your claim that someone

reading your paper may have, and a rebuttal is your response to that counter-claim. Used

properly, counter-claims and their rebuttals are a way of acknowledging the types of objections

that someone reading the paper might bring up and then dismissing them. They are especially

useful for acknowledging exceptions that might otherwise invalidate the claim.

• Ask yourself “What objection might someone reading the paper have to my claims?”, “what

possibilities might interfere with my argument?”, or “are there any exceptions that would

invalidate my claim?”.

• Structure and back-up rebuttals to these possible counter claims as a way to reduce the

reader’s uncertainty in your claim.

Proper use of rebuttals will strengthen the initial claim as they provide a way of dispelling

possible detractors and acknowledging fundamental limitations of the claim. Often, delving

into a rebuttal will lead to another claim that will be argued and discussed using these same

components (evidence, warrants, etc.).

Let’s revisit the earlier, somewhat cheesy, example argument about a ﬁre in Metcalf, and

add qualiﬁers, backing, and rebuttals:

Example: Sample argument with multiple components

“From the substantial amount of black smoke coming out of the 4th ﬂoor of

SCI (data), we conclude that it is likely (qualiﬁer) that the Metcalf Science

Center is on ﬁre (claim). Smoke of this color is one of the most ubiqui-

tous signs of ﬁre

(warrant), which generally produces the smoke as fuel is

consumed

1,2

(backing). This implies that it is very likely (qualiﬁer) that

there is a ﬁre in Metcalf (restated claim), unless the smoke is being gener-

ated by a reaction in a research lab (counter-claim). Given, however, that

the building is currently empty for intersession (backing to rebuttal), it is

unlikely that the source of the ﬁre is from a research group (rebuttal).”

28 · Undergraduate’s Guide to Writing Chemistry Papers

CH112%/%BUCWP% % Spring%2016%

____%“Servers%making%a%dependable%wage%are%less%likely%to%seek%other%employ.”%

____%“Adding%a%service%charge%will%result%in%a%more-steady%income .”%

____%“Service%charges%eliminate%patrons%won dering%how%much %to%tip,%and%leads%to%more%equity%in%

service%compensation.”%

____%“Service%may%suffer%as%a%result.”%

b) Draw%a%GRA%Diagram%for%this%argument.%

Activity'#2:%%You%prepared%abridged%reports%before%arriving%at%class%today.%%Swap%abridged%reports%with%a%

student%sitting%next%to%you.%%Read%their%report%and%answer%the%following%questions.%

a) Was%the%author’s%Claim(s)%clear%to%you?%Make%a%note%of%the%Claim(s)%made.%

b) What%Data%did%the%author%bring%to%support%the%Claims?%%

c) Draw%a%GRA%Diagram%based%on%their%report.%%Did%they%include%any%unnecessary%components?%Were%

importan t%c o mponents%miss ing ? %

d) Present%your%constructive%and%supportive%feedback%to%you r%pee r.%

Data:%

Smoke%is%coming%out%of%SCI.%

(Qualified)'Claim:%

(it%is%likely%that)%SCI%is%on%fire.%

Warrant'statement:%

Since%smok e%is%on e%of%the% m o st%

ubiquitous%signs%of%fire,%

Backing'for'Warrant:%

Because%fires%generally%produce%smoke%

as%fuel% is%consumed,%

Counter-claim:%

unles s%the%smoke%is%coming%from%a%

research%lab%…%

Rebuttal:%

It%is%unlikely%that%the%smoke%is%coming%

from%a%research%group%

Backing:%

It%is%currently%intersession%and%the%

building%is%empty%

Figure'1:"GRA%Diagram%for%sample%argument%about%buildings%on%fire.'

Figure 3.2: Graphical Representation of Argument (GRA) diagram for the extended ex-

ample argument about a ﬁre in Metcalf that contains all six elements of logical argument.

Note: this shape of GRA is not universal – yours will likely look very diﬀerent.

3.4 Common warrants used in scholarly papers

Warrants can take many forms and depend on the type of argument that you are trying to make.

In each case, these Warrants must be based in sound reason and be thoroughly researched. The

following is a list of some of the diﬀerent types of warrants that you might consider using. While

this list is far from exhaustive, it is a good start for identifying the types of arguments that you

can make.

• Argument based on generalization: this common form of reasoning involves making

the assumption that what is true for a well-chosen sample is likely to hold true for the

larger population or group. Alternately, this argument is that some things consistent with

the sample can be assumed about the larger group.

Backing for these types of warrants are discussions of things like the nature of the sampling

method used and why it is ok to generalize from the sample used to the larger group.

• Argument based on sign or clue: this type of argument uses the notion that certain

types of evidence or trends (“clues”) are symptomatic of some bigger principle or situation.

Based on these well-established clues we can argue for some underlying cause or situation

that is not directly observed.

In making this type of argument it is necessary to include support (backing) for how the

clue is indicative of the underlying situation that you are implying is present.

Writing 3: Making Claims and Building an Argument · 29

• Causal argument: in a causal argument the author argues that the results observed

are the result of, or aﬀected by, a speciﬁc factor. While these arguments tend to be very

common in scientiﬁc studies, they also tend to be among the most complex. There are

two main dangers when using a causal argument: (1) conﬂating correlation with causation

and (2) mistakenly basing the argument in post hoc, ergo propter hoc (since it was this

way after the fact, it must be as a result of the fact).

• Argument from authority: involves stating facts that are agreed upon by author-

itative sources and people. Relying on state-of-the-art methods, instrumentation, and

frameworks constitute argumentation from authority. In these cases, make sure to cite

the seminal work(s) in the ﬁeld as backing for your warrant statements.

• Argument from principle: similar to arguments from authority, these arguments are

based in the principles underlying the ﬁeld of study and build upon prior work in the

ﬁeld, even if there might not be complete agreement in the area.

Determining the warrants that you will use, and their accompanying Backing, will likely

require you to do research to locate, read, and digest papers and books in the ﬁeld of study.

Citing papers, books, and review articles that you’ve used in cementing your argument is a

cornerstone of the scientiﬁc process.

3.5 Grounds – choosing relevant data to include

It is rarely necessary to include all of the data that you collect in the lab in your Results section.

In fact, most times the actual data that is collected falls into the category of Raw Data. Raw

Data (also referred to as primary data) refers to any measurements that are collected in the lab

that have not been subjected to processing or manipulation. For example: masses of weighing

jars and solids, volumes on a burette, and initial and ﬁnal temperatures, all fall in the category

of raw data.

Once the data have been processed you will have to further distinguish between the data that

are necessary to present in the body of the paper (as grounds or backing), and those which are

not necessary. Extensive, but relevant, data should be included in the Supporting Information.

To illustrate, consider the product of a synthesis: the only piece of data that will likely be

included in the argument is the percent yield. The raw masses are not relevant and should

not be given. Additionally, if you performed ten replicate mass measurements then only report

the mean (with associated conﬁdence interval and N ); it is unnecessary, and inappropriate, to

report all ten measurements, the standard deviation, and the rest of the raw data in your paper.

3.6 Common mistakes

The most common mistake that novices make when beginning to write a paper is that they

don’t take the time to properly conceive the paper before they start “writing.” Rather, most

likely in the hopes of ﬁnishing quickly, they opt to start writing without properly organizing

their thoughts or outlining the major points that they intend to convey. As a result, the paper

can often be hard to read, lack ﬂow, and omit critical components (which is not a good thing,

30 · Undergraduate’s Guide to Writing Chemistry Papers

especially if a grade is involved!).

Other common mistakes include:

• Using data or statistics as warrant statements – they deﬁnitely do not speak for them-

selves. Focus on the chemistry and concepts as warrants and backing (not statistics or

values). That said, under the right circumstances data can be used as backing to warrants.

• Always include references in your GRA. Keep the sources that you use organized and

connected with the points that you are making – this will make your paper-writing much

easier. In general, all backing that you did not generate in your experiment will need a

source.

• Don’t start working on a GRA as if it will be your ﬁnal product. It is best to allow

for ﬂexibility in your workﬂow. Consider working with Post-it notes or on a whiteboard.

Once you’re happy with your GRA’s structure, prepare a ﬁnal version. Microsoft Word,

or websites like Lucidchart, can be used to make a polised ﬁnal product. Students with a

.edu email address can get a Free account at Lucidchart.com

3.7 End-of-chapter assignment

1. You intend to make a presentation to a group of restaurateurs to persuade them to change

their service/wait-staﬀ policies to eliminate tipping and move to a ﬁxed service charge.

Work in small groups (2-4 students) to answer the following questions.

(a) Classify each of the following statements as claims (C), data (D), warrant (W),

backing (B), etc.

• “Servers may have an adverse reaction to the new policy.”

• “Hiring new servers requires a large investment of time and money in things like

paperwork, training, and searching.”

• “An 18% service charge should be added to patrons checks in lieu of tipping”

• “High turnover of wait-staﬀ is very costly.”

• “Servers making a dependable wage are less likely to seek other employ.”

• “Adding a service charge will result in a more-steady income.”

• “Service charges eliminate patrons wondering how much to tip, and leads to

more equity in service compensation.”

• “Service may suﬀer as a result.”

(b) Draw a GRA for this argument.

2. Consider a recent lab that was performed and go through the steps that you would take

in preparing a strong argument:

(a) Complete your data analysis. Tabulate the data and indicate where in the paper

(or Supporting Information) these would be included. List any exhibits (ﬁgures or

tables) that you prepared in your analysis. What exhibits, if any, would you use in

the actual paper? Explain.

Writing 3: Making Claims and Building an Argument · 31

(b) What is the objective of the experiment? Suggest a possible motivation.

Representation of Argument (GRA) for your paper using the questions from earlier

in this chapter to help your work. It is likely that you will need to do some research

in order to form your argument.

(d) What types of warrants or arguments did you employ? (section 3.4)

32 · Undergraduate’s Guide to Writing Chemistry Papers

WRITING 4: STRUCTURE OF ABRIDGED SCHOLARLY PAPERS

4.1 Structuring the argument into an abridged scholarly paper

There are a number of diﬀerent types of arguments made by scientists and the conventions

that have been adopted for those modes of communication are directly related to the goal of

the argument. We’ll discuss two main types of arguments: (1) dissemination of results and (2)

solicitation of funds.

In order to make a persuasive argument about the importance and validity of their results,

scientists write peer-reviewed papers in a voice that gives the illusion that the scientist does

not aﬀect the results, and they refrain (for the most part) from using the tenses that imply

subjectivity. Grant proposals, on the other hand, have a completely diﬀerent purpose. They

are not meant to disseminate results; rather, they are for the purpose of having a granting

agency trust us (not just anyone) with money to do some (meaningful and useful) research.

As a result, grants are generally written in the present and future tenses, and use the active

voice. Often it can be the case that the even the best arguments can suﬀer because of lack of

understanding of the conventions of how to best make them.

For now, we’ll discuss the general framework for arguments being made when disseminating

results – the journal article – and we’ll return to writing grant proposals in a later chapter.

4.1.1 Framework of the typical journal article argument

The four main sections of a journal article (Introduction, Experimental/Methods, Results and

Discussion, and Conclusion) are not disjointed pieces (though they are written in such a way

that they can be read standalone). Properly done, a good journal article tells the story of a

scientiﬁc inquiry from inception to conclusion. Each section adds a new, diﬀerent dimension to

the experiment and helps to reinforce the overall argument that the author hopes to make with

the paper.

Consider (a brief description of) the components that are found in each of the sections:

• Introduction: the Introduction section of a journal article is where the author provides

the foundation for the experiment. (a) Introducing the research area: what is the topic?

Why is it important? Why should the reader care about the ﬁeld/topic that you studied?

This is the Motivation that we discussed in Writing Chapter 1. (b) Identifying the gap:

what exactly did you study? Why? This is the Objective of the experiment. (c) Summary

of the literature/background pertinent to the study.

34 · Undergraduate’s Guide to Writing Chemistry Papers

• Experimental: what you did in explicit detail – enough that an expert reading the paper

should be able to reproduce the work, but without being overly verbose or including un-

necessary details. Demonstrating the validity and rigor of the methodology is a necessary

prerequisite to convincing the reader that the results have meaning. Note: the intended

audience will play a large role in determining the amount, and types, of details that are

necessary for an Experimental.

• Results and Discussion: the argument – what was found and what it means. This section

is, without a doubt, the most important section of the paper (which is why we will be

focusing on it ﬁrst). This section includes all of the components of the GRA that you

outlined: claim, grounds, warrants, etc.

• Conclusion: This section includes an extremely concise summary of what was accom-

plished in the experiment/study (usually only one sentence), in the context of the ob-

jectives. This is not a restatement of the claim. Additionally, the author makes claims

about the relative successes/failures of the work, suggests possible future work, and –

most importantly – explains the broader impacts that the results will have on the ﬁeld

and society.

The remainder of this chapter will focus on the components of Abridged Scholarly Papers,

which do not include Introductions or Experimental sections. Abridged papers will present the

argument in its entirety, without the need to write the laborious sections that give the context

and background.

4.2 Results and Discussion Section

The Results and Discussion section is the cornerstone of the scholarly paper – this is where you

present your argument and claims, based on the results of your study and in the context of the

greater scientiﬁc objective. The Results section starts with restating the objective of the study,

and then data and exhibits are presented (the proper formatting of exhibit was discussed in a

previous chapter). Following this, you will explain your results (i.e., Discussion) to assert your

relative success or failure in relation to each of your stated goals. This is the climax of your

story — it is crucial that you be clear, persuasive, and complete.

While it can sometimes be tempting to ﬂood the reader with data, tables, and ﬁgures, the

most important thing to remember is that the Results and Discussion must be clear and readable.

The quality of the science is irrelevant if the reader cannot glean the relevant information. Use

GRAs and checklists (discussed later in this chapter) to organize your argument before beginning

to write your Results and Discussion.

4.2.1 Content and Organization

Use checklists and GRAs to organize your thoughts, and your points, before you start writing

your Results and Discussion. A detailed checklist, with the actual points that you intend to

make, will help you to quickly and eﬀectively write your paper. The beginning of the Results and

Discussion section, or each subsection in the Results and Discussion, is a concise restatement

of the objective of the study (in no more than one or two sentences). The speciﬁc, take-away

results of the experiment and their context are then presented (claims).

Writing 4: Structure of Abridged Scholarly Papers · 35

To present your results you will need to be bring select exhibits (grounds; see previous

chapters for how to determine if data is relevant to be included and the best methods for

displaying it) and explain the reader what they should learn and infer from them. Captions of

ﬁgures are tremendously important for getting points across, but the prose in which exhibits

are discussed is paramount.

The most important part of the Discussion is to make a clear argument about the meaning

and scope of your Results (warrants). If the objectives of your study were partially met, or the

hypothesis was supported with exceptions, this should also be explained clearly and reasoned

well (including qualiﬁers, counter-claims, and rebuttals). Make sure that your explanations of

the chemistry concepts are clear, and supported by references to scientiﬁc literature, in order to

shape a strong argument about your Results. Remember, experiments are not about accuracy

and precision of results – these are details. Your paper is about the chemistry of the experiment.

Make sure that your argument makes sense and that the points (warrants) you make are done

in support of your argument.

Additionally, one thing to keep in mind is that most of the experiments that you will perform

in a four or eight hour lab session are of limited scope and length. Consequently, the types of

claims and the amount of results that you have will tend to be minimal.

Finally, remember that the Results and Discussion is not the section for overarching gener-

alizations about the overall success or failure of the experiment. Those types of statements and

discussions are left for the Conclusion section.

4.2.2 Format and Style

The Results and Discussion section will consist of paragraphs and relevant exhibits (tables,

ﬁgures, and equations). A Results and Discussion section that consists uniquely of tables and

ﬁgures is not acceptable.

While there is no page limit for this section, it is best to keep the Results and Discussion

as concise as possible. If your experiment contains multiple (more than two) central results,

then you may ﬁnd it useful to break your Results and Discussion into smaller subsections. Each

subsection is about a speciﬁc claim, and should start with a heading (e.g., Spectral Data or

Stability Results). Do not use “Part ...” in your headings.

The Discussion consists almost entirely of prose that is written in the past tense and passive

voice. While the Discussion should be persuasive (anyone would come to the same conclusions

based on your data), it must also be objective. Relevant chemical equations, tables, and ﬁgures

are also included where they are needed to explain each Result. Sample calculations never

appear in the Results and Discussion (they should be shown in your Supporting Information

section, which appears after the References; never reference, or direct your reader to, your

Supporting Information in your paper).

4.2.3 Proper use of Exhibits

All exhibits – tables, ﬁgures, and equations – must be referenced by number in the text of

the paper. Do not use directional indicators, such as above or below, as the exact location

of exhibits can often change before publication. Additionally, make sure that all exhibits are

properly formatted, and that all ﬁgures have meaningful captions (see Writing Chapter 2 for

additional details).

36 · Undergraduate’s Guide to Writing Chemistry Papers

4.2.4 Voice and Tenses

Substantial portions of chemistry papers are written in the passive voice and the past tense – this

gives the impression that the results of the experiment are not dependent on the person actually

performing the work, but that they would be the same if anyone would do the experiment. The

Results and Discussion section will contain both the past and present tenses, where appropriate.

The work done in the past should be described in the past tense (“the structure was determined

by ...”), while the claims that are gleaned from the research are in the present tense (“the

structure indicates that ...”).

4.2.5 Common Mistakes

• Always start your Results and Discussion with a restatement of the objective of the study.

This is necessary because each section of a paper needs to stand alone.

• Make sure to be concise and avoid being overly verbose. While it is important that the

Results and Discussion ‘ﬂow’, it is important to keep it relatively short and to the point.

Start by making a GRA and expanding it into a checklist.

• Students often present too much data: discussing too much in a single paragraph, overuse

of Tables and Figures, presenting too much raw data, presenting the same data in multiple

places (it is unnecessary to present every datum from a table in the text).

Writing Example 4.1: Raw data

Incorrect:

“The density of the products were recorded and found to be 1.2

g/mL, 1.1 g/mL, 1.2 g/mL, 1.0 g/mL, 0.9 g/mL, 1.3 g/mL, 1.4

g/mL, 1.2 g/mL, 1.3 g/mL, 1.2 g/mL. The average was found

to be 1.2

g/mL and the 95% conﬁdence interval was 1.2

±0.1

g/mL.”

Correct:

“The average density of the product (N = 10) was determined

to be 1.2

± 0.1

g/mL.”

For all of the reasons mentioned previously, the second statement is far

superior to the ﬁrst statement. In the Data Analysis section of your Ex-

perimental section you would report that all conﬁdence intervals were com-

puted at the 95% conﬁdence limit.

• Do not summarize the lab in the Results and Discussion. A summary of the relative

success or failure, in brief, is made at the beginning of the Conclusion section. The

Discussion section should involve details rather than vague generalizations. That said, it

is important to make sure that you state whether or not your results support your original

hypothesis.

• Make sure that your assertions are supported by properly-formatted references to the

scientiﬁc literature. Also, be careful to make assertions that make sense! For example:

Writing 4: Structure of Abridged Scholarly Papers · 37

losing product during ﬁltration is not a good source of uncertainty when the experimental

value is larger than expected. (Remember: instructors and lab partners are not sources

of uncertainty/error; human error isn’t a real thing in scientiﬁc writing.)

• Never reference your supporting information; if it is critical information then it needs to

be presented in your paper.

• Avoid using an informal tone in a Results and Discussion. In an eﬀort to be persuasive

you may be tempted to ﬂirt with other moods – do not. It is more important that the

Results and Discussion remains objective.

4.3 Conclusion Section

The conclusion ties together the entire paper. To this end, you should not simply duplicate

statements made in the Discussion, rather you should present a brief overview of the whole

study, with a summary of the main claims/ﬁndings, and conclusions of the study, particularly

the larger ramiﬁcations.

4.3.1 Content and Organization

There are three major components of the Conclusion section:

1. Summary: Brieﬂy summarize the main conclusions of the lab, including a brief restatement

of the objective/goal of the study and claims. This is not a repetition of the ﬁrst part of

the Results and Discussion; rather, this is a summary of what was achieved and what the

reader should take away. Were the study’s objectives achieved? If so, to what degree?

If not, how unsuccessful was the experiment? Note: there is no need to re-prove your

claims; you did that in the Results and Discussion.

2. Future Developments: Suggest, and where appropriate explain, any future development

or work that could be done as a result of this study. In other words, “what comes next?”

These ideas and suggestions need not be grandiose. Actually, better solutions are simple

ones that are easy to implement, but they should have a relatively large potential for

impact and be consistent with the results of the experiment. This is the place to think

about future research that could be done based on the results or the methodology.

3. Global ramiﬁcations: Overall, what was accomplished? “What did you learn?” Note:

what you learned does not refer to the educational purpose of the lab (titrations, UV/Vis,

AAS, etc.). This is referring to what was learned from the experiment (e.g., the best cereal

to eat for iron is ...). How does this change the world? In general, considering that these

are undergraduate labs, there is likely to not be any world-changing global ramiﬁcations.

That is ok. Discuss the ramiﬁcations without resorting to hyperbole.

Finally, it is very possible, especially if the experiment was not successful (or had limited

success), that there are no global ramiﬁcations to the work. In this case, focus more on

suggesting methods of improvement.

38 · Undergraduate’s Guide to Writing Chemistry Papers

4.3.2 Format and Style

Voice and Tense

Unlike the Results and Discussion section that was written in the present tene (claims) and past

tense and passive voice (results), the Conclusion discusses the present and the future. Keep the

following in mind:

• Summary: The summary is about an experiment that was performed in the past. This

component should be written in the past tense and passive voice (like the rest of the

paper).

• Future development: This component is referring to work that may, or may not, be done

in the future. Additionally, since it is yet to be determined whether or not someone

will actually make those improvements, it is not appropriate to use the Indicative Mood.

Rather, the author should write these statements either in the Conditional Mood or the

Subjunctive Mood. The Conditional mood is marked by the use of the words might, could,

and would. In either case, the goal is to make it clear that these are suggestions that may

never actually come to fruition. This portion is still written in the third person.

• Global ramiﬁcations: These statements will either speak about how the study will impact

the future of the ﬁeld or how they have changed the current state-of-the-art. These

statements should be written in the future indicative and present indicative, respectively.

In chemistry, most of scholarly papers are written in the third person and passive voice. This

is done to give the impression of objectivity – that the results, and conclusions that are drawn

from them, would be achieved had anyone done the experiment. As a result, it is important to

remember to avoid writing your conclusions in the ﬁrst person (I or we).

Length and Depth

The Conclusion is the shortest part of the research paper – a single paragraph (sometimes two),

that should not signiﬁcantly exceed half of a page. Conclusions will (almost) never present new

exhibits.

4.3.3 Common Mistakes

• Suggestions for improvement and future work should be possible and reasonable. Also,

since it is not clear that the experiment would ever be repeated, future development should

be discussed in a passive voice (suggestion), rather than a deﬁnite statement about the

future. Make sure to cite your sources.

• Don’t restate your claims or re-argue your position – you did that in the Results and

Discussion. The Conclusion is about summarizing the paper and looking to the future.

• Avoid going overboard with the familiar and personal voice in the Conclusion; make sure

that the Conclusion still reads like part of a scientiﬁc paper and not a personal notebook.

Writing 4: Structure of Abridged Scholarly Papers · 39

Example Conclusion

Incorrect:

“Completely abandoning the ﬁeld and reinventing the wheel

will lead to better precision.”

Correct:

“Ensuring location consistency in the collection at the Charles

River would likely decrease variation introduced by sampling.”

While the ﬁrst statement may sometimes be true, it does not give any

real constructive suggestion (your assertions and suggestions should be

speciﬁc). Additionally, it is written in a manner that leads the reader to

believe that the author will deﬁnitely implement their future development

work.

4.4 Putting together the complete, abridged paper

4.4.1 Each section stands alone

Keep in mind that scientists rarely read a paper from start to ﬁnish. Instead, we usually are

reading a paper for a very speciﬁc purpose. For example: to extract some necessary data

(Results), to glean some understanding of an important/interesting phenomenon (Discussion),

or to learn how to perform a speciﬁc procedure/synthesis (Experimental). Notice that none of

those reasons require the reader to agonize over the entire paper; rather, we will often only read

the section(s) of the paper that are necessary for our purposes.

Consequently, it is important that each section be able to stand alone. The Introduction

section will always contain the motivation and objective of an experiment, as well as a de-

scription of the general approach taken to solve the scientiﬁc problem. The Conclusion section

begins by summarizing the overall success/failure of the experiment. All that remains is to pro-

vide a brief and concise summary of the problem to be solved at the beginning of the Results

and Discussion. The captions of tables and ﬁgures (or, more accurately, a rephrasing of them)

appear in the text as the table/ﬁgure is being discussed.

4.4.2 Appropriate format for research papers

Your papers will usually be comprised of two parts: the paper (including references) and sup-

porting information. The paper will always start on a new page with an appropriate title, the

name(s) of the author(s), and the author’s aﬃliation. References do not start a new page, but

follow immediately the conclusion of the paper.

Write your title last, once you’ve completely digested the message of your paper. The title

must be speciﬁc and informative; the goal of a title is to inform the potential reader about the

content of the paper and to entice them to read the paper. Additionally, your name, the name

of your instructor (teaching assistant), the name of your collaborators (i.e., lab partners), and

the name and address of your institution are included. An asterisk (*) next your name denotes

that you are the corresponding author.

The length of the title is often indicative of its quality. Titles that are too short (3-4 words)

almost always lack speciﬁcity, while overly long titles (15+ words) are equally inappropriate.

40 · Undergraduate’s Guide to Writing Chemistry Papers

Speciﬁcity is key in titles; make sure to use terms that are speciﬁc to your paper. It is best

to avoid using ﬂowery terms and unnecessary ﬁller words. Symbols and equations are almost

never permitted in titles. Additionally, it is proper to omit the “The” at the beginning of a

title.

In journals, authors use the Supporting Information (also referred to as the Supplemental

Material) to include extra material that they feel that the reader might be interested in reading,

but is tangental to the actual article. Typical items in the Supporting Information are (1) sample

calculations (rarely found in journal articles, but you must always give one per calculation in

your labs), (2) spectral data that is not a central result to the paper, (3) unpublished results

that could shed light on your work, and (4) anything that you feel will clarify the reader’s

understanding of the work. For our purposes, the supporting information sections of your

papers will contain the full set of data analysis from your experiment and the answers to any

Questions for Thought. The supporting information (data analysis) must be complete and in

the appropriate order. Exhibits (tables, ﬁgures) that will be presented in the paper also appear,

in the appropriate place, in the supporting information.

Example Title

Incorrect:

Acid-Base Titrations

Correct:

Determination of the pKa of Acetic Acid via Poten-

tiometric Titration with Strong Acid

Binyomin Abrams* and Sample Name

Department of Chemistry, Boston University, Boston MA

In the case of the second title, it is much more clear exactly what exper-

iment was performed and what the reader can expect to read. Note: the

asterisk (*) is used to indicate the corresponding author.

4.4.3 Overall considerations for abridged papers

There is a lot to consider when approaching your abridged paper. Consider the following:

• Start with a good GRA (see Writing Chapter 3) for your paper. Use this GRA when

planning your checklist.

• A good checklist for your paper is necessary in order to produce a high quality paper.

Make sure that your checklist is consistent with your GRA.

• Focus on developing a concise paper that has a good ﬂow and a strong argument.

• Make sure to follow the guidelines about what to avoid in scientiﬁc writing.

• After completeness, focus on the correct use of voice and tense. To achieve a paper with a

strong argument you will need to write in the proper tenses. Make sure that each section

stands alone.

Writing 4: Structure of Abridged Scholarly Papers · 41

• Make sure that all exhibits are referred to by number in the text of the paper, and that

they follow proper formatting (see Writing Chapter 2).

• Always remember to look over your work with a critical eye for the ‘common mistakes.’

They are so named because they are very common!

4.5 Using a checklist to eﬀectively outline a strong argument

When writing a paper, it is natural to develop a mental checklist of the things that we want to

include. It has been our experience that explicitly writing down this checklist, before starting

to write the paper, is one of the most instrumental steps towards ensuring that the paper is

complete and well-organized. Moreover, using the checklist as a way to outline the argument

that you want to make is the best way to ensure that your paper is cogent, well-organized, and

able to properly convey the information that you want to present in an order that makes sense.

Start with a GRA and expand it into a checklist.

For the papers that we will write, that strongly mimic the journal article style, a checklist

that starts with the components included in the Supporting Information, and continues section-

by-section through the rest of the paper, is ideal.

4.5.1 Where does it belong?

Before preparing our checklist, we need to identify the components that could/should be in-

cluded in our paper. Determining the complete list of data and exhibits is trivial; conversely,

determining the appropriate place to include an item in our paper can often times be very

diﬃcult. Consider the following:

• First, make sure that your Supporting Information

contains one complete copy of your

data analysis. Your teaching assistant will be grading the technical merits of your analysis

from your Supporting Information, so it is important that your analysis be complete with

sample calculations, tables of relevant data, and the ﬁgures that you construct. While

the supporting information comes at the end of a paper, it is the ﬁrst thing that you’ll

prepare (so put it ﬁrst in your checklist).

• Other than in the Supporting Information, sample calculations should not be found any-

where else in your papers. Additionally, raw data will not be included in your paper.

• The Results and Discussion section will contain a subset of the exhibits that your pre-

pared during your analysis. The most important part of the Results and Discussion are

the claims that you will make, supported by these exhibits (i.e., grounds) and warrants

(discussion of the chemical principles that underlie the results and the implications of

these results).

• Every exhibit that you discuss in the body of your paper needs to be included, but not all

exhibits that you prepare should be discussed. Make sure that your Results and Discussion

section only includes exhibits and data that are directly relevant to the claims you are

In the ‘real’ science writing world, the Supporting Information contains everything that you (or, more

importantly, your reader/instructor) ﬁnd informative, but that does not have a home in any of the other sections.

42 · Undergraduate’s Guide to Writing Chemistry Papers

making. Ask yourself: “does this information get across my message to my reader? or,

does including this obfuscate the point that I need to make?”. For a novice writer, this

is possibly one of the most diﬃcult parts of writing scientiﬁc papers. Often, students will

choose to include substantially more than is appropriate. Not only does this waste their

time, but it also detracts from the strength of the paper. Exhibits that are important for

sub-claims are also included in the body of the paper.

4.5.2 Preparing a checklist for your paper: a step-by-step guide

Especially when writing a paper in the sciences, there is a long process that precedes the writing

of a paper or even a checklist. Novices who “jump” straight into writing their paper will usually

end up wasting a tremendous amount of time and rewriting large sections, if not the entirety,

of their paper. Consider the following approach that experts use when writing their research

papers:

1. Data Analysis: Whether the subject of your paper is Dante or chemistry, you need to know

what you intend to write about before you start writing! Start by completely analyzing

your data and preparing any relevant exhibits (ﬁgures and tables). Only once you’ve

sorted out the results of your experiment can you begin to ponder what you intend to

argue.

2. Plan your argument and do your research: These two tasks, planning an argument and

doing research, are inextricable. Answer the questions outlined earlier in this chapter to

guide your research and construct a GRA. Make sure to keep track of the sources that

you used in your research. It is helpful to label the components based on their role (claim,

grounds, etc.).

3. Parse your data and prepare a checklist: Expand your GRA into a checklist of items that

you intend to include in your paper (in an order that makes sense).

4. Be mindful of section-speciﬁc details: Results and Discussion sections start with a restate-

ment of the objective(s) of the study, Conclusions start with a summary of the success of

the study, etc.

4.6 Qualities of a good checklist

Consider the sample checklist that is included at the end of the chapter. This checklist is one

that might have been used for writing a paper reporting on an experiment to measure the sugar

concentration of sodas by their densities. Notice several important features of the checklist at

the end of this chapter:

• Be very speciﬁc! Don’t just write “motivation” or “reason for studying sugar”; rather,

actually list the speciﬁc items that you intend to write about.

• It is very terse. This is not the paper, or even the beginnings of the paper. Rather, it

is a comprehensive checklist of all of the things that you would want to have in the ﬁnal

draft.

Writing 4: Structure of Abridged Scholarly Papers · 43

• While colloquial writing isn’t acceptable for writing scholarly papers (nor is the use of the

ﬁrst person), it is perfectly acceptable for your checklist to be colloquial.

• Include citations and bibliographical information to indicate the items that were the result

of your research and, hence, need citations to the chemical literature.

• The Supporting Information is ﬁrst! The ﬁrst place to start when writing a paper is to

fully work up the data.

The importance of checklists cannot be overemphasized – they are an indispensable tool for

streamlining workﬂow and organizing the scientiﬁc content of papers. Traditionally, the grades

on papers tend to be much lower when students do not produce high-quality checklists.

4.7 End-of-chapter assignment

1. Diﬀerences between lab reports and scholarly papers. Based on the information in this

chapter:

(a) List two ways that your Results and Discussions are diﬀerent in scholarly papers

than in lab reports that you’ve written.

(b) List two ways that your Conclusion sections will be diﬀerent in scholarly papers.

2. Revisit the example of the “ﬁre in Metcalf” from Writing Chapter 3. Prepare a checklist

for an abridged paper based on the GRA that was presented. You will need to add more

components than those that were listed.

3. Consider a recent lab that was performed and go through the steps that you would take

in preparing a strong argument and the checklist you would use to write a paper:

(a) Complete your data analysis. Tabulate the data and indicate where in the paper

(or Supporting Information) these would be included. List any exhibits (ﬁgures or

tables) that you prepared in your analysis. What exhibits, if any, would you use in

the actual paper? Explain.

(b) What is the objective of the experiment? Suggest a possible motivation.

Representation of Argument (GRA) for your paper using the questions from Writing

Chapter 3 to help your work. It is likely that you will need to do some research in

order to answer these questions.

(d) Prepare a checklist, of the style described above, that you could use to write a

strong paper based on your GRA. Remember that your goal is to prepare a strong,

and well-organized, argument.

44 · Undergraduate’s Guide to Writing Chemistry Papers

Example: Sample Checklist

Experiment #42 Partner: W. Eirdo Due date: 1/1/1900

Supporting Information

• Table with masses, volumes, densities, and %w/w sugar of the standards.

• Table containing the masses and volumes of the soda samples used; densities

of soda samples; and concentrations from standard curve

• Figure: Standard curve for %w/w sucrose vs. density

• Table for soda unknowns: average (±s) density, average (±s) %w/w sugar,

%error from known value

• Sample calculations for (a) the densities from mass and volume and (b) the

statistics for multiple trials.

Results and Discussion

• Goal to determine worst soda from health point of view (state objective)

• Mountain Dew is 15% sugar - the largest concentration (data)

• Which makes it the worst soda to drink (claim)

• ... of the sodas analyzed in this study (qualiﬁer)

• Exhibit #1 is ﬁgure of standard curve for %w/w sucrose vs. density (warrant).

It is used to show consistency in sampling and precision (backing).

• Exhibit #2 is a table for soda unknowns: average (±s) density, average (±s)

%w/w sugar, %error from known value (grounds).

– Fresca has the least - none; control study (warrant)

• Complete χ

analysis shows consistency with manufacturer claims (rebuttal),

even though some beverages had larger deviations than others (counter-claim).

• Method is reliable: linearity in the curve, R

of >> 0.9995 (*) (rebuttal)

• Reason why method works best for some beverages and not others is the other

components in the soda – contribute to the density and are not consistent (*)

(rebuttal, new claim)

Conclusion

• Method successfully determines %sugar that matched manufacturer’s claims

(restate claim)

• Broader impact: discontinue drinking Mountain Dew because it is 50% worse

than other sodas

• Also, this method is eﬀective for low-cost ﬁeld evaluations of sugar solutions

(secondary claim, future directions)

WRITING 5: CONVENTIONS OF SCIENTIFIC WRITING

5.1 What to avoid in scientiﬁc writing

Having discussed the general type of writing that we will be doing, polished our use of exhibits,

and outlined our paper with a GRA and a checklist, we are now ready to begin writing our

scholarly papers (in the Journal Article style). Before you begin writing, ﬁrst consider the

following general guidelines about what to avoid when writing scientiﬁc papers:

1. Avoid colloquialisms: it is very tempting to write the same way we speak. Colloquialisms

can be broken down into a few categories: inappropriate words, such as gonna, y’all, or ain’t);

idiomatic phrases, like “since the dawn of time” or “as blind as a bat;” aphorisms, iconic

sayings, like “There’s more than one way to skin a cat;” and profanity are all inappropriate in

scientiﬁc writing. Additionally, make sure to avoid personiﬁcations of chemicals, equipment,

and results; never use phrases like “tells us”, “prefers”, “says”, “wants to be”, or similar

anthropomorphizations. These turns of phrase, while appropriate in other forms of writing,

must not be used in scientiﬁc or technical writing.

2. Avoid “Lab Speak.” In general, lab speak refers to language that identiﬁes the writing

as being for a course in college, rather than a body of scientiﬁc information. Examples of

inappropriate language include: in the lab, in this experiment, the student, and in the procedure.

In many cases, the oﬀending clause can be omitted, or in some cases replaced with more

appropriate versions such as ‘in the present work.’

3. Avoid using inappropriate (or made-up) words and phrases. Students new to

science, and science writing, almost always make the same mistake: they use inappropriate

terms and phrases in their writing. Sometimes it is just that they are using a term that sounds

like should exist (e.g., “massing” is not thing). Other times they conﬂate terms or use diﬀerent

things interchangeably; words like substantial and signiﬁcant, related and correlated, all have

very well-deﬁned meanings in the scientiﬁc world, and it is important that you use the correct

terms. In either case, it is important to choose the most appropriate words when writing in the

sciences – words that are (nearly) synonymous in other forms of writing can often have very

diﬀerent meanings in science.

4. Never use direct quotes. Don’t cite for the sake of citing and never use direct quotes. Your

citations are for information that you used from other sources and are brought to support your

assertions and your argument. That said, always cite the sources that you used in researching

46 · Undergraduate’s Guide to Writing Chemistry Papers

and papering your paper.

5. Be speciﬁc, never vague, and avoid using overly grandiose statements. It is important

to be very speciﬁc in scientiﬁc writing. Words such as numerous, incredibly, enumerable, and

essential, are usually inappropriate.

Writing Example 5.1: Overly General Statements

Incorrect:

“Potassium Aluminum Sulfate is an incredibly useful inorganic

white crystalline compound possessing numerous purposes both

in regards to ecological sustainability and also everyday usage.”

Correct:

“Potassium aluminum sulfate has uses in water puriﬁcation

paper sizing

, leather tanning

, mordant dyeing

, synthesizing

baking powder and antiperspirants

, and usage as a medical

astringent.

”

Notice that the ﬁrst version is extremely vague. The second version enu-

merates the uses of Alum, instead of making unfounded, grandiose claims.

Also, each claim in the second version is supported by an appropriate

reference to the literature.

6. Refrain from using anecdotal statements. It is not uncommon for students who are

new to scientiﬁc writing to make statements that begin with “it is well known that” or “most

people know.” When writing for a scientiﬁc audience, however, these types of statements are

inappropriate. Consider the following: if they are so well known, then you need not say them

at all. If, however, they are important enough to say, then you should make sure to support

your claim/statement with appropriate references. In general, statements of previously-known

scientiﬁc fact that are necessary to support your warrants should be supported by references to

authoritative sources.

Writing Example 5.2: Anecdotal and general statements

Incorrect:

“Despite this lack of conﬁdence, the consumption of vitamin

supplements is very widespread.”

Correct:

“Recent data

indicate that 90% of the population consumes a

vitamin supplement regularly.”

The ﬁrst statement is extremely vague and is not supported by any sources.

The corrected version gives the same information (that most people con-

sume vitamin supplements), but is also very speciﬁc and is supported by

a reference.

7. Run-on sentences are somewhat diﬃcult to avoid while we are striving to be concise in our

writing. That said, a quick re-read through your paper should help you to identify sentences

Writing 5: Conventions of Scientiﬁc Writing · 47

that are too long and complex. Similarly, if you have two or three short sentences about a single

point, try to combine them into a single, well-written, sentence.

8. Avoid being repetitive or indirect in your writing. Say what you intend in a direct

and clear manner. Use GRAs and checklists to organize your writing before you start, and make

sure that the points you want to make are complete. Avoid repeating the same points or details,

except where it is stylistically required – such as summarizing the outcome at the beginning

of a Conclusion or restating the objective at the beginning of the Results and Discussion.

Finally, use references to the literature in order to give readers a place to go for more detail

and background.

9. Avoid overly complicated words and phrases. When new students start reading

scientiﬁc papers, or even just science textbooks, they ﬁnd themselves challenged by the depth

and diﬃculty of the concepts being presented. It is very easy to mistake the diﬃculty of the

science with complexity in the writing. In reality, scientists strive to write their complicated

concepts in the most concise, precise, and simple language possible.

5.2 Best practices in scientiﬁc writing

Knowing what to avoid is only half of the battle – it is more important to know what to focus on

when writing your paper. Consider the following general guidelines about how best to approach

writing a scientiﬁc paper:

1. Focus on argument. While it can be tempting to think about writing a paper as a means

to a grade, it is important to make a strong argument: focus on telling a convincing story about

science. Always start by analyzing your data, preparing any important exhibits, answering the

guiding questions, preparing a GRA, and outlining a detailed checklist for your paper.

2. Make appropriate claims. Don’t try to oversell your results. Make sure that the claims

you make are (a) supported by your data, (b) consistent with the design and objectives of your

experiment, and (c) reasonable in relation to similar, peer-reviewed results.

3. Don’t forget to make a GRA and a checklist. I’ve heard some rhetoric instructors

suggest that someone ‘just start writing, and it will come to you.’ This may work for some,

especially in some non-science disciplines, but it is a terrible idea in science. Starting by

sketching out your paper in a GRA and a checklist means that you are more likely to make a

convincing argument that follows a logical ﬂow.

4. Engage with previous scientiﬁc studies and sources. A good argument is one that is

based on real scientiﬁc knowledge gleaned from reliable sources. As a result, claims that are

made must be supported by well-researched warrants (from primary sources) in addition to the

experimental evidence. Failure to cite these sources, in addition to being dishonest practice,

results in a poor foundation and weak scaﬀolding for your argument.

5. Each section stands alone. Experts rarely read papers from beginning to end. Frankly,

most experts start by looking at the exhibits (and the ﬁgure captions) and, in many instances,

48 · Undergraduate’s Guide to Writing Chemistry Papers

stop there. If an interested reader decides to “read the paper,” the likelihood is that they will not

start with the Introduction; rather, they will read the Results and Discussion and Conclusion

sections. The Experimental section is read when interested parties want more details about

how the results were achieved or by someone looking to repeat or extend the study. What this

means is that every section of a scholarly research paper needs to stand alone, without the need

for the reader to have read other sections. For instance, a Results and Discussion section always

starts by repeating – in no more than one sentence – the objective of the experiment.

6. Less is more, especially when it comes to data. Flooding your reader unnecessary data,

ﬁgures, and tables, can only lead to one thing: confusion. Only show appropriate exhibits that

need to be shown, and do it in the most appropriate way (Table, Figure, or prose). Before you

move on with your writing, start by making a list of the data that you have and make a plan

for how you will (or won’t) present it. Use GRAs and checklists to outline your work.

7. Have a good ﬂow. Don’t write like you are checking boxes oﬀ a list (even though you are

checking oﬀ from your checklist). It can be easy to start each new component with a broad and

general declarative statement like ‘The results show ...’, ‘In conclusion we believe ...’, and ‘The

future directions are ...’. Instead, try to make sure that your paper has a natural and smooth

ﬂow. Just make your claims, and discuss your results, without unnecessarily calling attention

to each component by name.

Writing Example 5.3: Good ﬂow

Incorrect:

“The result of the manganometric determination of the % V

composition is that there is 45.

± 6.

% vanadium in the com-

plex. The theoretical value for the % V is 40%(*). The ex-

perimental value is statistically consistent with the theoretical

value. The relative standard deviation is 14.5%. The possible

source of error that led to the large relative uncertainty is like

the presence of bisulﬁte contamination.”

Correct:

“Managanometric titrations of compound 1 suggest a 45.

% vanadium composition, which is consistent with the pre-

dicted formula of (NH

)

· 6H

O(*). The relatively large

deviation from the theoretical value (12.5%), as well as the

14.5% uncertainty, are expected with mangamometric titra-

tions of solutions containing small amounts of bisulﬁte.”

The second version relates the exact same information, but does so in a

concise manner that ﬂows nicely.

8. Conventions of the discipline. Each section of the paper needs to conform to the

conventions that have been established by the scientiﬁc discipline in question. Always make

sure to consider the following details when writing your papers: (a) voice and tenses, (b) order

and arrangement of the paper, (c) the proper use of tables and ﬁgures, and (d) other genre-

Writing 5: Conventions of Scientiﬁc Writing · 49

speciﬁc restrictions. This is a veneer on top of the actual argument, but it is necessary in order

to get your work published and accepted.

9. Proofread. Though it should go without saying, you absolutely must proofread your work

to make sure that you’ve produced a concise, well-written paper that conveys a convincing

argument. Consider writing your paper early and allowing some time to pass from the initial

writing before you proofread – usually the next day works best. Also, it can be very helpful to

let a friend read it – and not someone in the course. Your job is to be a teacher and presenter;

did they understand your argument?

10. Most importantly: less is more. This cannot be overemphasized: length has no corre-

lation with quality (though it can have an inverse relationship at times). On the contrary, overly

verbose rhetoric is unacceptable in scientiﬁc writing. Readers are not fooled by overly verbose,

unnecessarily long papers. The most successful papers are concise, direct, well-reasoned, sci-

entiﬁcally correct, and well-organized. Use GRAs and checklists to help prepare your writing

tasks and make the strongest argument possible.

5.3 Common grammar mistakes in (scientiﬁc) writing

Many people fall into the habit of writing as they speak. While this may be suitable for some

literary styles, it can often cause ambiguity in something meant to be read as technical writing.

Some of the most common mistakes seen from introductory (chemistry) students include poor

choice of words or phrases, wordiness, confusing word order, and poorly constructed modiﬁers.

Of course, keeping these things in mind when starting to write will help, but the easiest

way to catch the ones that slip through is to re-read your writing! Preferably, you should

not be reviewing just as you have written it, but rather after a break where you have distanced

yourself from the content – re-reading immediately is signiﬁcantly less eﬀective because often

the context of what you were writing remains fresh in your mind and it is diﬃcult to adequately

judge the writing (after all, you knew exactly what you wanted to say!).

5.3.1 Choice of words

Choosing the appropriate words is by no means a problem unique to science writing. Rather,

many introductory writing instructors often complain about some of the more confused words

found in student writings.

Below you will ﬁnd a list of some of the most common mistakes in word choice amongst

novice writers. This list is by no means exhaustive, but should serve as an primer to the types

of grammatical errors that should be avoided.

• Its vs. it’s: the often cited pet-peeve of writing instructors, these often confused words

are relatively easy to disambiguate. Its is possessive, while it’s is a contraction of ‘it is’

or ‘it has’ – if you can’t replace it with one of these, then you are likely trying to use the

wrong one.

• Their vs. they’re vs. there: Their is possessive (their piano is red). There is a place or

an idea (there were small amounts of white crystals that formed). They’re is a contraction

of ‘they are.’

50 · Undergraduate’s Guide to Writing Chemistry Papers

• Ensure vs. insure: To ensure is to make certain that something occurs, while to insure

is to arrange for ﬁnancial compensation in the event of loss or damage.

• Then vs. than: Then is used to denote time, while than is used for comparison.

Proper word usage is of particular importance to scientiﬁc writing, because of the many

possibilities for confusion in meaning resulting from simple word choices. Many words have

connotations or implied meanings when used informally, but take on speciﬁc meanings in a

scientiﬁc setting. This can be a result of adopted colloquialisms and/or the use of gestures or

vocal inﬂection, which are lost when those same words are written, especially in a technical

context. Consider the following particularly common mistakes in novice science writing:

• Data: more than any other word, data can be the most confusing to novice science writers.

Data is the plural form of datum, though the singular form is rarely used. Used correctly,

that would mean that you would write that “the data are” or “the data suggest,” rather

than “the data is.” That said, it is starting to become more common that the word data

is used in place of the collection of data, an uncountable collection of data. In this case,

we would write that “the [collection of] data suggests” and “the [collection of] data is”

(both in the singular). It is best to train yourself to use the proper, plural form of ‘data’.

• Signiﬁcant: when used in scientiﬁc writing, signiﬁcant/signiﬁcance implies a particular

outcome of statistical analysis (that your results are very unlikely to have occurred by

chance). Novice writers often speak of their signiﬁcant results; they are trying to imply

that results are important, but the term signiﬁcant implies statistical relevance. Instead,

the following words can be more appropriately used to convey your meaning: to indicate

something of a large eﬀect (a big diﬀerence), use substantial; to imply the gravity or

importance of a result, simply use important; and to convey the gravity of a result, try

using serious.

• Hypothesis vs. theory: a hypothesis is a proposed explanation made on the basis of

limited preliminary observations or evidence, usually as a starting point for further in-

vestigation, whereas a theory refers to a set of principles or system of ideas intended to

explain something.

• Can’t vs. cannot: While not necessarily a source of confusion, contractions are dis-

couraged in scientiﬁc writing.

• Eﬃcacious, utilize, elucidate, and proximal: while none of these words are incorrect,

they are usually unnecessarily complex. When given a choice between a familiar and

a technical (or obscure) term, the more familiar term is preferable if it doesnt reduce

precision. Consider using the following as alternates: eﬀective, use, explain, and close.

Additional examples of words and phrases that are often confused, or used incorrectly, are

tabulated in Table W5.1.

Writing 5: Conventions of Scientiﬁc Writing · 51

Table 5.1: Selected words or phrases that are often used incorrectly or in a confusing manner.

Category Example Explanation Sample Use

Comparison

Words

over/higher vs.

greater/more

than

Over and higher are less

accurate and also have spa-

tial associations

“more than 50 mL was

needed” instead of “over 50

mL was needed”

fewer and less

fewer is used for num-

bered values, while less

should be used for quanti-

ties (except when units are

present then less is used

for the number)

“fewer than 10 fractions

total” versus “less time

was needed” (exception:

“less than 10 mL”)

Confused

Words and

Phrases

aﬀect/eﬀect

Aﬀect means to inﬂuence,

modify, or change. Ef-

fect, as a verb, means to

bring about, but as a noun,

means consequence, out-

come, or result.

“The decrease in temper-

ature aﬀects solubility.”

“The exposure to sunlight

eﬀected the shelf life.”

“The diﬀerence in solvent

had a noticeable eﬀect on

the rate.”

whether or not

Only to be used to mean

“regardless of whether.”

“Whether or not run

times are increased, the

accuracy will remain low.”

NOT “It was unclear

whether or not the run

times should be increased.”

to comprise

Means “to contain” or “to

consist of”, NOT to be

used as a synonym for “to

compose.”

“A molecule comprises

atoms.” NEVER “A

molecule is comprised of

atoms.”

Subordinating

Conjunctions

while and since

vs. although/

because/

whereas

Although, because, and

whereas should be used

to join subordinate clauses

to the main sentence, be-

cause while and since

have strong connotations

of time.

“Although the ini-

tial method was easily

perturbed by small vari-

ations in weight, the

ﬁnal implementation was

considerably more robust.”

52 · Undergraduate’s Guide to Writing Chemistry Papers

5.3.2 Words that aren’t actually words

For novices, knowing and using the proper term for something can often be challenging. Here

are a few of the more common made-up terms that creep into student writing.

• Filtrated. Filtration is the process by which samples are ﬁltered.

• Massed. There is no verb for the process of determining the mass of a substance. Techni-

cally speaking, weighed is not the rigorously-correct term, since it is not the weight that

is being measured (though many people do use “weighed”). The good news is that it is

rarely necessary to mention that the mass of something was measured – just report it!

• Balanced. Chemical equations are balanced, but I think that students who write “bal-

anced” are referring to measuring the mass of something on a balance.

• Put through. Unless you are writing about a needle and thread, this is probably inappro-

priate. Samples are not “put through” or “run through” a spectrometer. Spectral data

are recorded.

While this list is far from exhaustive, it gives you a sense for some of the more common mistakes.

For good ways to describe these things, look at the phrases used in your textbooks, lab manuals,

and the papers that you read.

5.3.3 Wordiness

In science writing, it is preferable to always be clear and direct. Superﬂuous descriptors and

excess (often redundant) words can confuse the reader and obscure your ﬁndings. Additionally,

there are page limits on most journal submissions, so being economical with your words is often

a necessity. Better to write with a clear and precise meaning as you go, rather than have to

come back and reword things later.

That said, sometimes longer phrases are used in good rhetoric. Use these longer phrases

for emphasis, and only sparingly. Consider the following examples of good places to reduce

wordiness:

• “a few” instead of “a small number of ”.

• “although” instead of “in spite of the fact that”.

• “because, since, or why” instead of “the reason for, due to the fact that, in light of the fact

that, given the fact that, and considering the fact that.”

• “if ” instead of “in the event that and under the circumstances in which.”

• “must or should” instead of “it is necessary that and cannot be avoided.”

5.3.4 Sentence construction and word order

Here are some of the more common ways in which sentences are improperly constructed:

Writing 5: Conventions of Scientiﬁc Writing · 53

• Ambiguous pronouns. When you use a pronoun, make sure that the noun to which

the pronoun refers is clear. Ambiguous pronouns are most often seen when using this

and that. Be sure to include the noun if there is a possibility of confusion.

Writing Example 5.4: Ambiguous pronouns

Incorrect:

The reaction was complete when an orange precipitate formed

and it was collected via ﬁltration.

Correct:

The precipitate was collected by ﬁltration and provided 417 mg

of the orange product with 53% yield.

It is not clear in the ﬁrst sentence to which noun ‘it’ is referring.

• Too many short declarative sentences. Although they are often the most clear to

read (and easiest to write) you do not want your writing to suﬀer from poor ﬂow and

cause a disconnect between ideas. Try combining very short sentences to help related

ideas move smoothly.

• Double Negatives. While double negatives are sometimes used as a stylistic nuance to

indicate an understated aﬃrmation, they are considered improper in scientiﬁc writing.

Writing Example 5.5: Double Negatives

Incorrect:

The diﬀerence in absorbance values was not unexpected.

Correct:

We knew it was possible for the absorbance values to diﬀer.

Use aﬃrmative language rather than a double negative.

• Misplaced modiﬁers.

– “Based on” vs. “on the basis of”: Based on is used to modify a noun or a

pronoun (often immediately preceding or following), while on the basis of is used to

modify a verb. Think of it as something can be based on something else, whereas

you would do something on the basis of something.

– “Due to”: This phrase is used to modify a noun or pronoun directly before it in

the sentence or following a form of the verb “to be.”

– Split Inﬁnitives: In non-technical writing split inﬁnitives are accepted as gram-

matically correct – this is not the case in scientiﬁc writing. A split inﬁnitive allows

a statement to be interpreted in multiple ways. In science writing this varied inter-

pretation is what you are trying to prevent by choosing the words carefully.

54 · Undergraduate’s Guide to Writing Chemistry Papers

Writing Example 5.6: Spit inﬁnitives

Incorrect:

Each data point was carefully measured after the initial sample

preparation.

Correct:

Each data point was measured after the initial sample prepa-

ration.

Removing the adverb ‘carefully’ removes the split inﬁnitive.

– Restrictive Expressions. If a phrase or clause is necessary for the sentence to

make sense it is restrictive. Restrictive clauses should be introduced by that not

which. A phrase or clause is considered nonrestrictive if the information added is

not essential. Nonrestrictive clauses and phrases are set oﬀ by commas and can be

introduced using which (or who). A good way to tell the diﬀerence is to check that

if you deleted the clause/phrase, that the sentence would still make the intended

point to the reader or relate the desired information?

Writing Example 5.7: Restrictive Expressions

Incorrect:

“Before titration could begin, the ﬂask was lowered to a

temperature which would prevent evaporation.”

“Plotting all four of the UV/Vis curves that are shown in Figure

3 allowed us to select the optimum starting concentration.”

Correct:

“Before titration could begin the ﬂask was lowered to a

temperature that would prevent evaporation.”

“Plotting all four of the UV/Vis curves (Figure 3) allowed us

to select the optimum starting concentration.”

The ﬁrst example is clearly restrictive because if the clause was deleted it

would not convey the importance in lowering the temperature, or to what

sort of temperature it was lowered. In the second example the reference

to the ﬁgure is made concisely.

• Commas. While in the United States it has become common practice to omit the

comma before the word ‘and’ in a list of three items (this is called the “Oxford comma”).

In fact, there are some that argue that the Oxford comma is actually incorrect in the

US. Unfortunately, the absence of the serial comma in a list of three items can lead

to substantial ambiguity. In science writing, as it is in all writing in the rest of the

English-speaking world, the Oxford comma is mandatory.

Writing 5: Conventions of Scientiﬁc Writing · 55

Writing Example 5.8: Commas

Incorrect:

For breakfast today, I ate eggs, toast and juice.

Cobalt complexes are important, industrial compounds.

Correct:

For breakfast today, I ate eggs, toast, and juice.

Cobalt complexes are important industrial compounds.

The ﬁrst sentence was incorrect because it was missing the serial (or “Ox-

ford”) comma – the ambiguity in the ﬁrst version is that it is possible to

imagine that the juice was on the toast, rather than with it. The second

sentence was incorrect because commas can only be inserted between two

or more adjectives if the adjective order can be reversed without losing

meaning.

5.4 Lessons from experts in the ﬁeld

There is no substitute for the experience that comes with writing, and reading, scientiﬁc

papers over the course of a number of years. Three of the more important lessons are (a) that

you need to know how people read scientiﬁc papers before you can write a good one, (b) that

each section of a paper will stand on its own – there is no need to read through a whole paper,

and (c) that experts use an array of tools to assist in their process.

5.4.1 Reading scientiﬁc papers

Part of being a research-active scientist is keeping-up with advances in the ﬁeld by reading the

scientiﬁc literature. Rarely will someone who is browsing the scientiﬁc literature read an entire

paper from start to ﬁnish. Rather, we tend to start by reading the Abstract (to be discussed in

a later chapter). After the Abstract, the next stop is the conclusion section and a look at the

pictures (ﬁgures, tables, etc.) — the remainder of the paper would only be read if those seem

interesting.

5.4.2 Each section stands alone

As we’ve mentioned previously, people are usually reading a paper for a very speciﬁc purpose: to

extract some necessary data (Results), to glean some understanding of an important/interesting

phenomenon (Discussion), to learn how to perform a speciﬁc procedure/synthesis (Experimen-

tal), or to keep on top of the newest innovations in the ﬁeld (Abstracts, Figures, Conclusion).

Notice that none of those reasons require the reader to agonize over the entire paper; rather,

we will often only read the section(s) of the paper that are necessary for our purposes.

Consequently, it is important that each section be able to stand alone. The Introduction sec-

tion will always contain the motivation and objective of an experiment, as well as a description

of the general approach taken to solve the scientiﬁc problem. The Conclusion section begins

by summarizing the overall success/failure of the experiment in the context of the motivation.

56 · Undergraduate’s Guide to Writing Chemistry Papers

All that remains is to provide a brief and concise summary of the problem to be solved at the

beginning of the Results and Discussion. The captions of tables and ﬁgures (or a rephrasing of

them) appear in the text as the table/ﬁgure is being discussed.

5.4.3 Use tools to eﬀectively plan your writing

Experts develop eﬀective tools and devices to help them in their workﬂow and process. For

expert science writers, many of these tools are quite “low-tech” and are easily accessible for

novices entering into the ﬁeld. Consider adopting the use of some of these to help you in your

work.

• Voice recorders or voice recording applications can be very helpful for organizing your

thoughts and getting the major points down. Talking out loud, as if to another person,

is often the best way to capture ideas as you have them and to reﬁne them. Later, once

you’ve articulated how you want to say something, you can extract the phraseology from

the recording. While this may not save you a lot of time (though it can), it deﬁnitely

reduces the frustration of losing your thoughts or that “perfect way” you thought to say

something.

• Reference managers are very versatile and powerful ways to keep track of the research

you do in the literature. Many of them can keep the actual PDF of the papers you read,

manage the annotations and notes you make, and allow you to classify papers by topics

and more. While some of these packages can be costly, many free (and yet powerful)

options are available.

• A good printer, or a cheap printer, will allow you to print drafts and partial drafts for

editing ease. If you ﬁnd it cumbersome to edit your work on a screen, try getting an

inexpensive printer to print drafts.

• GRAs and checklists, while not technology, are two of the most important tools that you

can use. Organizing and solidifying your thoughts, before starting to write, is the best

way to streamline the writing process.

5.4.4 Don’t try to sound technical, and know your audience

Let the science wow your audience, not your verbiage. Unfortunately, many students new to

the sciences conﬂate the diﬃculty of a subject-matter with the complexity in the writing; these

students tend to use overly complicated words and language, such as eﬃcacious and utilize,

instead of more appropriate words like eﬀective and use. Equally problematic is the use of

ﬂowery and exaggerated language. Remember, the purpose of a peer-reviewed paper (Journal

Article) is to communicate new ﬁndings, discoveries, and theories to the greater scientiﬁc public;

to that end, always make sure to be as clear and concise as possible in your scientiﬁc writing.

That said, don’t confuse brevity, simplicity, and concision for lack of detail. In other words,

don’t be vague. Make sure that your arguments are speciﬁc and that you use enough detail

to make your point. You have to know your audience. It would be completely inappropriate

to spend any time in your paper trying to convince your reader that Beer’s law is meaningful;

if they don’t at least know that, then they have no business reading your paper

. Knowing

We’re assuming that we are writing to an expert, or at least scientiﬁc, audience.

Writing 5: Conventions of Scientiﬁc Writing · 57

where to strike the balance of brevity with suﬃcient detail is a hard thing to gauge. Many

career-scientists struggle with these same issues.

5.4.5 Be straightforward about the limitations of your work

One of the hardest things for students to do is to resist the compulsion to rationalize, or ignore,

‘bad’ data. The results that you obtain in any given experiment are, for better or for worse, what

you have to work with. Please refrain from claiming that an unreasonable diﬀerence between

your results and your expected results is anything other than what it is: an undesirable outcome.

Some people feel that they need to justify getting bad results in order to be persuasive.

This is a mistake. Instead of claiming that a bad result is acceptable, consistent, etc., you

should simply present an argument as to why you may have received the erroneous results.

Additionally, reports of bad results would never actually get published in the literature. Nor

would anyone try to publish them. This is another distinction between classroom and real-world

writing.

5.4.6 Putting it all together

Although the mistakes and tips discussed in this chapter will probably not often be explicitly

looked for in grading considerations, their proper implementation will only serve to improve

the quality of your writing (and your grade). If a grader is able to easily read your paper and

ﬁnd the relevant information, there is no risk of lost points due to simple lack of clarity (not

to mention a reader who isn’t frustrated by confusing sentences and conﬂicting information

will probably be a little more generous in their evaluation!). Writing well also helps you as a

scientist, since you must thoroughly think about how concepts relate or what results mean in

order to create logical, smooth ﬂowing sentences about them. If you haven’t thought about

what a result means in the context of the experiment you just ran, it is very diﬃcult to convey

it to someone else.

5.5 End-of-chapter assignment

1. Use the information in Section W5.1 to critically analyze each of the following excerpts

from actual student papers. For each, indicate what general guidelines have been ignored

or violated, and propose a version that is more correct (it is possible that more than one

thing is wrong with each). Note: where you feel that a reference is merited, simply indicate

with a superscript. There is no need to actually look up references for this assignment.

(a) The experiment is designed to introduce the student to the industrial chemistry

process, and give an idea of how the basics work.

(b) While this objective was trivialized with the use of a spectrophotometer, the infor-

mation gained from acquiring the absorbance of the dyes is the true matter being put

to investigation. By putting the dyes through a spectrophotometer, the absorbance

and wavelength of the dye was established. Why was knowing this important? The

true objective of this lab was to test the particle-in-a-box model, and test it for its

accuracy in predicting the wavelength of light emitted from the dyes.

58 · Undergraduate’s Guide to Writing Chemistry Papers

it is to no wonder that advanced researchers have shifted away from measuring N

in such error-ridden experiments and towards more exact methods such as X-ray

crystallography.

(d) Any other error was either systematic or human, and would account for faulty data

and inconclusive results.

(e) The relative standard deviation was also 5.45% showing that the lab was executed

with some precision as well.

2. Identify the grammar and writing problem(s) with each of the following writing samples

and propose a correct version.

(a) The resulting mixture is a heterogenous solution, but is mainly comprised of hexane.

(b) Because of the compound’s sensitivity to light, it is not uncommon to see a slight

decay pattern over time that is depicted in Figure 5.

there was more than one ion complex that could have been green.

(d) The uncertainty introduced into the experiment due to wet glassware probably had

the large eﬀect on the ﬁnal results, which is seen the large percent diﬀerence from

the literature value.

(e) The average of the three trials from the UV-Vis method was 6.9832± 0.004mg. The

Average of the three trials in the AAS method was 7.82± 0.45mg. One point from

each method had to be dropped because it failed the Grubbs test, meaning it was

an outlier relative to the rest of the data. A Student’s T test was also performed to

compare the results of the data of both methods. Both methods were compared to

the literature value of 7.0mg/L.

The average for the UV-Vis method had a value

less than t

table

, meaning that are statistically similar. The AAS method had a value

that was greater than t

table

, meaning that it failed.

3. Give a copy of your last Abridged report to a friend in your class (someone that you

trust and who you respect) and get a PDF copy of their paper. For each of the following

questions, please mark up the PDF directly.

(a) Identify two things (sentences, paragraphs, etc.) that you feel they did especially

well. What about them do you appreciate?

(b) Identify two places where you feel they could have made better grammatical or word

choices. Suggest a better version for each.

places where you feel they could improve their grammar or word choice; rather focus

on the organization, presentation, and content of their paper. Explain each brieﬂy

(in no more than one sentence).

(d) Do you feel that they have made a convincing argument? Explain brieﬂy (no more

than a couple of sentences).

Writing 5: Conventions of Scientiﬁc Writing · 59

(e) Do you feel that they have written a concise paper that follows a logical ﬂow? Do

you feel that it is pitched towards an appropriate audience? Explain brieﬂy (no more

than a few sentences).

4. Preparing an abridged paper for a recent experiment:

(a) After completing your data analysis, prepare a graphical representation of argument

(GRA) to help you plan your paper. Make sure to do enough research to ensure that

your answers are based on good understanding of the material.

(b) Prepare a checklist that you will use to write your abridged paper (you should not

include Introduction and Experimental sections).

of the previous chapter) to write an abridged paper (Title, Results and Discussion,

Conclusion, References, and Supporting Information) for your most recent lab. Make

sure to include your GRA and checklist.

Reminder about papers submitted

The paper always begins a new page (with a title), followed by the References (these do not

start on a new page), and then the Supporting Information (starting a new page, after the

References). Note: you will write the Supporting Information before you write the paper, but

it will appear at the end.

60 · Undergraduate’s Guide to Writing Chemistry Papers

WRITING 6: RESEARCH, SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE, AND

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHIES

In this chapter we will focus on four major goals: (1) methods for purposeful reading of papers,

(2) strategies for ﬁnding relevant sources in your research, (3) referencing the works that you

used, and (4) preparing meaningful and useful annotated bibliographies from your research.

6.1 How to read scientiﬁc papers

There are a number of good reasons why you would likely be reading a scientiﬁc paper. Amongst

them are: gathering speciﬁc data, researching the current state-of-the-art in a ﬁeld, preparing

for a ‘journal club,’ and keeping up with the literature in your ﬁeld.

How you approach reading a paper is very dependent on what you hope to accomplish – a

partial list is presented in Table 6.1.

Table 6.1: Common goals for reading scientiﬁc papers

Goal Primarily-relevant sections

Learning new method / approach Methods, Introduction

Understanding limitations of a method Conclusion, Discussion

Signiﬁcance of a research area Introduction, Conclusion

Looking up data / values Results, Figures

Broad interest in the ﬁeld Abstract, Conclusion

To help illustrate, let’s examine a couple of approaches that experts have found to be helpful

when reading research papers. Using either of these methods, you should be able to extract

the gist of the argument from a scientiﬁc paper using a quick scan – only a few minutes. In

order to learn the material well, you will likely need to spend more time working through the

authors’ data and claims, and taking substantial notes.

You will ﬁnd it useful to make detailed annotations on the papers that you are reading.

Additionally, many digital reference managers will allow you to save an annotated copy of the

paper. Most of these programs can even assign keywords to the papers so that you can easily

search for the concepts that you want to ﬁnd at a later time. Keep in mind, when scientists

say “read a paper,” they really mean digest and annotate a paper.

62 · Undergraduate’s Guide to Writing Chemistry Papers

6.1.1 Sample approach #1

First, take a look at the schemes/ﬁgures that the authors have chosen to show within the

paper. Ask yourself: (a) What reactions are being shown in the schemes? At ﬁrst glance, do

you understand these schemes? (b) What structures are they choosing to show? Why?

Next, try to very generally interpret what the authors are showing in the ﬁgures in the paper

(e.g., kinetic data from UV-vis, redox potentials from electrochemistry, molecular structures

from x-ray crystallography, etc.) This can usually be done by inspecting the axes and the

captions.

Third, read the conclusion of the paper. The conclusion is a very short and succinct section

that conveys the overall ﬁndings of the article and, typically, what the authors believe is most

signiﬁcant.

Finally, read the abstract (if there is one), because this gives a general overview of the

ﬁndings in the paper. If the goal is to understand the paper, then you are likely done. If,

however, your goal is to present the paper to others, then read through the paper fully (except

for the methods) and take notes on each area of interest.

The ﬁrst approach is a good way to approach working through a paper that you already

know will be helpful. If, however, you are not sure which articles you’ve found will be useful,

you will ﬁnd it useful to try another approach. Speciﬁcally, use abstracts (skim them) to narrow

down the articles that sound relevant. The abstract should summarize their main objectives.

Next, follow the steps in approach 2 to work through and make sure the paper is appropriate.

6.1.2 Sample approach #2

Start by skimming through the ﬁgures and read the captions to make sure their data match

their objectives indicated in the abstract. At this point, try to interpret the data without

authors’ narrative (i.e., don’t read their conclusions).

Look at the bold headings in the methods section to determine whether or not you are

familiar with their techniques. If there are techniques that you don’t recognize, use a search

engine to gather background information.

Read the last paragraph or two of the introduction to learn about their motivation, objec-

tives, and ﬁndings (argument summary). For in-depth understanding of the paper (i.e., journal

club presentation), read through the results and discussion section and go back to the ﬁgures

to conﬁrm authors’ arguments.

The conclusion section is read last and the methods section need only be read if you want

to reproduce their work.

6.2 Tools and strategies for ﬁnding relevant papers

6.2.1 Searching for references – common strategies

There are several strategies one can use to perform an eﬀective search of the literature. The

type of search will depend on what type of information you need. For example, it might be

quicker and easier to perform a regular Google search for vitamin C to ﬁnd out its structure

than to spend time logging into SciFinder Scholar. However, if you wanted to know who sells

it for the cheapest price, you might use a much diﬀerent strategy. You will ﬁnd below several

strategies for making the most of your literature search.

Writing 6: Research, Scientiﬁc Literature, and Annotated Bibliographies · 63

• Keyword/Topic Search: The most common search for beginning scientists is the key-

word or topic search. Because you are unfamiliar with the literature, this can also be the

most diﬃcult search to perform. There are two main ways to search by topic, each with

their own merits. You may ﬁnd that by using both strategies, you obtain a more complete

set of references than by just using one technique:

– Start general and become more speciﬁc – if your goal is to ﬁnd introductory-level

information on a topic, it is best to start with general search terms. You can then

use the ﬁltering capabilities of each program to narrow the large list of references

into something more manageable (ie., journal name, author, year, document type,

institution, etc.). Reﬁning by topic is also a good way of becoming more speciﬁc.

– Start speciﬁc and become more general

– if you are looking for information that is

speciﬁc to a particularly narrow area of research, start by using search terms that de-

scribe exactly what you are looking for. If you are unable to generate any hits, make

your search terms more general by eliminating words, using broader terminology,

and not using any ﬁlters.

• Cited/Citing Reference Search: SciFinder Scholar, Web of Knowledge, and Google

Scholar (more on these tools later) are all good choices for searching for a particular

article, references it cites, and references that cite it. However, the databases each program

searches are diﬀerent, so you may ﬁnd slightly diﬀerent results. Simply enter the article

citation information into each program. Once you ﬁnd the reference, click on “Get Cited”

or “Get Citing” in SciFinder Scholar (similar terms in Web of Knowledge and Google

Scholar) to generate a new list of references which you can peruse. Another useful feature

of Google Scholar is the link “Related articles” which will lead you to tangentially-related

citations.

• Author Search: All three search tools are also good choices for searching by author.

Simply enter the author name to see which references have been published by a partic-

ular author. Be cautious of authors with the same name (this is easy to catch if you

are searching within analytical chemistry and retrieve additional hits about evolutionary

biology). Also be aware that some publications might have diﬀerent versions of the same

person’s name (e.g., J. Harden vs. J. D. Harden vs James D. Harden). SciFinder oﬀers

the option to display all results of name variations if they show up.

• Structure Search: Using just those programs introduced to you in this chapter, search-

ing by structure is only possible using SciFinder Scholar. Its user-friendly and intuitive

chemical drawing program will enable you to search for chemicals that have been indexed

by Chemical Abstracts. Each result is linked to reactions containing it and references for

its use, synthesis, or general study. Simply choose “Get Reactions” or “Get References”

to explore.

• Combining Search Tools: SciFinder Scholar, Web of Knowledge, and Google Scholar

each have their own set of strengths and weaknesses. Knowing when to use each of

them comes with practice but is important to obtaining the information you need in

a reasonable amount of time. Fortunately, the information you glean from one search

engine can be used to perform a search in another. SciFinder is really good at ﬁnding

64 · Undergraduate’s Guide to Writing Chemistry Papers

references on a research topic. Once found, you may search Web of Knowledge for its

cited/citing references or search Google Scholar for related articles. Likewise, Web of

Knowledge is excellent at performing author searches. But if you wanted to know if a

particular author has ever published a synthesis of a particular compound, you would

need to follow up with a SciFinder Scholar structure search. Thus, there are many ways

to “mix-and-match” search tools to gain maximum coverage of the literature.

• Other Helpful Hints: Boolean operators such as AND, OR, and NOT help you ﬁlter

search results from the beginning and limit the generation of false or misleading hits

(all capitols must be used). Wildcards are special characters (such as *) that permit

alternative spellings or suﬃxes to your search terms (for example, the term electrochem*

will return hits that include electrochemistry and electrochemical). In addition, placing

a term in quotation marks will ensure that a particular word or phrase appears in your

results set exactly as written.

6.2.2 What references are acceptable?

We’ve already discussed what needs a reference: anything that is not common knowledge and,

therefore, required research. But, how do you know which references are good and which ones

are not? To be frank, this comes with practice, but you can become better at it by reading the

primary literature.

For beginners, there are several criteria that will help you decide which references are ac-

ceptable:

• Type of Source: For the introduction section of your write-up, books and review articles

are the best sources of general information on a research topic or experimental method.

You may ﬁnd these citations by reﬁning your search in one of the databases (discussed

below) by reference type. Other sections of your write-up may require you to cite a speciﬁc

article and it is standard practice to ﬁnd more recent papers that cite this lead article

as a reference - someone may have recently expanded upon this work. internet references

are rarely acceptable.

• References within a Source: An addition supply of leading references may come from

the introduction section of a research article on a topic. If the article is recent, then

someone has already done the literature searching for you! It is good practice to look up

all of the references found in the introduction of a journal article to better understand a

topic.

• Timeframe: The most current information is probably the best indicator of the state-

of-the-art, so you should choose references that have been published in the last 15 years.

However, a seminal publication on a topic, often published decades ago, should also be

referenced to highlight major contributions to the ﬁeld. Thus, there is a balance between

being up-to-date and respecting the scientiﬁc historical record.

6.2.3 What references are not acceptable?

There are three major things to avoid in choosing your references: internet references (see

below), foreign-language references (we will restrict our sources to English only), and the ab-

stracts/proceedings of meetings or conferences. The major reason to avoid internet references

Writing 6: Research, Scientiﬁc Literature, and Annotated Bibliographies · 65

is because of their reliability. Foreign journals and the proceedings/abstracts of meetings are

certainly reliable, but you couldn’t have possibly used them to glean information. After all,

you didn’t attend that conference!

An important note about the use of electronic references

There is a diﬀerence between an “internet reference” and a reference

accessed via the internet. Primary literature that is accessed via the

internet should NOT be cited as an internet source. If journal articles,

books, and similar documents, are accessed online through the databases,

they are references like their corresponding print forms.

In addition, a common misconception regarding the use of material on

the internet is that it is by its nature “free.” Despite “open access”

to the internet, someone owns a copyright for information on a web-

page and thus permission must be granted from the copyright holder

for reproduction (including all pictures, diagrams, photographs, etc.). It

is standard practice to reference these sources. Failure to do so is plagiarism.

Also, remember that sites such as Wikipedia, About.com, and even search

results from Google can be scientiﬁcally unreliable due to a lack of oversight.

These are not peer-reviewed sources of information and are not necessarily

written by experts. While certain facts may be correct (molecular weights,

densities, etc.), it is best to check the primary literature for conﬁrmation

(often these sites have references at the bottom of the page, which you can

follow and read for yourself). Any interpretations or conclusions regarding

data should not be referenced.

Finally, work that is published online by another student may not be used

under any circumstance, nor may it be referenced.

6.2.4 Using the search tools to ﬁnd references

At this point, you may be asking yourself “How do I ﬁnd the references I need?” Fortunately,

there are several tools readily available that will help you search the literature. While each of

them is designed slightly diﬀerently, the same general themes apply no matter which one you

are using.

CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics

The CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics (often referred to only as the “CRC Handbook”)

is a comprehensive reference work that comprises literally hundreds of tables of scientiﬁc data.

Included in these tables are physical constants, chemical properties, mathematical data and

functions, and laboratory safety information. This is a really good place to start when you are

searching for values, constants, and properties that you have reason to believe are well known.

66 · Undergraduate’s Guide to Writing Chemistry Papers

Most libraries will have a physical copy of the book, but the online version allows user to

search by chemical structure (written or drawn), which makes it even more powerful and easy

to use. Most research universities have site license access to the CRC Handbook, which can be

accessed at http://hbcponline.com/.

Note: although this a website, it is a web representation of a physical book (like most only

references and journals). The 2017 CRC Handbook is cited as: “CRC Handbook of Chemistry

and Physics, 98th ed; Rumble, J. R., Ed.; CRC Press: Boca Raton, FL, 2017.”

SciFinder Scholar

SciFinder Scholar is the most widely used scholarly database in chemistry. It contains entries

from two major indices: Chemical Abstracts and MEDLINE. Chemical Abstracts indexes new

compounds and articles that appear in nearly every type of print media (book, journal, thesis,

technical report, etc.). MEDLINE is a database of published papers related to medicine and

biology. Together, they cover most of what chemists need. Note: you will need to be connected

to the BU network, or have the VPN active (http://goo.gl/BRYFqm), to register for SciFinder.

To access SciFinder, follow these steps:

1. Go to the following URL: http://goo.gl/KpL2v and then follow the instructions to create

a new account. You will receive an email containing a link for activating your account.

This link will expire within 48 hours and you will not be able to register twice, so be sure

to activate your account right away.

2. Once your account has been activated, go back to the same URL and click “Connect

to SciFinder Web.” It is recommended that you bookmark this site. Using your newly

created username and password, login to SciFinder. Note that the university has only

a limited number of licenses that can be used simultaneously, so if you receive an error

message indicating this, try again in a few minutes.

3. To search the database, you have several options. At the top of the page are three icons

that will serve as the main criteria in your search. Sub-criteria are found on the left-hand

side of the screen.

Other useful features of SciFinder Scholar include:

• The “Tools” menu allows you to further reﬁne your answer set. You may remove dupli-

cates, combine answer sets, etc.

• The “Get Related” menu allows you to view all of the references that are cited in an

article, as well as all of reference that have cited that paper since.

• The “Analysis” and “Reﬁne” options also allow you to categorize your results based on

criteria you choose.

• Finally, you may save your search results for the next time you login.

Writing 6: Research, Scientiﬁc Literature, and Annotated Bibliographies · 67

Web of Knowledge

Web of Knowledge is an interface that allows simultaneous searches of several databases: Web

of Science, Biological Abstracts, MEDLINE, and Journal Citation Reports. Web of Knowledge

often contains information that is unavailable in SciFinder and the search engine works similarly

to SciFinder, so it is another reliable resource for ﬁnding appropriate references. To access Web

of Knowledge, follow these steps:

1. Go to the following URL and login to authenticate: http://goo.gl/vgFtF. It is recom-

mended that you bookmark this site.

2. You may begin to search the database by topic, title, author name, etc. You may also

search these criteria simultaneously by adding another ﬁeld.

3. Reﬁning your answer set is made possible by choosing from one of the tabs on the left

hand side. You may also ﬁnd the cited and citing references.

4. Clicking on the “FIND BU” link will allow you to directly access the full text.

Google Scholar

The most popular search engine for non-scientists is Google. Unfortunately, searching for sci-

entiﬁc information on Google almost always directs you to information that does not meet the

peer-review standards of the scientiﬁc community. For example, a Google search for electro-

chemistry of batteries will direct you to a Wikipedia page on the electrochemical cell – hardly

the kind of literature you need for scientiﬁc writing. Luckily, Google Scholar is a search engine

that is designed for the academic world. It works just like any regular open-access search en-

gine except that is searches the primary literature for your topic of interest. To access Google

Scholar, follow these easy steps:

1. Go to the following URL: http://scholar.google.com. Note, this can also be accessed

via the main Google homepage. It is recommended that you bookmark this site.

2. Search for a topic of interest directly or click on “Advanced Scholar Search” to provide

more details.

3. Within “Advanced Scholar Search,” you have the option of searching by topic, author,

publication name, etc.

4. You may include/exclude patent literature and limit your search to a particular subject.

5. If you are on a BU network or have VPN active the “Find Online at BU” link may appear

on the right side of the search result. These links appear only for those results that are in

journals for which BU has a subscription, and will take you to the full text, if available.

6.3 Working with references in your scientiﬁc papers

Journal articles, letters, and research proposals all contain a References section that lists articles

from the primary and secondary literature that were used in the preparation of new work. A

proper References section includes scientiﬁc sources that are relevant, respected, and current;

more importantly, it contains the actual sources used in the research for the paper.

68 · Undergraduate’s Guide to Writing Chemistry Papers

6.3.1 Why is citing the literature necessary?

All scientiﬁc progress, in general, is an extension of work done previously. Early scientists

documented and kept track of each other’s contributions. When any new discovery was made,

they responded by “referring” to what was already known about a particular topic and where,

when, and by whom it was published. Today, we continue this practice by appending a Ref-

erences section to our own work. In this section, we cite a piece of original research or major

contribution to the ﬁeld. By “referring” to a body of work, we acknowledge pioneering work in

a ﬁeld, assign credit for a particular intellectual discovery to an individual or group, supply a

source of additional reading on a topic, provide a historical perspective and/or context to any

new work, and ensure high ethical standards in science.

Using references also allows you to keep your writing more concise, that way a reader

who is familiar with a topic isn’t burdened with detailed explanations of background that

should be well-known, but someone who isn’t well versed knows exactly where to go to ﬁnd the

information.

Understanding the contributions that others have made to the ﬁeld is critically important as

a young scientist. As you begin to read the scientiﬁc literature, pay close attention to not only

the content of the text, but also to the list of references included therein. After all, a common

complaint in peer review is an inadequate understanding of the scientiﬁc literature and could

cost you publication.

6.3.2 What needs a reference?

We will explain how to format references within a text and in the References section itself later,

but ﬁrst you may be wondering when to use references and how frequently they are needed. In

general, when you are writing any type of scientiﬁc communication, references must appear for

any idea that you cannot claim as uniquely your own. That means that you need to provide

references for things like:

• Procedures: that you followed, or even borrowed from, in the process of doing your work.

For example, students following a procedure from a guide (like a lab manual or journal)

for doing iron-content analysis would need to reference the guide.

• Concepts: especially when it comes to novices, there will be a lot of references to books,

articles, and reviews, that explain fundamental concepts that are needed for understanding

the work (both its motivation, the methods used, and the outcomes).

• Other studies: science doesn’t happen in a vacuum – we will often be doing work to

extend, refute, support, or reﬁne previous work. Those studies must be cited.

While citations should appear for any source that has been inﬂuential for the present study,

an exhaustive list of references is not always necessary. For instance, suppose that you are

reading a journal article that references three others; even though all four sources were used,

you may choose to only cite the one, lead reference.

Finally, information that is commonly accepted knowledge does not require a reference.

It can be diﬃcult to know where to draw the line when it comes to this supposed ‘common’

knowledge. For now, let us assume that anything that you needed to research is not common.

Writing 6: Research, Scientiﬁc Literature, and Annotated Bibliographies · 69

References in a Journal Article

Since most of this guide is devoted to learning about writing journal articles, let’s investigate

the nature of references by section of the journal article.

• Title and Abstract: no references appear in these sections.

• Introduction: the introduction of a scientiﬁc paper includes the motivation for the study

and a thorough review of the state of the art of the ﬁeld (i.e. background information).

Both of these areas will involve substantial references to the literature.

• Results and Discussion: while the results of your experiment will likely not require

citation, the discussion will usually be very heavily cited. Make sure to include all of the

sources that you referenced when analyzing and interpreting your results, the sources of all

previously-referenced results and values, and anything you used for drawing conclusions.

Strong arguments will be those that are rooted in thorough research.

• Conclusion: citations are common when discussing any future directions, or extensions,

to the work. Additionally, the global ramiﬁcations of your work are usually based on

research as well.

6.3.3 Format of citations in the body of the paper

Citing references within the text will largely depend on the editorial conventions of the particular

publication. Most of the chemistry journals, as well as the papers that you write a student in

a chemistry course, follow the standards from the ﬂagship chemistry journal of the American

Chemical Society (The Journal of the American Chemical Society, commonly referred to as

JACS). The complete details of the style and formatting can be found in the ACS Style Guide,

but here are the most important rules to follow when using references within the text:

• References are numbered chronologically starting at the beginning of the document, in-

cluding those in tables, ﬁgures, and graphs. Don’t forget to check your references if you

switch sentences around. When a source is cited more than once, the numbering follows

its ﬁrst instance.

• Citations in chemistry use Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3) only.

• A superscript should appear immediately after an idea requiring a reference has been

ﬁrst introduced. If the reference applies to an entire sentence/clause, the superscript will

appear after punctuation.

Example: Superscripts for citations

Phenolphthalein has been used extensively as a pH indicator in titrations.

• Author last names may appear in the text when referring to particularly noteworthy work.

If a reference has two authors, both authors’ last names should appear separated by the

word and. If a reference has more than two authors, the corresponding author (usually

the principal investigator) should be listed, followed by the phrases et al., and coworkers,

or and colleagues.

70 · Undergraduate’s Guide to Writing Chemistry Papers

Example: Referencing authors by name

A working electrode was made from platinum as reported by Haddon and

Loria.

A reference electrode was constructed from Ag/AgCl as described by

Jenkins and coworkers.

• If you cite two references for a single idea or item, superscripts should appear consecutively

with a comma, but without a space. If more than two references are cited, a range should

appear (ascending and using an en dash).

Example: Multiple references

Palladium-mediated reactions are particularly important for C-N bond

formation.

4,5

Oleﬁn metathesis catalysts have revolutionized pharmaceuti-

cal C-C bond formation.

6−8,10

• A reference should be cited at a reasonable point in a sentence or clause.

Example: Location of citation

... recent studies suggest

... was reported

1,3−5,7

... as described

14−16

...

previous results indicate.

3,4

6.3.4 Format of the References section of your paper

The references section, located immediately following the Conclusion section of a paper, is

where the information on all the references are listed that correspond to in-text citations. This

makes it easier to ﬁnd references on a particular topic or from a particular author since only the

most important information is included in a citation. Just as mentioned above for the in-text

citations, you will use the JACS formatting criteria. Here, we will go through the conventions

that you will apply to your own references section.

A References section at the end of a document should list the references in chronological

order as they appear in the text, with numbers. Depending on the source, there are a few key

criteria that are required to ensure proper referencing. The following list shows you how to

properly cite a particular source in the References Section:

• Book (no editor): Author 1; Author 2; Author 3; Book Title, Edition Number (if

any); Series Information (if any); Publisher: Place of Publication, Year; Volume Number,

Pagination

Example: Referencing a book (no editor)

Grossman, R. B.; The Art of Writing Reasonable Organic Reaction Mecha-

nisms, 2

Ed.; Springer-Verlag New York, Inc.: New York, 2003; pp 23-25.

Writing 6: Research, Scientiﬁc Literature, and Annotated Bibliographies · 71

• Book (with editor): Author 1; Author 2; etc. Chapter Title. In Book Title, Edition

Number; Editor 1, Editor 2, etc., Eds. Series Information (if any); Publisher: Place of

Publication, Year; Volume Number, Pagination.

Example: Referencing a book (with editor)

Paolesse, R.; Monti, D.; Dini, F.; Di Natale, C. Fluorescence Based Sensor

Arrays. In Topics in Current Chemistry: Luminescence Applied in Sensor

Science; Prodi, L; Montalti, M; Zaccheroni, N, Eds. Springer-Verlag: Hei-

delberg, 2011; 301, 139-174.

• Journal article: Author 1; Author 2; etc. Journal Abbreviation, Year, Volume (Issue,

if any), Inclusive Pagination.

Example: Referencing a journal article

Merriﬁeld, R. B. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1963, 85 (14), 2149-2154.

Note: list all authors (if fewer than 15). Use the appropriate journal abbreviation from

the Chemical Abstracts Service Source Index (CASSI). You can search for the appropriate

abbreviation at the following link: http://goo.gl/q44au. A brief list can also be found

in the ACS Style Guide.

• Patent: Patent Owner 1; Patent Owner 2; etc. Title of Patent. Patent Number, Date.

Example: Referencing a patent

Brewer, A. K.; Knight, J. Pyrrolopyrimidines as Antineoplastic Agents.

WO/2011/095246, 2011.

• Thesis: Author. Title of Thesis. Level of Thesis, Degree-Granting University, Location

of University, Date of Completion.

Example: Referencing a thesis

Boone, A. C. PNP Ligands in Asymmetric Catalysis. Ph.D. Thesis, Univer-

sity of Notre Dame, South Bend, IN, 2004.

• Electronic Reference: Author (if any). Title of Site. URL (accessed Month Day, Year),

other identifying information (if any).

Example: Referencing the internet

Sigma-Aldrich Home Page. http://www.sigmaaldrich.com/united-

states.html (accessed July 13, 2011).

72 · Undergraduate’s Guide to Writing Chemistry Papers

• Mentors, Instructors: Conversations with Name 1, School, City.

Example: Referencing Instructors

Conversations with Dr. John Doe, Boston University, Boston, MA.

• Peers, Classmates: Conversations with Name 1, Name 2, and Name 3 (Course Code -

Course Name, Year), School, City.

Example: Referencing classmates

Conversations with John Doe and Jane Smith (CH109 P1 - General and

Quantitative Analytical Chemistry Lab 1, 2015), Boston University, Boston,

MA.

A thorough understanding of the chemical literature takes practice and ﬁnding quality

references that reﬂect the state-of-the-art in the ﬁeld can be time-consuming. Having worked

through this chapter, however, you should now be well-equipped to search the chemical literature

with ease, be able to distinguish and evaluate primary references, and properly format a list of

citations – skills you will use throughout your scientiﬁc careers.

6.4 Annotated Bibliographies

An annotated bibliography is a commented list of sources on a speciﬁc topic. It starts with a

short abstract that summarizes the major takeaway points and is followed by the annotated

references. Each reference entry is formatted according to standard reference formatting and is

accompanied by a critical annotation.

As you become more knowledgable and expert in the sciences, the volume of your scientiﬁc

library will grow. While the list of papers that you’ve read will start oﬀ quite manageable, it

will quickly become crucial that you ﬁnd an organizational system that will allow you to classify

and comment on each paper. Otherwise, you will ﬁnd yourself asking the question “now where

did I read that?” – not a fun place to be when you go to write a paper.

The idea behind an annotated bibliography is that they become a good way to manage the

references that you’ve read and value. Whether you are citing them in a paper that you are

writing now, or you think that they might be interesting papers to re-read in the future when

you are working on a new project, annotated bibliographies allow you to organize, summarize,

and share the valuable reading that you’ve done.

6.4.1 Content

People who read annotated bibliographies want to gain from the experience of the person who

has read and used the sources. They need a summary of the contents, and they also want a

critical evaluation of the source.

They want to know: the major takeaway point(s) of each source, the source’s intended au-

dience, its relationship to the wider ﬁeld of research, strengths and weaknesses of the argument,

Writing 6: Research, Scientiﬁc Literature, and Annotated Bibliographies · 73

and whether it is detailed or broad. In short, the reader of an annotated bibliography wants a

quick and eﬀective insight into some of the sources you have used; either they want to recall

the reason that they found the sources to be useful or they want to get an idea of whether (or

how) they would be useful for their own work. They are, in eﬀect, an executive summary of

the sources.

6.4.2 Language and focus

The language of an annotated bibliography should be formal and objective, following the style of

scientiﬁc writing. They are normally written in full sentences, but some use brief and incomplete

sentences when space and brevity are particularly crucial. The focus is on the source (‘the article

presents’, ‘the author concludes ...’), and it is generally written in the present tense.

In an annotated bibliography you are required to outline the type, level, and quality of

the information. Additionally, include the reason for which you ﬁnd the source to be useful.

Think of yourself as a reviewer of the material. Tell the reader about the text, what it covers,

and in what way. Don’t descend far into the speciﬁc details of the work. A sample annotated

bibliography can be found in section 6.6.

6.4.3 Reference managers

It is useful to note that there are also several commercial “Reference Manager” products that

allow you to accomplish this task. Mendeley desktop (free up to 2 GB, all platforms), Papers

for Mac (not free), EndNote (all platforms, not cheap either), and more; the free account for

Mendeley should more than suﬃce for the work that you do as a student. These managers are

built on the same premise as annotated bibliographies – read a paper, categorize it, write the

citation information, leave detailed notes about the paper for later, and make things easy for

storing and distributing this information.

6.5 End-of-chapter Assignment

1. Consider the sample annotated bibliography on the next page.

(a) Based on the theme of the annotated bibliography, use the research tools outlined

in this chapter to ﬁnd two more articles that would be appropriate to include in this

annotated bibliography. Explain (brieﬂy) how you found the source – what tool,

what search parameters, how you reﬁned your search, etc.

(b) For each article you selected in (a), prepare an entry for the annotated bibliography.

Don’t forget to use proper formatting for the references.

bibliography entry for this paper? Explain brieﬂy. (You are welcome, and encour-

aged, to read all of the papers – they are really interesting.)

2. Use the research approaches outlined in this chapter, and the search tools that you’ve

learned, to ﬁnd (at least) four papers relevant to your most recent lab.

(a) Brieﬂy describe the approach that you used to ﬁnd the sources

74 · Undergraduate’s Guide to Writing Chemistry Papers

(b) Brieﬂy (no more than two sentences) explain why you picked these speciﬁc sources.

priate title and abstract.

Writing 6: Research, Scientiﬁc Literature, and Annotated Bibliographies · 75

6.6 Sample Annotated Bibliography

Below is an annotated bibliography from my ﬁles. It contains some of the more pertinent and

interesting papers that I’ve read on the topic of misconceptions that ﬁrst-year students have

about how chemical bonds form. Hopefully it will give you some ideas about how annotated

bibliographies can be used eﬀectively to organize your work.

Common misconceptions of ﬁrst-year students about chemical bonding (2013)

Prepared by B. Abrams, Department of Chemistry, Boston University, Boston MA 02215

For many students, learning chemistry the study of a microscopic world that is beyond their

tangible view – proves very diﬃcult. Despite well-meaning intervention from instructors, new

approaches, and updated texts, students leave high school and college chemistry courses with

poor conceptions of chemical phenomena. Chemical bonding is among the most diﬃcult con-

cepts for students to learn properly, without forming strongly routed misconceptions.

In the past, many studies have focused on general misconceptions held by incoming students

in chemistry and the persistence of those misconceptions. Recently, articles and studies have

begun to focus on the misconceptions relating to atomic theory and bonding – arguably two of

the more diﬃcult areas for students. A common refrain in these articles is the need for instruc-

tion to be chemically-accurate, and for instructors to be precise and patient in their instruction.

Peterson, R.F.; Treagust, D. “Grade-12 students’ misconceptions of covalent bonding and struc-

ture” J. Chem. Educ. 1989, 66 (6) 459-460

This article presents a diagnostic instrument to assess students’ understanding of covalent

bonding using a two-tier multiple-choice test. The survey of high school indicates that

between 20% and 34% of students demonstrate weakness in topics related to classical

bonding concepts (bond polarity, valence shell, ...). The study concludes that these results

are consistent with the notion that high school teachers may show more concern with

completing topics than helping students to develop authentic comprehension. Overall, this

source is not particularly useful for a discussion of learning of modern bonding concepts,

and is pitched towards a high school or low-level education audience.

Nakhleh, M. “Why some students don’t learn chemistry” J. Chem. Educ. 1992, 69 (3), 191-196

The author argues that many of the problems that students face later in chemistry in-

struction is due to poorly-constructed models that they build early on during instruction.

While this source does not directly discuss bonding, it provides insight into the process

by which the misconceptions about chemistry arise: slowly, over time, and cumulatively.

Two major points made in this paper are (a) about the way students visualize chemical

systems and (b) the need to be precise in deﬁnitions so as not to confuse students. While

this paper is not useful for a speciﬁc discussion of teaching bonding, it explains a lot about

how incoming students think about chemistry, which is useful for planning how to teach

them.

76 · Undergraduate’s Guide to Writing Chemistry Papers

Grushow, A. “Is it time to retire the Hybrid Atomic Orbital?” J. Chem. Educ. 2011, 88 (7),

860-862

This editorial letter presents a strong argument for eliminating hybrid atomic orbitals

(HAO) from the curriculum. The author suggests two reasons for the persistence of HAO

theory: they help to explain three-dimensional shapes of molecules and predict the orienta-

tions of atoms around central atoms. The author suggests that VSEPR alone is suﬃcient

to accomplish these goals from a phenomenological point of view, without introducing

fallacies about localized bonding orbitals or degenerate bonds in methane. The major ar-

gument of the paper is that it would be better to relegate discussion of bonding to MO

theory alone, in a course that is appropriate, and not confuse students with a model gives

results contrary to experiment (especially when structure can be reasoned from VSEPR

alone). The paper is well-reasoned and convincing, and is a good reference for support of

major curriculum reform in general chemistry.

Ball, P. “Beyond the bond” Nature 2011, 469 (7328), 26-28

Pitched towards a general scientiﬁc audience, this opinion article presents a thorough

discussion of the diﬃculties associated with the concept of a ‘chemical bond.’ The author

gives a brief historical review of the concept of bonding, including recent complications

introduced by our ability to use ultrashort pulsed lasers to probe chemical motion. The

major focus of this article is to highlight the diﬃculty (impossibility) of properly deﬁning

a “bond” as a static thing, and that a new notion is needed to replace the long-outdated

view that is commonly held. While the article is informative and authoritative, there is

relatively little substantive discussion of future directions or outlooks in this area other

than to abandon the traditional picture of a covalent bond.

WRITING 7: ADDING MOTIVATION – INTRODUCTION

SECTIONS

The Introduction section of a scholarly paper can often be overlooked by the author. Focused

on the innovation that the author is trying to communicate, this very important component can

sometimes be relegated to an after-thought. In reality, while nothing groundbreaking will be

presented in the Introduction, it serves as both the ‘catch’ that grabs the attention of potential

readers and as the foundation upon which the scientiﬁc breakthrough is presented. Your paper,

as excellent as it may be, may never actually be read without a good Introduction – of course,

your lab instructors will always read your papers in this class.

7.1 Content and Organization

In general, the Introduction is broken down into three speciﬁc components:

1. Introducing the research area: the ﬁrst few lines of the paper are used to generally

describe the research area and to motivate the work. This component is further divided

into three subcomponents:

(a) Identifying the research area: what is this paper going to be talking about (very

general)? This is usually accomplished in the ﬁrst sentence of the paper. Be careful

not to be too catchy – we are writing for an expert audience, not for a general

audience.

Writing Sample 7.1: Identifying the research area

“Chloroﬂuorocarbons (CFCs) are a group of organic compounds, containing

chlorine and ﬂuorine, that have been found to be linked to the depletion of

the ozone layer.

”

This is an example of the ﬁrst sentence of a paper being written on research

in the general area relating to chloroﬂuorocarbons. Notice: the actual topic

of the research is NOT presented here. It will be presented in the third

component of the Introduction.

(b) Importance of the research area: why is this area important? What is the motivation

for studying this topic? In general, it will suﬃce to include a couple of sentences

detailing the reason why the topic is of such high importance. Consider reading the

78 · Undergraduate’s Guide to Writing Chemistry Papers

Introductions of other scholarly papers on the same subject to see why other people

consider the area to be signiﬁcant.

art in the ﬁeld – this should not be exhaustive. Rather, this is used to provide

enough information to give the reader a good understanding of the ﬁeld. Use relevant

literature sources to explain what has been done in the ﬁeld to date and explain the

methods that are used in the experiment.

Writing Sample 7.2: Importance of the research area

“In that past, many CFCs were widely used as refrigerants, propellants,

and solvents

. The manufacture of such compounds is being phased out by

the Montreal Protocol

because it has been shown that CFCs ...”

Continuing the example from above: the importance was already hinted at

in the ﬁrst sentence (ozone depletion), but is elaborated upon in this sample.

Notice: references must be brought to substantiate any claims made in this

portion of the paper.

2. Identifying a gap: once the ﬁeld/area has been adequately introduced (discussing the

work already done), we shift towards thinking about what needs to be done. Here, the

author introduces and justiﬁes the need for the body of work in the paper.

It may be diﬃcult to identify a genuine gap (one that actually exists in the current

scientiﬁc knowledge) for some of your undergraduate course experiments. This will be

discussed, in detail, later on in this chapter.

Writing Sample 7.3: Identifying the gap

“Although mass spectrometry (MS) achieves the desired detection limits

for ozone

, the instrumentation and methodology is costly and time-

consuming.

” or “The depletion of ozone by CFCs has been the subject of

several studies

; however, no studies to date have been reported on the use

of ...”

Both of these samples are examples of a good gap statement. In the ﬁrst the

gap being described is about a procedure that needs to be improved (made

simpler or cheaper), while the second is an example of an area that needs to

still be explored.

3. Introducing the current work: after the ﬁeld has been introduced and a gap in the

knowledge has been established, the ﬁnal component is to describe how this paper will

ﬁll the gap. This is the last paragraph of the Introduction and will typically start with

“In this paper, ...” and will provide a brief description of the general approach that was

Writing 7: Adding Motivation – Introduction Sections · 79

used to perform the scientiﬁc inquiry. Remember: the use of the ﬁrst person, or we, is

discouraged in chemistry writing.

7.2 Format and Style

The Introduction should consist almost entirely of prose. Relevant chemical equations can be

included to accomplish one of the goals listed above (motivation, survey of the ﬁeld, etc.). Sim-

ilarly, ﬁgures from the literature or that support the goals can also appear.

Every scientist will eventually develop their own writing style. While there are many areas in

which these can diﬀer, there are some stylistic criteria that are universally accepted. Consider

the following (incomplete) list of considerations for the Introduction section:

• You are writing as scientists, not as freshmen students. The objective of the lab is never

to ‘calibrate a pipette’ or ‘learn Beer’s Law’. In other words, the Objective that you wrote

in your lab notebook is unlikely to be the Motivation that you are writing about in your

introduction. See Writing Chapter 1.

• By the nature of the types of statements and arguments that need to be made in the

ﬁrst two components, you will need to provide a decent number of references in the

Introduction. The third component will not require citation unless it is building oﬀ of

work that you have already published.

• Don’t rely on random facts and certainly never use aphorisms like “it is well-known that

...”. Rather, make sure that your argument (motivation) is focused and supported by

references from the primary (journal articles) or secondary (review articles, book chapters)

sources in the scientiﬁc literature. Reminder about internet references: these are to be

avoided, where possible. Recall, however, that journals and books that are accessed online

are not ‘internet’ references and should be cited as journals and books (no URLs).

• Don’t be too ‘on-the-nose’ when writing your Introduction. Often, novice science writers

would include statements such as “The objective of this experiment was ...”. Instead, con-

sider a more elegant version, such as “Given the need for, ...” or “Given the importance,

...”. Stylistic elements like these will make your argument stronger, because it will not

sound like you are trying to check-oﬀ components from your checklist (though, in reality,

you are).

• Remember: less is more. Focus on information density, not on length.

7.2.1 Voice and Tenses

The beginning of the Introduction, especially when discussing the importance of the research

area, is often written in the Present Perfect. The Present Perfect is typically used to indicate

work that was done in the past that is still considered to be true in the present. Notice the

bolded words in Writing Sample 7.2 – this is an example of present perfect in the passive voice.

In general, when referring to work done by others (in the past), either the Present or Present

Perfect tenses should be used.

80 · Undergraduate’s Guide to Writing Chemistry Papers

Writing Example 7.1: Proper tenses for citing work

Incorrect:

Abrams et al. demonstrated that CFC levels can be easily ...

Correct:

Recent advances

have led to a method for ...

The ﬁrst version is written in the past tense and is not correct. The second

version is written in the present perfect in the active voice and is a correct

way of citing their work. Additionally, notice the correct use of citations

in the second version. Note: in general, try to avoid mentioning research

groups by name.

The ﬁnal component of the introduction, describing the work that was done, will contain

both the past and present tenses, where appropriate. The work done in the past should be

described in the past tense (“the structure was determined by ...”), while the truths that are

gleaned from the research are in the present tense (“the structure indicates that ...”).

7.2.2 Length and Depth

It is important to remember to be concise without being terse, and complete without containing

semi-relevant or irrelevant information. Less is more. Do not use more sentences, or overly

verbose clauses, in order to increase the length of your paper. You will not be assessed based

on the length of your paper, rather by its quality and completeness. Moreover, it is completely

inappropriate to write more than is necessary.

Finding this balance can sometimes be hard for a novice science writer. We’ve already run

into this problem with our Results and Discussion sections. You’ll recall that we discovered that

preparing a good, complete checklist before starting to write the paper is extremely helpful

when it comes to being complete and concise.

For the purposes of papers that you will write as a student, you should limit your Intro-

duction to about one double-spaced page

(unless otherwise speciﬁed) – the length should be

commensurate with the amount of information that must be communicated. It is not appro-

priate to have unnecessarily lengthy Introductions. That said, though the page limit may seem

restrictive, it is also important that the Introduction ﬂow well from paragraph to paragraph.

It should not seem like you are simply checking oﬀ components from a list; rather, make sure

to utilize appropriate segues in order to connect ideas.

7.3 Argument and Introductions

The Introduction section is the component of the paper in which the author motivates the

science. The goal of the introduction is to captivate the reader on two levels: by demonstrating

the research area is signiﬁcant and interesting (motivation), and by showing how this speciﬁc

study contributes something novel and crucial to the ﬁeld (gap). Revisit previous chapters to

review Arguments.

Though shorter than one page is perfectly ﬁne. Just remember to include the three necessary moves and

suﬃcient detail.

Writing 7: Adding Motivation – Introduction Sections · 81

It should be noted, however, that in undergraduate coursework we will not really have

any true “gaps,” with few exceptions. Since it would be inappropriate to invent a fake gap

statement, we will replace this component with an Objective statement.

Writing Sample 7.4: Gap vs. Objective

Gap: “The depletion of ozone by CFCs has been the subject of several

studies

; however, no studies to date have been reported on the use of ...”

Objective: “Given the need to quantify CFCs in atmospheric samples, this

study demonstrates how ...”

The ‘gap’ version indicates that the paper will discuss a novel approach to

the problem, whereas the ‘objective’ version does not.

7.4 Common Mistakes

The most common mistakes that people make when writing their Introductions are:

• Writing the Introduction too early! This section should be written last (except for the

Title and Abstract), once it is clear exactly what direction the paper will take. Writing

Introductions too early usually results in unnecessary rewriting.

• Using style-inappropriate terms such as: we looked into, we saw, or researchers (these

should never be used). Research may be used sparingly, but is not recommended.

• Using the the term current work improperly. In the context of a scientiﬁc paper, cur-

rent work refers to the author’s work that is being presented in that paper (not in the

literature).

• Presenting results in the Introduction. Remember, this is not an Abstract. The Intro-

duction is for talking about the goals and the current state of the art.

Writing Example 7.2: Introduction (1)

Incorrect:

“Red socks were washed with Downy and Target detergents for

5.5 minutes each at 70

◦

C . Stains were removed 78.5±0.1% of

the time with Downy detergent and 89.6 ± 0.2% using Target

detergent.”

Correct:

“In this work, the removal of chocolate stains on red socks using

a washing machine is investigated. This was done by washing

red socks with a variety of detergents for various lengths of time

using ...”

In the ﬁrst version, results and unnecessary experimental details are pro-

vided. In the second, the objective was discussed.

82 · Undergraduate’s Guide to Writing Chemistry Papers

• Providing too much detail vis-a-vis the experimental details in the Introduction.

Writing Example 7.3: Detailed vs. General

Incorrect:

In this work, the ozone concentration in a 1.0 L gas sample was

determined by aspirating 10.0 µL into an Agilent 1080 GC-MS

with column temperature static at 200

◦

Correct:

In this paper, a method for measuring ozone concentrations in

gas samples via mass spectrometry is presented. The analyses

were performed on a GC-MS equipped with an electron capture

detector (ECD) in order to achieve more accurate results in half

of the time.

There should be little repetition in journal articles. The ﬁrst version is

appropriate for an Experimental, in which precise experimental details are

provided. For an Introduction, it is better to simply describe the general

approach (second version).

• Not citing enough literature sources – many Introduction components require citations.

Citations are required any time you present information that is not scientiﬁc common-

knowledge.

• Using direct quotes. While direct quotations are common in other forms of writing, this

practice is rare and highly discouraged in scientiﬁc writing.

7.5 End-of-chapter assignment

1. Review the major ideas in Writing Chapter 5, especially the section on ‘What to avoid in

scientiﬁc writing.’ Think back to your old science writing (perhaps from High School or

another science class), speciﬁcally to how you would have written an Introduction section,

and suggest two items that you will change or eliminate when you write your Introduction

sections for scholarly papers. Explain very brieﬂy.

2. Prepare a GRA and checklist for your paper (IRDC – Introduction, Results and Discus-

sion, and Conclusion). Note: consider following the suggested order below.

3. Use the information in this chapter, the checklist you just constructed, and the details

from previous chapters, when writing your paper (IRDC).

Suggested order for approaching writing a paper:

1. Start by identifying each of the following for your experiment: a scientiﬁc motivation for

the experiment, the objective of the experiment, and the educational purpose of the lab.

2. Consider all of the data collected in the experiment. Tabulate the data that are relevant

for this lab and assign them as raw data, processed, or statistic. Indicate where you intend

to include these data in your report.

Writing 7: Adding Motivation – Introduction Sections · 83

3. After examining the Results of your experiment, do enough research to make sure that

your satisﬁed that you understand your results (why you got them? what they mean?).

Prepare a GRA for the Results and Discussion and Conclusion sections. Focus on devel-

oping a strong argument.

4. Based on your GRA and table of data, prepare a checklist for the Results and Discussion,

Conclusion, and Supporting Information sections.

5. Now that you’ve outlined the main part of your paper, it is time to start thinking about

the Introduction. Identify the following components and add them to your checklist:

motivation and gap. Consider using a table (like the one below) for your checklist. Notice

that the table leaves room for the references that you used for each component of the

Introduction.

Required Component: Reference

(1a) The research area is ...

(1b) This area is important because ...

(1c) Background info that needs to be included about area:

(2) The “Gap” is ...

(3a) In this paper ...

(3b) (The general approach was ...)

6. Re-read your checklist to make sure that your paper will make sense and present a strong

argument. Does the Introduction that you’ve planned motivate the argument and claims

that you will make in the Results and Discussion? You are now ready to write your paper.

84 · Undergraduate’s Guide to Writing Chemistry Papers

WRITING 8: SHARING YOUR PROCESS – EXPERIMENTAL

SECTIONS

The Experimental can be very diﬃcult to write well. There needs to be a balance between a good

amount of detail and readability. The sole purpose of the Experimental section of a scientiﬁc

paper is to convey the exact method by which the experiment was carried out. An appropriately-

pitched Experimental will omit the details that any novice would know (such as how to take a

mass by diﬀerence, clean a burette, standardize a reagent, etc.) and provide enough description,

observations, and details to suﬃciently guide an expert to be able to successfully repeat the

experiment.

Additionally, the Experimental section can often suﬀer the most from the problems of bad

writing or not being concise. Make sure to review Writing Chapter 5 before starting to write

your Experimental section.

8.1 Content and Organization

In general, the Experimental will not include information that belongs in the Results, such as

spectral data and crystal data. For synthetic papers, yields are often presented in the Experi-

mental.

It is important that the Experimental be complete with the details that another scientist would

require in order to reproduce the experiment. These include:

• Exact masses of reagents when they are relevant to the success of the method. In

these cases, report the actual amounts and concentrations that you used; do not use the

approximate amounts like those that would be listed in a lab manual.

• Types/purity of reagents. Avoid using brand names; generic names are more appropriate,

unless the speciﬁc brand of reagent is necessary for the experiment – this is not likely. In

the event that the purity of the reagents would aﬀect the experiment, make sure to discuss

the purity or origin of the reagent. Similarly, if the reagent needed to be standardized, this

might be included as a brief statement such as “..., which was standardized according to

Harris

” (where Harris is the author of the recipe for the standardization with reference).

• Descriptions of apparatus that are not standard. Only describe an apparatus if it is

not a standard, or well-known, apparatus. Provide the make and model of analytical

instruments such as spectrophotometers, meters (pH, mV), and diﬀractometers. Do not

86 · Undergraduate’s Guide to Writing Chemistry Papers

identify the speciﬁc standard equipment (pipettes, ﬂasks, burettes, etc.), since it is clear

by the number of signiﬁcant ﬁgures in the amounts, the context, and convention which

pieces of glassware would be used to dispense solutions (i.e., everyone knows that you use

a pipette to transfer 25 mL of solution).

• Key observations. Make sure to include key, or milestone, observations that would allow

someone to know that they are on the right track or have correctly achieved the desired

result. (e.g., “Adding the acid caused the clear, colorless liquid to turn immediately

cloudy.” or “Some small crystals remained at the bottom of the ﬂask, even after heating.”)

• Only include hazards and safety concerns that would not be standard protocal or com-

monly known.

• Avoid making explicit reference to tasks, steps, and items that are so commonplace that

any well-prepared practitioner would do them.

8.1.1 Special Subsections

In many journals there are two special subsections of the Experimental section: ‘Reagents and

Materials’ (or ‘Materials and Methods’) and ‘Statistical Methods’ (or ‘Data Analysis’). The

Reagents and Materials section is the ﬁrst subsection of the Experimental and is where all of

the pertinent information about the chemicals (from where? standardized?), instruments, and

techniques can be found.

Writing Sample 8.1: Materials and Methods

“Material and Methods. All solvents and reagents were provided by

the Boston University Analytical Chemistry stockroom and were used as

received without further puriﬁcation. Visible-light spectra were recorded in

quartz cuvettes using Cary 60 UV/Vis instruments with readings at 0.15

nm intervals...”

The materials and methods subsection gives all of the necessary information

for an expert to repeat the experiment.

The Statistical Methods (or Data Analysis) section is the last subsection of the Experimental

and is where all of the post-processing of the data is discussed (Grubbs test, buoyancy scaling,

peak integration, etc.). From here the reader is able to understand how you were able to take

your experimental data and derive the results that you are about to present. Of course, rarely

are sample calculations presented – unless those calculations represent the novelty of the study.

Not all papers need to include these sections. Using these sections appropriately, however,

can make the Experimental section substantially easier to read (and write) and less cluttered.

8.2 Format and Style

The Experimental almost always consists solely of paragraphs. Diagrams of rare, or new,

apparatus should be included as well. In rare circumstances, such as the preparation of a series

of solutions with small variations, a table can be helpful to minimize unnecessary repetitiveness.

Writing 8: Sharing your Process – Experimental Sections · 87

For experiments with several parts, the Experimental section of the paper is broken down

into subsections. This practice makes the Experimental much easier to read and it will make it

easier for someone to reproduce the part of experiment in which they are interested.

In order to distinguish these subsections, the ﬁrst few words of the paragraph beginning

the subsection should be in bold (see Writing Sample 8.1); we do not use “Part ..” in these

headings. There is no limit to the number of subsections that you can use, but they should be

consistent with the number of parts of the experiment you performed (synthesis, analysis, etc.).

Some additional formatting guidelines:

• No bullets — this is not a procedure in a lab manual.

• When using a standard method, cite the literature and do not repeat the instructions.

Variations of literature procedures are cited along with details of the changes.

• Include the observations within the procedure when they are relevant or important.

8.2.1 Voice and Tenses

In chemistry, physics, and many biochemistry journals, Experimental sections are written in

the past tense and passive voice. A primary aspect of the argument being made by a journal

article is that the science performed is completely objective and independent of the researcher.

Prose written in the past tense and passive voice gives the impression that the experiment could

be carried out by anyone, and that anyone performing the experiment would have achieved the

same results. You will ﬁnd it useful to review important stylistic guidelines for numbers, values,

and prose that are presented in Writing Chapter 2.

8.2.2 Length and Depth

There is no maximum length for Experimentals. That said, instructions need to be concise and

to the point. Do not add unnecessary ﬂourishes to make it “sound better”; less is more.

Writing Example 8.1: Sentence Consolidation

Incorrect:

“A 5.00 g sample of Fe(NO

)

(s) was weighed on a balance.

The solid was transferred to a 100 mL volumetric ﬂask. A 20

mL volumetric pipette was used to add 20.00 mL of 0.1 M nitric

acid to the ﬂask. Water was added to the volumetric ﬂask until

the mark. The ﬁnal solution concentration was found to be 0.05

M.”

Correct:

“A 100-mL 0.05 M Fe

(aq) solution was prepared from

Fe(NO

)

(s) diluted with 0.1 M HNO

.”

Both statements communicate the exact same procedure. The second ver-

sion, which is much better than the ﬁrst, is consistent with what we’d

expect to see in a scholarly paper, while the ﬁrst looks like a Procedure

from a lab manual that has been written in the passive voice.

88 · Undergraduate’s Guide to Writing Chemistry Papers

Equally important is the need to be complete. Do not omit important details in the name of

brevity.

8.2.3 Identifying Equipment

There are four classes of equipment that are discussed in a scholarly paper: standard (make

and model are irrelevant), standard (make and model are important), non-speciﬁc, and novel.

• Standard (relevant model) equipment refers to instrumentation where the accuracy and

precision will vary from model to model (e.g., spectrophotometers, melting point appa-

ratus). This type of equipment will be referred to by make and model and should be

enumerated in the Materials and Methods subsection.

• In the case of Standard (model irrelevant) equipment, while the author does need to specify

the general type of instrument (stainless-steel temperature probe, ice bath), the piece of

equipment does not have to be identiﬁed by make and model in the report.

Writing Sample 8.2: Make and model (1)

“The absorbances of all solutions were measured at 510 nm on a CCD Array

UV/Vis spectrophotometer that was blanked with deionized water.”

Every UV/Vis spectrophotometer is built to diﬀerent accuracy and precision

speciﬁcations. Here, it is important to mention the exact make and model.

Notice that this statement concisely describes the spectrophotometric mea-

surements, as well as the relevant parameters: wavelength and blank.

Writing Sample 8.3: Make and model (2)

“After drying for 2 hr at 100

◦

C in a gravity drying oven, the ﬁnal yield of

product was 0.5250 g (85.55% yield).”

Notice that the equipment used for recording the mass is not mentioned.

There are two reasons: (1) it is proper practice to measure mass using an-

alytical balances when the exact mass is needed; and (2) the four digits of

precision could only have been measured on an analytical balance, which is

something that an expert would know.

• Non-speciﬁc instrumentation includes balances (all), glassware (all), and thermometers.

It is clear from the degree of precision reported exactly what class of either is used. It is

not necessary to even mention the type of instrument.

• Finally, novel equipment is equipment designed speciﬁcally for the experiment being pre-

sented. For this type of equipment, detailed instructions and a diagram or ﬁgure are

required. Sometimes, when the novel piece of apparatus is not the focus of the experi-

ment, these details are presented in the Supporting Information of the paper.

Writing 8: Sharing your Process – Experimental Sections · 89

8.3 Writing a concise Experimental section

The nature of the scientiﬁc process (multiple trials, incremental modiﬁcations, comparison of

similar data sets, etc.) makes it easy to fall into the trap of repetitive writing. The complicated,

multi-step techniques or analyses can also lead to tendency for verbose descriptions. Finding a

balance between clarity and brevity can be diﬃcult, so you must carefully consider the infor-

mation you are trying to convey, as well as the audience to whom you are writing.

It may help to keep some questions to yourself in mind while writing:

1. “Would the level of scientist who was interested in reading and replicating this work need

me to explain the details of this step, or just the fact that it was done?”: Many techniques

you will employ in the chemistry are routine or commonly practiced, and would therefore

be familiar to the reader. While it is diﬃcult at ﬁrst to make the distinction (since most

of these techniques are fairly new to you), this ability will develop over time as you are

exposed to more types of experiments and have a chance to see which methods appear

over and over again. (Writing Example 8.2)

Writing Example 8.2: Process Details

Incorrect:

“The powder of sodium sulfate (Na

) was placed in the 200

mL volumetric ﬂask and then DI water was added to about

halfway, creating a dark blue solution. The mixture was then

swirled around with the water to ensure good mixing. More DI

water was then slowly added until the edges of the meniscus

came up to the mark. The solution was then capped and mixed

by inverting the ﬂask ﬁve times. This resulted in a ﬁnal solution

that was lighter blue. The ﬁnal concentration was 0.0081 M.”

Correct:

“A 200.00 mL sample of 0.0081 M Na

was prepared, re-

sulting in a uniform and clear, light blue solution.”

The ﬁrst version reads like a lab manual written in the past tense. The

second isolates the useful information in a clear and concise manner. Note:

the use of proper signiﬁcant ﬁgures implies the use of volumetric glassware

(this may also have been speciﬁed in the Materials and Methods section).

Also, steps like thorough mixing are assumed as they are proper practice.

2. “Was the same exact technique used on all samples?” or even “Was there only that

one systematic diﬀerence implemented among the trials?”: If a method was used in the

same way across multiple trials, a single explicit description using one representative set

of numbers is suﬃcient with the rest summarized as replications. For cases with just

one small accidental diﬀerence or a series of systematic diﬀerences, these can also be

summarized with a single concise sentence (see Writing Example 8.3). Additionally, as

you develop and learn more expert-like skills, you will come to learn which things need

not be said at all (as they are commonplace and implied).

90 · Undergraduate’s Guide to Writing Chemistry Papers

3. “Does having these data points all written out in long sentences really make my point or

is there a better way to represent it?”: Having multiple sentences with lots of numbers,

or many sentences outlining multiple diﬀerences (e.g., solution preparation) is confusing

and can contribute to your point being lost. These cases are better served by a table (or

occasionally a ﬁgure).

Writing Example 8.3: Repetition

Incorrect:

“Preparation of solution A. Unknown tablet A (1.0561 g) was

crushed and dissolved in 50.00 mL of DI water with continuous

swirling over heat. A 5.00 mL aliquot of this solution was then

transferred to a beaker and 5.00 mL of 0.1 M HNO

(aq) was

added. . . .

Preparation of solution B. Then unknown tablet B (1.1201 g)

was crushed and dissolved in 50.00 mL of DI water with contin-

uous swirling over heat. A 5.00 mL aliquot of this solution was

also transferred to a beaker and 5.00 mL of 0.1 M HNO

(aq)

was added. . . . ”

Correct:

“Preparation of samples. Tablets were dissolved in 50.00 mL of

DI water with continuous swirling over heat. A 5.00 mL aliquot

of this solution was then transferred to a beaker and 5.00 mL

of 0.1 M HNO

were added.. . . ”

In the ﬁrst example, the nearly identical procedure was described twice

(though the mere act of separating them is already an improvement over

an Experimental written in one, long section). In the second example, the

two preparations are combined.

8.4 Common Mistakes

The most common mistakes that people make when writing their Experimentals are:

• There must be a space between values and units (and zeros before decimal points).

Writing Example 8.4: Units

Incorrect:

“A .2021 gram sample of NaCl(s) was added to 15mL of ...”

Correct:

“A 0.2021 g sample of NaCl(s) was added to 15 mL ...”

Never spell out units, and there should be a space between 15 and mL.

Writing 8: Sharing your Process – Experimental Sections · 91

• Remember that it is important to not be too vague. Important details must be included.

Writing Example 8.5: General vs. Speciﬁc

Incorrect:

“A bromine solution was added to the ﬂask”

Correct:

“When 10.00 mL of bromine were added to the reaction ﬂask,

the solution immediately turned bright orange.”

The ﬁrst statement lacks quantization and speciﬁcity. How much bromine

was added? To what ﬂask? What happened when you added it?

• A big mistake is that students often write their Experimental as if it were a lab manual:

Writing Example 8.6: Experimental vs. Procedure

Incorrect:

“Add approximately 0.2 g of NaCl(s) to a volumetric ﬂask.”

Correct:

“A 0.2021 g sample of NaCl(s), diluted to 100 mL, ...”

The ﬁrst statement is more reminiscent of a lab handout instruction; it is

written with approximate amounts and as an instruction (do this). The

second version correctly reports the precise amount of solid used and does

so in a passive voice.

• One of the most substantial problems is when someone reports too much raw information,

such as masses of weighing jars and paper:

Writing Example 8.7: Raw Data

Incorrect:

“A sample of NaCl(s) was weighed out in a weighing jar with

mass 15.1000 g. The mass of the jar and NaCl was 15.3041

g. After delivering the NaCl to the reaction ﬂask, the jar was

reweighed at 15.1020 g. The mass of NaCl delivered was 0.2021

g.”

Correct:

“A 0.2021 g sample of NaCl(s) was added ...”

The ﬁrst version is verbose, clumsy, and unnecessary. The second version

correctly, concisely, and properly reports the precise amount of solid used

(an expert knows to record mass by diﬀerence).

92 · Undergraduate’s Guide to Writing Chemistry Papers

8.5 Past experiments in context

It can be very diﬃcult, especially for novices, to get a good feeling for the level of detail that is

expected in the Experimental section of a scholarly paper. Often, they include way too much

detail about the work that they’ve done. As these courses are usually their ﬁrst foray into

real-world experimental science, this is not unsurprising.

To help illustrate, let’s consider an example from a lab that is common in ﬁrst-year chem-

istry courses: titrating weak acids. Labs of this nature have two main parts: titrating NaOH

solutions with a primary standard (like KHP) in order to determine the precise concentration

and using the standardized NaOH to determine the amount of an unknown weak acid (KHP,

for example) in an unknown mixture. The entire Experimental could be written as: “Samples

of KHP-containing unknowns were titrated against standardized 0.1 M NaOH to a phenolph-

thalein endpoint.” The ﬁrst part of the experiment is replaced with the word ‘standardized’

– any expert should know how to standardize NaOH, or they could purchase pre-standardized

base. Additionally, the exact masses of the samples are only nominally relevant since we are

determining the concentration, which is an intensive property (one that is sample-size indepen-

dent). Finally, number of measurements are not included in the Experimental.

A good approach for learning the appropriate balance in an Experimental is to look at similar

types of papers in published journals, and mimicking the level of detail and the language used.

8.6 Preparing to write an Experimental Section

The Experimental section of a paper is the only section that truly ‘stands alone.’ While the

strength of the methods used often contribute to the strength of the argument, it is rarely

the case that the methods are a cornerstone of the Argument being made. The most glaring

exception to this general idea is when the paper is focused on the development of a new method.

As a result, the Experimental can usually be written in parallel to the rest of the paper.

It is challenging to sort out what details are important, especially if you are trying to do so

as you write. A suggestion to help guide you in your preparation of your Experimental sections,

is to use a table to help sort out the diﬀerent subsections that you will use, and help determine

what details are necessary to include and which details should be omitted.

To illustrate the power of this approach, let’s consider an experiment to determine iron

content by AAS. A suggested breakdown of part of the Experimental is tabulated below.

Subsection: Necessary Information Unnecessary Information

Materials and - Glassware prep for trace - Speciﬁc glassware used

Methods metal analysis (soaking, - Source of chemicals

and chelating solution) (other than the cereal studied)

- Make/model of AA

Cereal digestion - Brand and mass of cereal - Glassware used

- Volume of acid (and which acid) - Exact concentration of acid

- Heat for 30 minutes a low boil - Number of washes

- Filter to remove all solids - Number of ﬁltrations

Preparing standard - Volumes of digestion - Glassware used

addition solutions - Range of concentrations of stock - Exact concentration of Fe stock

Writing 8: Sharing your Process – Experimental Sections · 93

8.7 End-of-chapter assignment

1. Consider the following excerpt from a not-so-well-done Experimental section:

To titrate a solution of sodium oxalate: A burette was ﬁlled with .02 Molar KmnO4.

After it was found that no air bubbles were trapped in the tip of the pipette, the initial

volume was recorded. Using a weighing bottle, 0.2315g were weighed out. Fifty mL of 4.5

Molar sulfuric acid, 200 mL of distilled water, and the sodium oxalate were added to a

400 mL ﬂask. The solution was stirred until all of the solid dissolved. Approximately 30

mL of KmnO4 was added to the solution. The solution turned dark purple. The solution

was then continued to be stirred due to the fact that the titration was incomplete. Once

the solution becomes clear, place it on a hot plate in a fume hood and heat it until it’s

temperature was between 55 and 60

◦

C. While the solution was still warm, the titration

was completed by adding KmnO4 until a signiﬁcant amount of pale pink color persisted,

and the end volume was then recorded. The data were recorded in the lab notebook.

(a) Using the information in this chapter, identify at least ﬁve issues with the style, for-

mat, language, or chemistry of the Experimental section excerpt above. For example:

.02 should be written as 0.02.

(b) How much of this information is really necessary to be included in an Experimental?

Explain your choices brieﬂy.

2. Reproduce the table below on your computer, and use it as a template for a checklist

for an Experimental for a recent lab. The two special subsections and one additional

subsection are shown – use as many subsections as you need or deem necessary.

Subsection: Necessary Information Unnecessary Information

Materials and

Methods

Data

Analysis

3. Use the checklist you just constructed when writing your Experimental section for the lab

you chose.

94 · Undergraduate’s Guide to Writing Chemistry Papers

WRITING 9: GETTING YOUR WORK FUNDED – RESEARCH

PROPOSALS

The previous chapters have all focused on the development of a single form of scientiﬁc writing:

the journal article. There exists, however, a plethora of diﬀerent forms of communication that

a scientist must master. In this chapter we will learn how to write a Research Proposal. The

main goal of a Research Proposal is to convince someone to give you money. To that end, you

will have to be an expert salesperson and convince your audience, usually a panel of experts in

the ﬁeld or a closely-related ﬁeld, that your body of research is worthwhile.

Traditional Research Proposals can be anywhere from 5–50 pages long, depending on the

funding agency and the amount being requested. The Proposal is broken down into four parts:

1. Cover letter: typically a single page in which you introduce yourself to the funding agency

and introduce the topic.

2. Project Summary: a one or two page summary of the project.

3. Project Description: a complete breakdown of the project that includes the background

information, complete enumeration of instrumentation and techniques, timeline for the

project, budget, and expected results. This is the component that determines the length

of the proposal.

4. References: a complete set of properly-formatted references for the proposal.

The proposal that you will be writing will be the Project Summary with References (#2 and

#4). As a side note: the Project Summary that you are working on here is exactly the type

of proposal that students applying for summer fellowships and research internships might be

asked to write.

9.1 Project Summary

In many ways, the Project Summary is the most important part of any research proposal. The

Project Summary has the longest shelf-life of any submitted report or proposal; in fact, the

funding agencies will retain the Project Summary, as record of the project, even long after the

project has been completed. It is for that reason that the Project Summary must be written

as if it were a stand-alone document.

96 · Undergraduate’s Guide to Writing Chemistry Papers

9.1.1 Content and Organization

The Project Summary has ﬁve major components (the ﬁrst three components are, traditionally,

heavily cited):

1. Introduce Topic: The proposal should start by introducing the topic of the research project

and discussing the general project goals. This should be fairly general, as the speciﬁc

expected outcomes will be discussed later in the proposal.

2. Emphasize Signiﬁcance: After introducing the topic and goals, the overarching signiﬁcance

of the research is discussed. Why is this important? What are you hoping to demonstrate?

What eﬀect will this have on the ﬁeld and on the world? It is very important to be

convincing here. Remember: your goal is to elicit carefully-guarded, highly-coveted, and

diﬃcult to acquire funds.

3. Summarize Methods: This is the most important (and hence longest) component of the

proposal. Now that the topic has been thoroughly introduced and motivated, the next

step is to summarize the methods that will be used in the context of the goals (aims) of

the work. Here, Methods refers to (a) traditional techniques that will be used, (b) non-

standard equipment/instrumentation that is needed, and (c) novel approaches/techniques

that will be developed for the research project. Also discuss and mention if your work

will be some sort of modiﬁcation or combination of existing techniques.

It is important to be very clear and speciﬁc about how the research will be carried

out; this is an integral part of convincing the funding agency that it is worthwhile to

invest in your project. That said, you should not turn this into an Experimental or

procedure. Include details such as speciﬁc approaches (digestions, sample preparation,

sample handling, etc.), number of trials, and instrumentation; but refrain from giving

exact amounts, lists of glassware, and step-by-step experimental details.

It is helpful to break up each of the goals (aims) of the project and to list the methods

involved for each. These are often referred to as Speciﬁc Aims and are usually part of

a standalone, one-page document. The methods attributed to each of the aims should be

described.

Writing Sample 9.1: Speciﬁc Aims

“Speciﬁc aim #1 is to determine the eﬃciency of green washing machines

(GWMs) using a combination of digestion techniques and high-performance

liquid chromatography. A series of ten dirty, chocolate-stained sock samples

will be digested according to the Villar method

1,2

.”

Notice that the speciﬁc goal is identiﬁed ﬁrst, along with the general ap-

proaches that will be used. Then, the speciﬁcs for these methods are given;

enough to give the relevant details of how the work will be carried out, but

not so much as to constitute an experimental procedure.

4. Expected Outcomes: While the actual results of the research are never known a priori,

it is important to have a good sense of what the results might be. Often, authors make

Writing 9: Getting your Work Funded – Research Proposals · 97

reference to preliminary data or previous work that is similar to the project. If you already

have some preliminary data from your project, this would be a good place to use that

work.

5. Summarize Broader Impacts: The ﬁnal portion of the Project Summary is to summarize

the broader impact that the results of the research will have on the ﬁeld and, possibly, the

world. It is important that these outcomes relate directly to the motivations, or at least

be framed in the context of the motivations already mentioned earlier in the proposal. Do

not go overboard in suggesting fantastical impacts or those that will remain far into the

future, even after the project is complete.

9.1.2 Format and Style

The project summary always starts with the tile of the proposal, the name(s) of the principal

investigators (PIs), the institution(s) of the PIs, and the date of the proposal. Some funding

agencies assign codes or identiﬁers to PIs and should be included when relevant.

In general, Project Summaries are no longer than two pages with size-10 font. Spacing

and margins are rarely speciﬁed in the requirements. In general, project summaries and short

proposals are not broken down into subsections.

Many have the good practice of using bold face for the key words that start one of the above

components. For instance, “The goal of this study”. This practice calls the reader’s attention

to these components.

9.1.3 Voice and Tenses

Unlike the journal articles that you’ve written until now, which are mostly written in the past

tense, Research Proposals are partially in the present tense and part in the future tense. All of

the introductory material (components 1 and 2) are written in the present tense, as they discuss

the current state of the scientiﬁc art. The methods, expected results, and broader impact, are

all referring to research that may, or may not, take place – in the future.

Another major diﬀerence between Journal Article writing and Proposal writing is with

regard to the voice. The vast majority of a journal article is written in the passive voice in

order to emphasize that the results obtained are not dependent on the scientist, or research

group, involved – anyone would have received the same results. In contrast, in a Research

Proposal only the methods and impacts sections are written in the passive voice (depending

on the context, methods can sometime be in the active voice as well). The remainder of the

proposal is written in the active voice. Unlike in a journal article, where the emphasis is on

the results of the experiment with the idea being that any competent researcher would achieve

the same results, in a Proposal you want to emphasize your own involvement in the successful

outcome of the research – you don’t want a funding agency believing that just anyone could do

this research. You want them to believe that it has to be you.

9.1.4 Argument

In the past, your arguments have focused on the results of your experiment and their impli-

cations. Your goal was to convince the reader that your results have substantial impact and

importance in light of the signiﬁcance of the research area.

98 · Undergraduate’s Guide to Writing Chemistry Papers

The argument you are trying to make in your proposal is quite diﬀerent. Instead of putting

the results into context, your job is to convince the referees (people that are reviewing your

proposal and deciding on funding) that you will make excellent use of their research funds.

To do this you will need to (a) demonstrate the importance of the research area; (b) explain

your well-thought-out plan that you will use when executing the research; and (c) clarify the

research outcomes and impact that your work will have. Notice the declarative voice – this is

deliberate; your proposal should be written with conﬁdence and purpose, with the references

and research to back it up.

Consequently, the Argument that you will write for a proposal will be diﬀerent than one for

a journal article. Use the above-mentioned guidelines while contemplating your arguments.

9.2 References

This section always starts a new page. The References are listed by number, in order of ﬁrst-

citation in the Proposal, and are always formatted according to the guidelines and standard

format of the group to which you are submitting the proposal. When page limits are imposed

for research proposals, the References are almost never included in those limits (this will be the

case for us too).

9.3 Common Mistakes

The most common mistakes that people make when writing a Research Proposal are:

• Starting to write without developing an Argument and a checklist is a big mistake. The

success of the proposal will be determined by the strength of the argument, the merits

of the science, and the quality of the writing. It is critical that a good checklist, which

is designed to form a good argument, be constructed prior to writing the proposal. A

successful checklist will also indicate which the corresponding component of the Project

Summary for each item on the checklist and will also include references.

• Often, proposals are written in collaboration with other researchers. It is a mistake to

simply split up the work for the proposal without ﬁrst agreeing on a shared vision for the

proposal. This inevitably leads to a disjointed proposal and duplication of eﬀort.

• While most reviewers might not focus on them explicitly, using the wrong verb tenses (or

moods) makes the proposal a more amateurish read. The general feeling that the reviewer

gets from reading the proposal can often make the diﬀerence between getting funded, or

not.

• Make sure that the broader impacts are directly related to the signiﬁcance of the research,

as this will help to tie together the whole proposal. Also, be reasonable about your

expected impacts. Your undergraduate lab will not even come close to curing disease, so

don’t imply that in your impacts.

• While it is diﬃcult for ﬁrst-time proposal writers, it is important to reach an appropriate

balance of detail in the methods section.

WRITING 10: MAKING AND DELIVERING EFFECTIVE

RESEARCH PRESENTATIONS

10.1 Ten guidelines for constructing an eﬀective presentation

Presentations, like journal articles, are a vehicle for communicating the results of scientiﬁc

inquiry – an argument. Before planning to prepare a research presentation, review the material

and suggestions in previous chapters on how to approach crafting your argument. Speciﬁcally,

you will need to make sure that you’ve completely analyzed all of your data, outlined your

argument with a GRA, and prepared a strong argument. Like in written papers, the eﬀectiveness

of a presentation is limited by the quality and strength of the argument that you intend to make.

Consequently, make sure to fully ﬂesh-out the argument of your work before starting to prepare

your presentation (or paper) – this is the only way to ensure that you will end up with a strong,

persuasive presentation.

Once you’ve settled on the argument that you intend to make, you can start to think

about organizing your work into a paper or a presentation. The content being presented, the

organization of the materials, the level of detail presented, the aesthetic quality of the slides, and

the prose of the speaker are all important aspects that go into crafting a successful presentation.

Consider the guidelines in this chapter when preparing your presentations.

10.1.1 Think message, not slides

When you start by thinking “what’s on slide 1, what’s on slide 2,” you’re in trouble, unless you

want to end up with a lot of boring slides that say nothing. Before you start on any slides,

ﬁgure out the answers to the following questions. Ask yourself: what point do I really want to

make to my audience? What message do I want to plant in my audience’s brains? Now imagine

that message on a billboard You will make a slide to convey that speciﬁc message. Together,

these slides will unfold the strong argument that you want to make. Revisit all of the details

presented in Writing Chapter 3 about making a strong argument.

Consider the examples of good and poor points that are presented in Table 10.1. Which

kind of presentation would you rather go to? The one that makes some kind of point, or one

with no point, no focus and sometimes, no end?

100 · Undergraduate’s Guide to Writing Chemistry Papers

Table 10.1: Examples of good and bad presentation points.

Good points Poor points

Why method X is so good at measuring ... Here is method X

Using chemical A increases eﬃciency by 78% We used chemical A

The advantage of this method is ... Information about a method

10.1.2 Decide why your audience should care

Brainstorm all the possible reasons your audience should care about your point. Imagine that

you are at a conference of professional and academic chemists. How can you present your

material so that they do not feel that the 15 minutes they spent listening to your talk was not

wasted time? Find a reason why the audience members should be interested in your particular

topic. This is a lot like the “motivation” of a journal article or communication. Start by

brainstorming – asking yourself what interests you about your topic. Brainstorm means “come

up with a lot of possible answers.” You should have at least three answers written down on

a list to ensure you’ve really thought about your audience. Remember that the broader your

reasons, the more people will be interested in your presentation. Consider some examples:

• You are introducing a topic that is not currently discussed or well-known

• You are going to add understanding of X to what is already known

• You have tested and improved on a new methodology that is useful

• You have learned a new property of a material that is interesting

10.1.3 Make points, don’t cover topics

Once you have the main message that you want to convey, you can divide your presentation

into sections. But instead of thinking of sections as a generic category – such as introduction,

history, conclusion – think of all the points you want to make that will contribute to your main

message (the one on the billboard). Identifying these points makes a big diﬀerence how eﬀective

your presentation is at engaging your audience. Note: you’re still not writing/making slides.

Once you have these sub-points, those slides will practically design themselves. See table 10.2

for examples of some good sub-points.

Table 10.2: Examples of good and bad sub-points.

Good sub-points Poor sub-points

Explain the problem and its relevance (what State how you personally became

we know and why it matters) interested in or chose this topic.

Relevant methods and results with analysis Description of every mL measured

Your important ﬁndings and brief analysis of Your ﬁndings with no analysis

their relevance

Deeper analysis of the important ﬁndings and Conclusion with no take-home message

future development

Writing 10: Making and Delivering Eﬀective Research Presentations · 101

10.1.4 Tell a story – have a ﬂow

Once you’ve identiﬁed good sub-points, it’s time to determine the best sequence for them. Try

to imagine what would make the most convincing argument and what would be the most inter-

esting ﬂow for your audience. Doing this well means you avoid having presentations that are

just ‘one thing after another.’ Instead, they will have a compelling thread that ties the whole

thing together – a cohesive argument.

Consider the following sequence for your presentation (argument):

1. start by stating the problem (motivation),

2. then discuss the most important methods that were used to study the problem,

3. then present the solution to the problem that you have uncovered in your research (re-

sults),

4. then discuss the impact and consequences of the results,

5. remind the audience of the important ﬁndings and their broader impacts (refer back to

#1),

6. suggest possible future research avenues or developments that may come from your re-

search, and

7. thank the appropriate people (advisors, funding agencies, and collaborators) at the end.

Notice that this sequence very closely matches the same argument sequence that we’ve developed

for our written work.

10.1.5 Get creative

Think of ﬁgures, metaphors, examples, and analogies as a way to back up your sub-points and

make them ‘sticky’. Here, sticky means that the sub-point sticks with the audience you because

it came wrapped up in a story, an image, or an analogy. Sure you have data, and you need

that data, but persuasion doesn’t depend on logic and data alone (if it did no one would smoke

cigarettes or pay $2.50 for a bottle of ‘vitamin water’). What images, symbols, or other visuals

come to mind that might make a stronger impression than just words?

10.1.6 Prepare a presentation “storyboard”

Okay, now you can think in terms of slides! Create a new PowerPoint ﬁle using a layout that

includes a title placeholder. Figure out what you want your slides to do and just jot that in the

title placeholder – that way, you can see that when you look in the outline tab on the normal

view of presentation or when you look at slide sorter. You’re not designing slides yet, you’re

making a ﬂow and checking that each slide has a purpose – a message that the slide is going to

communicate.

102 · Undergraduate’s Guide to Writing Chemistry Papers

10.1.7 Put a real headline on each slide

No one word headings – ever. Your heading can be a question or a statement, but it must

say something meaningful. For inspiration, look at the newspaper – news, sports, editorials,

no matter where you look in a newspaper, headlines make statements. Having slide titles that

make a point will make your presentation better than just about everyone else’s.

Let’s imagine you’re working on a presentation that explains why copper is unique in giving

high-temperature superconductivity in layered perovskite oxides. Assuming that you have six

slides following the sequence detailed above, your headlines might look like the ones in Table

10.3.

Table 10.3: Examples of good and bad slide headings.

Good headlines Poor headline

Uniqueness of copper in high-T superconductivity Introduction

Z method is most accurate for studying Methods

Cu superconductivity

Copper shown to exhibit X property under Y condition Results

X property increases inversely to heat Graph of X vs. heat

X property disappears in the presence of Fe Figure 2

Y conditions should become standard when creating Conclusion

copper superconductors

This research has been made possible by the following: Acknowledgements

10.1.8 Use the body of the slide to best deliver its message

Ignore your ﬁrst impulse to have a nice bulleted list of one word items. That might be your

second and third impulse too, so resist. Sometimes you do need to use a bulleted list, just

like sometimes you need to use Febreeze instead of actually washing your clothes, but it’s an

emergency measure.

Slides aren’t supposed to be your teleprompter, though for some presenters that is what it

seems they have become. Slides are supposed to be a visual reinforcement of the speaker’s point.

They don’t have to say everything. In fact, they should not. They just have to communicate

one message. Under no circumstances should everything that you intend to say be on the slide.

The slides are your prompts, not your script.

Maybe you’ve got an image from your creative period back in #5 – use that. Or maybe

you just want to have a few words on the screen but never write every word you’re saying.

Whatever will convey that message best – in the quickest, easiest, most impactful way – do

that.

10.1.9 Use tables and ﬁgures eﬃciently

Do not include every graph or table that you produced. Figure out what information is necessary

to convince your audience of the point you are making. Make the ﬁgures large and legible, and

only include the relevant information. Your viewer is not going to have time to analyze your

tables and graphs in detail, so only present the material that they can absorb in a 1-2 minute

slide. Quickly ﬂipping through several slides of tables or graphs does not help you at all. One

or two good ﬁgures to provide the evidence you need to support your claim is all that you need.

Writing 10: Making and Delivering Eﬀective Research Presentations · 103

Do not use “AutoShapes” or excess animation; these elements are distracting and take focus

away from the presenter and, more importantly, from the science. That said, do not make your

slides boring and monochromatic. There is a balance between cheesy and boring.

Add annotations to ﬁgures and graphs to highlight important features that you will discuss

and draw the audience’s attention to them. On slides with spectra data, include structures and

equations, where relevant.

10.1.10 Work through steps 1-9 again; Check the balance

It is important that you make several iterative edits to your presentation. Review rules 1-

9 to make sure that you have developed a cogent, organized, and persuasive presentation.

Additionally, make sure to review the list of common mistakes (below) as you work through

your slides. Make sure that each item (slide, table, ﬁgure, list) has something meaningful to

add. Tell a story; don’t simply cover topics.

Finally, it is crucial that there be a proper balance to your presentation. Make sure to spend

the vast majority of the time on the actual scientiﬁc study the was performed: methods, results,

and implications. After all, that’s why they’ve come to hear your talk. It is not necessary,

nor appropriate, to spend any substantial amount of time on the motivation (they already

listening to the talk and the results should explain why it’s important) and future directions

(you haven’t done them yet!). For a short (15-20 minute) talk, methods and results/discussion

should occupy all but a couple of minutes; longer (45-60 minute) talks will usually spend a little

longer discussing motivation.

10.2 Common mistakes

• Be careful of too much white space (not enough information), but don’t make your slides

so cluttered that someone gets lost. Too many words on a slide will require the audience

to spend too much time reading and less time listening to you. In the same vein, a bulleted

list must have at least three points. A table must have more than two columns or rows.

• Make sure to use appropriately sized fonts: the defaults in Powerpoint are way too large.

The words should be large enough to be seen, but not so large as to make the slide four

lines.

• References should be included on the slides on which they are relevant. They are placed

at the bottom of the slide and in a signiﬁcantly smaller font than the regular text (still

large enough to read). References must be explicitly mentioned by the presenter. There

is no References or Bibliography slide in chemistry presentations.

• Use color if possible, and especially if you are trying to emphasize something. No yellow

or green, though: they never show up properly on a large screen. Only use white slide

backgrounds.

• Figures and tables should be complete, clear, easy to read, and of high resolution. Make

sure to follow the guidelines set forth in Writing Chapter 2. You do not need to include

captions, but legends and labels need to be legible. Also, do not copy/paste from PDF

ﬁles, this leads to low-resolution images; rather, include these ﬁgures as JPEG, PNG, etc.,

and then resize.

104 · Undergraduate’s Guide to Writing Chemistry Papers

• For a 15 minute talk you should have approximately 8-12 slides (excluding the title slide

and the slide at the end with the acknowledgements). Your slides are not your presenta-

tion! They accent and provide visual cues for your presentation. Check the balance of

your talk – don’t dwell on trivial aspects.

• No cue cards. Your slides should give you all of the ‘cues’ that you need. That said, do

not memorize and regurgitate a speech. A good presentation will respond to the slides

and interact with the audience.

• Dress respectively for presentations. You do not need to wear a suit, but it is impor-

tant that you be dressed in a way that is respectful and appropriate for an academic or

professional setting.

10.3 End-of-chapter assignment

1. Outlining your presentation.

• Prepare a list of points that you intend to make in your presentation (see section

W10.1.1).

• Prepare a list of sub-points that will become your presentation (see section section

W10.1.3). Label them as ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’, ..., for reference in subsequent questions.

• Identify the creative elements (see section W10.1.5) that you intend to use. Assign

each element to a sub-point.

• Organize the sub-points in a logical order of slides, and pick a headline for each slide.

Assemble these slides into an outline for your presentation.

2. Slide-deck for the presentation. Use the answers to the above and the guidelines provided

in this chapter to prepare a well-organized presentation for your research project. Include

a PDF copy of the slides in your submission.