Essentials of writing biomedical research papers

Publisher's Note: Products purchased from Third Party sellers are not guaranteed by the publisher for quality, authenticity, or access to any online entitlements included with the product.







Provides immediate help for anyone preparing a biomedical paper by givin specific advice on organizing the components of the paper, effective writing techniques, writing an effective results sections, documentation issues, sentence structure and much more. The new edition includes new examples from the current literature including many involving molecular biology, expanded exercises at the end of the book, revised explanations on linking key terms, transition clauses, uses of subheads, and emphases. If you plan to do any medical writing, read this book first and get an immediate advantage.

• Preface p. ix
• Credits p. xi
• The Goal: Clear Writing p. 1
• The Purpose of This Book p. 1
• Reasons for Writing Clearly p. 2
• The Scope of This Book p. 3
• The Approach Taken in This Book p. 3
• An Overview of the Main Principles of Writing Presented in This Book p. 4
• Using This Book p. 7
• Section I The Building Blocks of Writing p. 9
• Chapter 1 Word Choice p. 11
• Exercise 1.1 Principles of Word Choice p. 12
• Exercise 1.2 Words Carelessly Interchanged p. 16
• Words Carelessly Interchanged p. 17
• Chapter 2 Sentence Structure p. 22
• Express the Core of the Message in the Subject, Verb, and Completer p. 22
• Exercise 2.1 Express the Core of the Message in the Subject, Verb, and Completer p. 27
• Avoid Noun Clusters p. 30
• Exercise 2.2 Untangling Noun Clusters p. 32
• Write Short Sentences p. 33
• Exercise 2.3 Overloaded Sentences p. 35
• Use Clear Pronouns p. 36
• Exercise 2.4 Clear Pronouns p. 39
• Put Parallel Ideas in Parallel Form p. 40
• Exercise 2.5 Parallelism in Sentences p. 46
• Exercise 2.6 Parallelism in Comparisons p. 47
• Avoid Writing Flaws p. 48
• Chapter 3 Paragraph Structure p. 51
• Organization p. 51
• Exercise 3.1 Topic Sentences and Supporting Sentences p. 56
• Continuity p. 58
• Exercise 3.2 Repeating Key Terms Exactly and Early p. 64
• A Lumped Transport Model to Determine Resin Capacity as a Function of Bed Height and Flow Rate p. 64
• Exercise 3.3 Linking Key Terms p. 69
• Exercise 3.4 Repeating and Linking Key Terms p. 70
• Exercise 3.5 The Value of Transitions p. 73
• Exercise 3.6 Transition Phrases p. 76
• Exercise 3.7 Transition Clauses p. 80
• Exercise 3.8 Keeping a Consistent Point of View and a Consistent Order p. 88
• Exercise 3.9 Signaling Subtopics p. 95
• Exercise 3.10 Parallel Form and Signaling Subtopics p. 96
• Emphasis p. 98
• Exercise 3.11 Condensing p. 102
• Summary of Guidelines for Paragraph Structure p. 103
• Section II The Text of The Biomedical Research Paper p. 105
• Chapter 4 The Introduction p. 107
• Functions p. 107
• Story Line p. 107
• Content for Hypothesis-Testing Papers p. 107
• Organization for Hypothesis-Testing Papers p. 108
• Writing p. 113
• Length p. 119
• Content and Organization for Descriptive Papers p. 119
• Content and Organization for "Methods Papers" p. 120
• Details p. 120
• Summary of Guidelines for Introductions of Hypothesis-Testing Papers and of Descriptive Papers p. 122
• Exercise 4.1 Introductions p. 123
• Chapter 5 Materials and Methods p. 127
• Function p. 127
• Story Line p. 127
• Content p. 128
• Organization p. 135
• Length p. 138
• Details p. 138
• Summary of Guidelines for the Materials and Methods Section p. 143
• Exercise 5.1 A Clearly Written Methods Section p. 146
• Exercise 5.2 Content and Organization in the Methods Section p. 151
• Chapter 6 Results p. 154
• Functions p. 154
• Story Line p. 154
• Content p. 155
• Organization p. 156
• Emphasis p. 160
• Length p. 165
• Details p. 165
• Summary of Guidelines for Results p. 168
• Exercise 6.1 Results p. 170
• Exercise 6.2 Results p. 174
• Chapter 7 Discussion p. 176
• Functions p. 176
• Story Line p. 176
• Content p. 176
• Organization p. 183
• Length p. 199
• Subheadings p. 199
• Summary of Guidelines for Discussions p. 201
• Exercise 7.1 Following the Story in a Discussion p. 203
• Exercise 7.2 Message and Story in the Discussion p. 211
• Section III Supporting Information p. 221
• Chapter 8 Figures and Tables p. 223
• Figures p. 223
• Tables p. 238
• Telling a Story p. 250
• Summary of Guidelines for Figures and Tables p. 253
• Exercise 8.1 Design of Figures and Tables and Their Relation to the Text p. 258
• Exercise 8.2 Table Design and Relation to the Text p. 259
• Chapter 9 References p. 260
• Purposes p. 260
• Selecting References p. 260
• Accuracy p. 261
• Incorporating References Into the Text p. 262
• Systems for Citing References p. 264
• Summary of Guidelines for References p. 266
• Section IV The Overview p. 267
• Chapter 10 The Abstract p. 269
• Function p. 269
• Abstracts of Hypothesis-Testing Papers p. 269
• Abstracts of Descriptive Papers p. 275
• Abstracts of Methods Papers p. 286
• Indexing Terms p. 289
• Abstracts for Meetings p. 290
• Summary of Guidelines for Abstracts p. 294
• Exercise 10.1 Abstracts p. 297
• Chapter 11 The Title p. 300
• Functions p. 300
• Content of Titles for Hypothesis-Testing Papers p. 300
• Content of Titles for Descriptive Papers p. 302
• Content of Titles for Methods Papers p. 303
• Hallmarks of a Good Title p. 305
• Details p. 311
• Running Titles p. 311
• Summary of Guidelines for Titles p. 314
• Exercise 11.1 Titles p. 317
• Chapter 12 The Big Picture p. 319
• Checklist for the Big Picture p. 319
• Exercise 12.1 Seeing the Big Picture p. 324
• Reaching The Goal: Suggestions For Writing p. 340
• Writing the First Draft p. 340
• Revising: Using the Checklists p. 342
• The Rewards of Clear Writing p. 342
• Revisions of Exercises p. 345
• Literature Cited p. 429
• Words Explained in the Text p. 433
• Index p. 435