How to write a results section PDF

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How to write a results section of a report or paper...

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General tips to writing an effective results section The purpose of a Results section is to present the key results of your experimentation without interpreting their meaning. It is usually not combined with the Discussion section unless a particular journal combines the Results and Discussion into one section. The results should be presented in an orderly sequence, using a combination of text with tables and/or figures. For every result there must be a method in the Methods section. It is important to carefully plan the tables and figures to ensure that their sequencing tells a story. The text of the results should be written to guide the reader through your results tables and figures in the most helpful and sensible way. Now some tips: 1. Determine which results to present by deciding which are relevant to the question(s) presented in the Introduction irrespective of whether or not the results support the hypothesis(es). The Results section does not need to include every result you obtained or observed. Exclude irrelevant findings, but never omit valid results that appear to contradict your hypothesis. Suppressing data is unethical. (For this coursework you are told which data to present). 2. Organise the data in the Results section in either chronological order according to the Methods or in order of most too least important. 3. Determine whether the data are best presented in the form of text, figures, graphs, or tables. 4. Summarise your findings and point the reader to the relevant data in the text, figures and/or tables. The text should complement the figures or tables, not repeat the same information. Remember it is not sufficient to provide just figures and tables in your results section. You must also provide some explanatory prose to guide your reader through the figures and tables in a logical order, highlighting important points as you go and note relationships between the various results. Do not interpret your data in the results section; this should be done in the discussion. 5. Describe the results and data of the controls and include observations not presented in a formal figure or table, if appropriate. 6. Provide a clear description of the magnitude of a response or difference. If appropriate, use percentage of change rather than exact data. 7. Make sure that the data are accurate and consistent throughout the report. 8. Summarize the statistical analysis and report actual P values for all primary analyses (if relevant).

9. Use the past tense when you refer to your results. 10. Number figures and tables consecutively in the same sequence they are first mentioned in the text. 11. Provide a heading for each figure and table. Each figure and table must be sufficiently complete that it could stand on its own, separate from the text. 12. Write with accuracy, brevity and clarity. Tips for figures (plots of numerical data) 1. Give each figure a number, an informative title and an explanatory legend, sufficient to make the figure comprehensible without reference to the text. Include in the legend any important experimental conditions specific to the particular experiment. 2. Axes should not extend much beyond the data, and data must never be included beyond the scale marks. It is not always necessary to include zero point on one or both axes. Consider whether or not your line should go through the origin. Often it should, so long as appropriate controls have been performed (e.g. if you are measuring the absorbance of light by a substance, you should expect that when none of the substance is present then no light be will absorbed by it). 3. Extrapolation of a line is not usually justified. However, depending on the experiment it may be appropriate to extrapolate back to the origin. For example, when the absorbance of a substance is being measured it is reasonable to assume (so long as appropriate controls are performed) that when the concentration of the substance is zero the absorbance will be also. 4. Generally a graph plots a variable that is known at the start of an experiment (e.g. concentration) against a variable that is being measured in the experiment (e.g. absorbance of light). The usual convention is to plot the variable known at the start of the experiment on the horizontal axis (x) and the experimentally determined variable eon the vertical (y) axis. 5. Normally you will need to draw a line through the points. It is not usually appropriate to draw a set of lines that “join the dots”. Instead, as appropriate to the experiment, draw either the best possible straight line or else a curve (or sometimes a line that is mostly straight, but then curves off at high values). You will need to decide which sort of line is most appropriate for your data. In drawing the line, try to give similar importance to each plotted point (but look for any points that appear aberrant (e.g. if you can draw a good straight line through most of your points, but there is one that deviates considerably from the line); check whether that point is correctly plotted and consider whether an error might have been made in determining the values for that point).

6. Axes must be marked with scale marks on the inside of the axes, with scale values on the outside. 7. Avoid combinations such as ‘Concentration (M)’ and scale values such as 0.0001, 0.0002 etc. Instead use ‘Concentration (mM)’ and values 0.1, 0.2 etc. Use symbols (not x or + ) to indicate experimental points, e.g. ❒,△,❍,▲ 8. If possible, use the same symbol for the same entity appearing on more than one figure. 9. Brief explanatory labels may be included on the figure when more than 1 line is present in a single figure, but usually different lines are identified by defining symbols as above. Tips for tables: 1. Tables should be used to present data not suited to graphical presentations, e.g. when the independent variable is not numerical.

2. Tables are also a useful way of summarizing repetitive calculations.

3. Give each table a number, an informative title and an explanatory legend, sufficient to make the table comprehensible without reference to the text. Include in the legend any important experimental conditions specific to the particular experiment.

4. Do not include to many columns; on the other hand try to ensure that all the important comparisons from a batch of experimental data can be drawn form a single table.

5. Avoid numbers with too many digits such as 0.000015; use scientific notation such as 1.5 x 10-5

6. To avoid repetition of constant factors such as 10-4 in a column of data, incorporate the factor into the heading. This must be done with care to avoid confusion. Thus a column of concentrations such as 0.00015M may be expressed as 0.15 under the heading ‘Concentration (mM)’ OR as 150 under he heading ‘Concentration (mM)’, OR as 1.5 under the heading ‘104

x Concentration (M)’ BUT NOT as 1.5 under the heading ‘Concentration (104 x M)’ Finally: It is useful to look at how results sections are structured in scientific journal articles....