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Biology

Writing guides

Writing in biology

These sites offer some useful tips for writing biology lab reports.

Check the guide

Even if you use a citation generator, check it against KPU Library's APA guide.

Or, go straight to the source. The APA Style Site contains helpful information on the following:

Citation managers

Use a citation manager to generate standalone citations and create your reference lists. The following free tools will also help you organize and store your research articles and other resources.

Ask your librarian for more information.

Screenshot of Zotero logo

 

 

Zotero is a free browser tool that keeps track of your articles and webpages, and creates citations in several formats. Sign up for a free account, and your personal library will be accessible from any computer with an internet connection.

Visit the library's Zotero guide for complete details on how to install and use this software.

Also available for free, Mendeley allows you to import articles from supported websites as well as stored on your local device, making them accessible from anywhere. Creates references and bibliographies in many styles.

Screenshot of Mendeley logo

Summon citation tool

The library's Summon search, as well as many of its research databases, have built-in citation generators for creating citations and permanent folders for saving your search results.

In Summon, look for the quotation marks next to the result in the search results list. Be sure to select the appropriate citation style from the drop-down.

Summon citation tool

 

 

 

 

Use the tool to copy and paste the entries into your reference list, but make sure to double-check for accuracy and completion. Consult the Library's citation guides when you are preparing your final draft to make sure the formatting and details are correct.

Using sources in science writing

The big picture

It helps to keep a couple of things in mind as you start to write you lab reports and papers:

  • Scholarship is like a conversation Research and scholarly writing within a particular field is like an ongoing conversation, with experts and professionals building upon one another's work, and what has come before. It is also a space where different perspectives are examined, and where new questions may be asked. As a newcomer to the conversation, you are developing an awareness of sources, evidence, and methods specific to your field. It is also important to recognize your own role in contributing to this conversation as a writer or creator of content.
  • Information has value With so much information so freely available, it is easy to forget that information has value, both in the sense that it is a commodity protected by legal frameworks (copyright), and a means of education, influence, and navigating the world. The ethical use of information involves acknowledging the work of others by employing the conventions of citation within a field. By using these conventions, you demonstrate that you are a part of a community that is engaged in discovering and disseminating knowledge around a given a topic.

Why Citations are Important

In science communication, include citations to external and reliable sources in order to:

  • increase the credibility of your own work
  • provide your reader with additional sources of information
  • acknowledge the work of others who have gone before you
  • ensure that your work is transparent and unbiased

Direct Quotation, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing

There are certain conventions in science writing that make it a little different from other academic and non-academic writing:

  • Rarely, if ever, are direct quotations taken from other work. This is largely because the actual words an author uses is not so important, whereas their findings and theories are.
  • Paraphrasing the work of others is done by carefully altering sentence structure and terminology while adhering to the original meaning.
  • Most often, when writing your lab reports and research papers, you will be summarizing the works of others.

Tips

Here are a few resources to help you understand the correct way to incorporate sources of information into your science writing.

The following templates can provide useful phrases for incorporating your sources into your writing. They are based on the templates from the book cited below and have been adapted for writing in the sciences.

Graff, G. & Birkenstein, C. (2013). “They say/ I say”: The moves that matter in academic writing (3rd ed.). Norton.