Description

For courses in Writing Across the Curriculum or Writing About Biology.
Developing the tools to effectively write about biology
Teaching biology and strong writing skills simultaneously is a challenge, especially when students exhibit a range of abilities. The Ninth Edition of A Short Guide to Writing about Biology provides tools to strengthen student writing and reinforce critical thinking.
Written by a prominent biologist, this best-selling guide teaches students to express ideas clearly and concisely. It emphasizes writing as a way of examining, evaluating, and refining ideas: students learn to read critically, study, evaluate and report data, and communicate with clarity.
Using a narrative style, the text is its own example of good analytical writing. In this new edition, students learn how to avoid plagiarism (Ch. 1 and 3), read and interpret data (Ch. 3, 4 and 9), prepare effective Materials and Methods sections in research reports and more (Ch. 9), and prepare manuscripts for submission (Ch 9). The text also provides advice on locating useful sources (Ch. 2), maintaining laboratory and field notebooks (Ch. 9), communicating with different audiences (Ch. 6 and 10), and crafting research proposals (Ch. 10), poster presentations (Ch. 11), and letters of application (Ch. 12).

MyWritingLab^TM not included. Students, if MyWritingLab is a recommended/mandatory component of the course, please ask your instructor for the correct ISBN and course ID. MyWritingLab should only be purchased when required by an instructor. Instructors, contact your Pearson representative for more information.

MyWritingLab is an online homework, tutorial, and assessment product designed to personalize learning and improve results. With a wide range of interactive, engaging, and assignable activities, students are encouraged to actively learn and retain tough course concepts.

Features

This title is a Pearson Global Edition. The Editorial team at Pearson has worked closely with educators around the world to include content which is especially relevant to students outside the United States.

A Short Guide to Writing about Biology provides:
Timeless Writing Advice

• Offers extensive guidance for all aspects of writing for biologists at all stages of training, including research reports, essay exams, term papers, research proposals, summaries, critiques, poster presentations, oral presentations, and letters of application for jobs and graduate programs.
• Includes extensive pedagogy in each chapter—helpful hints and end of chapter checklists and summaries facilitate peer review and help instructors to generate grading rubrics.

Insight into Working with Sources

• Explains how biologists work, design studies, and think about the data they collect (Ch 1 and throughout).
• Provides detailed advice on working with data, presenting data, and interpreting the results of statistical analyses (Ch 3 and 4).
• Offers detailed advice about locating useful sources of information, both in print and on the web. Includes information on open access research journals (the DOAJ–Directory of Open Access Journals) as an area to explore for research sources (Ch 2)
• REVISED! An expanded section on avoiding plagiarism (Ch 1 and 3).
• REVISED! Updated drawings clarify how to read figures and interpret data (Ch 3).
• REVISED! More information about citing references and listing them in the Literature Cited section of reports, including information about adding DOI’s (digital object identifiers) to references and how to cite online journals (Ch 5).

Tools to Improve Writing Skills

• Guides students through the important process of creating effective oral presentations and poster presentations (Ch 11).
• NEW! Offers advice on organizing talks and giving regular, short oral presentations in class based on a single graph or table from a research paper Ch 11).
• Includes numerous “Technology Tips,” helping students to take better advantage of the computer technology available to them for writing, revising, graphing, calculating, and giving effective talks (throughout).
• NEW! Features information on how to address controls and write a good Materials and Methods section of a laboratory report of research paper (Ch 9).

Preparing a Work for Submission

• NEW! Includes material about preparing manuscripts for online submission (Ch 9).
• NEW! Features content on writing effective figure captions (Ch 9).
• NEW! Offers examples about building logical introductions that lead to the specific research question to be addressed (Ch 9).

Streamlined Organization

• Begins each chapter with a brief overview of the main points to be covered in that chapter to let students know the key topics that they are expected to learn.
• NEW! Includes more boldfacing, making it easier for students to locate advice of particular importance.

MyWritingLab^TM not included. Students, if MyWritingLab is a recommended/mandatory component of the course, please ask your instructor for the correct ISBN and course ID. MyWritingLab should only be purchased when required by an instructor. Instructors, contact your Pearson representative for more information.

MyWritingLab is an online homework, tutorial, and assessment program that provides engaging experiences for teaching and learning. Flexible and easily customizable, MyWritingLab helps improve students’ writing throug

New to this Edition

A Short Guide to Writing about Biology:

• Features an expanded section on avoiding plagiarism (Ch 1 and 3).
• Includes updated drawings that clarify how to read figures and interpret data (Ch 3).
• Provides more information about citing references and listing them in the Literature Cited section of reports, including information about adding DOI’s (digital object identifiers) to references and how to cite online journals (Ch 5).
• Offers advice on organizing talks and giving regular, short oral presentations in class based on a single graph or table from a research paper Ch 11).
• Features information on how to address controls and write a good Materials and Methods section of a laboratory report of research paper (Ch 9).
• Includes material about preparing manuscripts for online submission (Ch 9).
• Features content on writing effective figure captions (Ch 9).
• Offers examples about building logical introductions that lead to the specific research question to be addressed (Ch 9).
• Includes more boldfacing, making it easier for students to locate advice of particular importance.

MyWritingLab^TM not included. Students, if MyWritingLab is a recommended/mandatory component of the course, please ask your instructor for the correct ISBN and course ID. MyWritingLab should only be purchased when required by an instructor. Instructors, contact your Pearson representative for more information.

MyWritingLab is an online homework, tutorial, and assessment program that provides engaging experiences for teaching and learning. Flexible and easily customizable, MyWritingLab helps improve students’ writing through context-based learning. Whether through self-study or instructor-led learning, MyWritingLab supports and complements course work.

• Writing at the Center. With the new composing space and Review Plan, MyWritingLab unites instructor comments and feedback on student writing with targeted remediation via rich multimedia activities, allowing students to learn from and through their own writing.
• Writing Help for Varying Skill Levels. For students who enter the course under-prepared, MyWritingLab identifies those who lack prerequisite skills for composition-level topics, and provides personalized remediation.
• Proven Results. No matter how MyWritingLab is used, instructors have access to powerful gradebook reports, which provide visual analytics that give insight to course performance at the student, section, or even program level.

Table of Contents

Part I General Advice about Writing and Reading Biology

1. Introduction and General Rules
What Lies Ahead?
What Do Biologists Write About, and Why?
The Keys to Success
Avoiding Plagiarism
On Using Computers in Writing
On Using Computers for Data Storage, Analysis, and Presentation
Summary
Technology Tip 1. Using Shortcuts and AutoCorrect

2. Locating Useful Sources
What Lies Ahead?
Easy Ways to Access The Primary Literature
Using Indexes
Using Science Citation Index
Using Current Contents Connect
Using Medline and Other Databases
Prowling the Internet
Conducting Web Searches: Developing Productive Search Strategies
Final Thoughts About Efficient Searching: Technology Isn’t Everything
Closing Thoughts
Summary
Technology Tip 2. Using Search Engines E ffectively

3. General Advice on Reading, Note Taking, and Avoiding Plagiarism
What Lies Ahead?
Why Read and What to Read
Effective Reading
Reading Data: Plumbing the Depths of Figures and Tables
Take Notes in Your Own Words
Final Thoughts on Note Taking: Document Your Sources
Summary

4. Reading and Writing About Statistical Analyses
What Lies Ahead?
Statistical Essentials
Summary: Using Statistics to Test Hypotheses
Moving Beyond p-Values
Reading About Statistics
Writing About Statistics
Summary

5. Citing Sources and Listing References
What Lies Ahead?
Citing Sources
Summary of Citation Format Rules
Preparing the Literature Cited Section
A Sample Literature Cited Section
Technology Tip 3. Bibliographic Management S oftware
Technology Tip 4. Producing Hanging Indents

6. Revising
What Lies Ahead?
Preparing the Draft for Surgery: Plotting Idea Maps
Revising for Content
Revising for Clarity
Revising for Completeness
Revising for Conciseness
Revising for Flow
Revising for Teleology and Anthropomorphism
Revising For Spelling Errors
Revising for Grammar and Proper Word Usage
Becoming a Good Reviewer
Checklist
Technology Tip 5. Tracking Changes Made
to Documents 115

Part II Guidelines for Specific Tasks

Prelude: Why Are You Writing Papers and Proposals and Giving Talks?
7. Writing Summaries, Critiques, Essays,and Review Papers
What Lies Ahead?
Writing Summaries and Critiques
Sample Student Summary
Writing Essays and Review Papers
Checklist for Essays and Review Papers

8. Answering Essay Questions
Basic Principles
Applying the Principles
Summary

9. Writing Laboratory and Other Research Reports
What Lies Ahead?
Why Are You Doing This?
The Purpose of Laboratory and Field Notebooks
Components of the Research Report
Where to Start
When to Start
Writing the Materials and Methods Section
Writing The Results Section
Citing Sources
What to Do Next?
Writing the Discussion Section
Writing the Introduction Section
Talking About Your Study Organism or Field Site
Deciding on a Title
Writing an Abstract
Preparing an Acknowledgments Section
Preparing the Literature Cited Section
Preparing a Paper for Formal Publication
A Note About Co-Authorship
Checklist for the Final Draft
Technology Tip 6. Using Computer Spreadsheets for Data Collection
Technology Tip 7. Graphing with Excel

10. Writing Research Proposals
What Lies Ahead?
What Are Reviewers Looking For?
Researching Your Topic
What Makes a Good Research Question?
Writing the Proposal
Tightening the Logic
The Life of a Real Research Proposal
Checklist

11. Presenting Research Findi