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Writing Biochemistry Theses

Writing Biochemistry Theses. Raymond Critch The Writing Centre, Memorial University of Newfoundland. About The Writing Centre. Locations SN 2053; The Commons; online @ www.mun.ca/writingcentre Hours – M-F, 9-5 and Sunday , noon-4 Graduate Appointments – our office or ennisd@mun.ca

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Writing Biochemistry Theses

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  1. Writing Biochemistry Theses Raymond Critch The Writing Centre, Memorial University of Newfoundland

  2. About The Writing Centre • Locations • SN 2053; The Commons; • online @ www.mun.ca/writingcentre • Hours – M-F, 9-5 and Sunday , noon-4 • Graduate Appointments – our office or ennisd@mun.ca • Undergraduate Appointments – our office or 864-3168 • Drop-in service still available for undergraduates • Process • Pre-reading and Session Reading • Focus on improving your abilities, and thereby your paper, rather than on the paper alone • Not an editing service • Once/Week/Assignment • Triage – HOCs and LOCs

  3. Biochemistry Theses • Structure of Biochemistry Dissertations • Introduction • What are you researching • What does one need to know to understand the research • Background and detail • Why is this question interesting • Audience – broad and narrow • What goes into the writing of an introduction – timing? • Methodology Chapter(s) • What materials are used in the experiments • What is the process • What would someone attempting to reproduce your results need to know in order to reproduce the experiment accurately • How many? – One per experiment? Experimental overlap? • Timing?

  4. Biochemistry Theses • Structure of Biochemistry Dissertations • Results • What happened? How did the experiment(s) turn out? • Completeness is important – what worked, what didn’t, what changed along the way? • Discussion • What does it mean? • Should be some consonance between discussion and introduction – recall why the experiment was important in the first place • Timing is Everything • Write Introduction and Methods/Materials BEFORE doing the experiments. • Expect Revisions – Revisions are a good thing, not a bad thing • Write the results as you’re doing the experiments – and revise as the results come in • Keep sending drafts to your supervisors, friends, acquaintances, anyone…

  5. Writing for Academics • Paragraph Structure • One point per paragraph • Topic Sentences and the introduction of a section • Be Boring – give away the ending at the beginning, along with how you’re going to get there • Clarity • Word Choice – ‘academic’ vocabulary • Using simple words v. utilization of unsophisticated vocabulary • Passive and Active Voice • Active voice – subject, verb, object • ‘I parked the car’ • Passive voice – object as subject, verb • ‘the car was parked’ • The Clue – ‘was +verb’

  6. Writing for Scientists • Does anyone actually do science? – the problem with passive voice • When do scientists do things? – the problem of verb tense in scientific writing • Present Tense – referring to secondary sources • ‘Jones argues,’ ‘Smith found,’ etc… • Past Tense – one’s own work • ‘We found,’ ‘I subjected the test subject to …’ • Future Tense – things not yet done • ‘We will continue this experiment,’ ‘We hope to discover what will happen…’

  7. How to Improve • Start Early • The priority of language over thought • Reading is the key to writing • Practice makes perfect

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