Writing and Publishing Scientific Articles
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Strategies for Writing a Scientific Article
The following are several approaches to writing a scientific article. Different approaches work for different authors.
▪ Outline each section of the article. Expand the outline components into sentences, and add sentences and headings to complete each section. ▪ Write down phrases describing things you want to include in the article as they occur to you; and classify each phrase as belonging in Introduction, Methods, Results, or Discussion. Expand the phrases into sentences, and add sentences and headings to complete each section. ▪ Make your tables, graphs, and other figures; and write text describing each (for the Results section), text describing how you performed the experiments (for the Methods section), text describing why you did the study (for the Introduction section), text describing your conclusions (for the Discussion section), and a summary (for the Abstract). ▪ Write the easiest sections (Methods and Results) first and then the harder ones (Introduction and Discussion). ▪ If you are uncomfortable writing, try tape recording yourself describing your study, and then transcribe the tape and edit it into the article. ▪ Write the Abstract first, as a guide to writing the entire article; or write the Abstract last, by assembling the most important sentences in each section of the article.
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