| Preface |
| An Introduction to Writing in the Life Sciences |
| Intended Audiences |
| The Culture of Science and Scientific Communication |
| Our Approaches to Successful Scientific Writing |
| A Critical Thinking Approach |
| A Process-based Approach |
| A Problem Solving Approach |
| A Goal-directed Approach |
| An Audience-centered Approach |
| A Discipline-specific and Content-rich Approach |
| Defining Your Writing Project / Chapter 1： |
| Chapter Introduction |
| About the Process |
| Analyzing Your Writing Task |
| Attending to Instructions, Guidelines, and Evaluation Criteria |
| Seeking Clarification of Problematic Assignments and Directions |
| Selecting a Topic and Refining a Research Issue |
| Brainstorm topics that inspire your interest and enthusiasm |
| Ask knowledgeable experts for advice on hot research issues |
| Learn about hot research issues from the scientific literature |
| Learn about hot research issues on the Internet |
| Use your task analysis to refine your research issue |
| Add a novel twist to your selected research issue Check ahead for the availability of scientific literature on selected research issues |
| Make sure that you have sufficient time and resources to learn the science on your research issue |
| Learning about Scientific Discourse Conventions |
| Research Papers |
| Review Papers |
| Research Proposals |
| Analyzing Your Audiences |
| Key Questions for Audience Analysis |
| Taking Notes on Your Audience Analysis |
| Searching for Scientific Literature |
| Evaluating the Credibility of Published Scientific Literature |
| Searching for Peer-reviewed Journal Articles: Research Papers and Review Papers |
| Searching for Scientific Books |
| Searching for Scientific Literature on Web Sites |
| Reading to Learn Science |
| Solving Comprehension Problems |
| Reading and Taking Notes on Published Research Papers |
| Summing Up and Stepping Ahead |
| Developing a Goal-based Plan / Chapter 2： |
| Setting the Framework for Your Goal-based Plan |
| Distinguishing between Just-Okay Goals and Powerful Rhetorical Goals |
| Devising Strategies for Accomplishing Rhetorical Goals |
| The Structure of a Goal-based Plan |
| Taking Goal-based Planning to Heart |
| Relying Your Experience in Scientific Writing |
| Adopting and Adapting Conventional Guidelines |
| Using Model Papers |
| Applying Your Task and Audience Analyses |
| Using the Helicopter Thinking Method |
| Starting to Draft |
| Revising Your Goal-based Plan |
| Check for whether your rhetorical goals are appropriate for the major sections in which you have placed them |
| Check your rhetorical goals for their content-generating potential |
| Check your rhetorical goals for their audience-affecting potential |
| Check your strategies for their detail and depth |
| Check your strategies for whether they are logically related to their rhetorical goals Summing Up and Stepping Ahead |
| Generating Content / Chapter 3： |
| Solo and Collaborative Brainstorming |
| Solo Brainstorming |
| Collaborative Brainstorming |
| Reading for Relevance |
| Interpreting Study Data |
| Interpreting the Statistical Significance of Study Data |
| Interpreting the Practical Significance of Study Data |
| Synthesizing Study Outcomes |
| Focusing on Rhetorical Goals that Require Synthesis |
| Creating a Summary Chart to Guide Synthesis |
| Synthesizing Studies with Similar Conclusions |
| Synthesizing Studies with Contrasting Conclusions |
| Constructing Convincing Scientific Arguments |
| Setting up the Structure of a Scientific Argument |
| Evaluating Published Scientific Arguments |
| Evaluating Research Methods |
| Summing up and Stepping Ahead |
| Organizing Content and Writing a Draft / Chapter 4： |
| About the Process: Organizing Content |
| Choosing a Design for Your Organizing Plan |
| Taking a Principled Approach to Organizing Content |
| Organizing Your Paper's Major Sections |
| Organizing Your Paper's Subsections |
| Deciding Which Parts of Your Plan to Emphasize |
| About the Process: Writing a Draft: |
| Drafting Titles |
| Drafting Abstracts |
| Drafting Section Headings |
| Drafting Paragraphs |
| Drafting Sentences |
| Drafting Graphics |
| Citing References |
| Avoiding Plagiarism |
| Revising Document Design, Global Structure, and Content / Chapter 5： |
| About the Process: Revising for Matters of Document Design |
| About the Process: Revising for Matters of Global Structure |
| Disordered Sections |
| Weak Global Unity |
| Mismatched Organizing Themes |
| Redundancy of Content across Sections |
| About the Process: Revising for Matters of Content |
| Missing Content |
| Ambiguous Content |
| Inaccurate Content |
| Content that Misses the Target on Key Rhetorical Goals |
| Content that Fails to Adequately Address Concerns of Audience |
| Saying Too Little or Too Much |
| Logical Fallacies in Scientific Arguments |
| Revising Graphics |
| Excelling at Collegial Peer Review |
| Apply key methods of independent revision to guide your peer review |
| Take a goal-directed approach to generating feedback |
| Make it constructive criticism |
| Take on the role of writing teacher |
| Encourage dialogue |
| Avoid giving feedback based on personal preferences and pet peeves |
| Revising Paragraphs / Chapter 6： |
| Revising for Unity |
| Fractured Unity |
| Faded Unity |
| Frazzled Unity |
| Revising Topic Sentences |
| Missing Topic Sentences (when they're needed) |
| Misplaced Topic Sentences |
| Topic Sentences as Broken Promises |
| Vague Topic Sentences |
| Topic Sentences that are Too Specific |
| Revising for Coherence |
| Disordered Ideas |
| Missing Knowledge Links (when they're needed) |
| Oversights of Readers' Expectations |
| Lack of Parallel Structure (when it's needed) |
| Revising for Cohesion |
| Missing Cohesion Cues |
| Misplaced Cohesion Cues |
| Unnecessary Cohesion Cues |
| Revising for Sentence Variety |
| Lack of Variety in Sentence Length |
| Lack of Variety in Sentence Beginnings |
| Lack of Variety in Grammatical Structure |
| Lack of Variety in Tone |
| Revising for Paragraph Design |
| Revising Sentences / Chapter 7： |
| Revising for Logic and Clarity |
| Illogical Expressions and Comparisons |
| Anthropomorphism |
| Dangling Modifiers |
| Vagueness |
| Unclear Pronoun Reference |
| Illogical Tense Shifts |
| Problematic Shifts in Point of View |
| Misplaced and Awkward Phrasing |
| Inappropriate Emphasis |
| Revising for Style and Structure |
| Weak Subjects and Verbs |
| Misuses of Active Voice and Passive Voice |
| Wordiness |
| Unnecessary Jargon |
| Excessive Separation of Subjects and Verbs |
| Long Noun Trains |
| Lack of Parallel Structure |
| Revising Basic Grammar Errors |
| Sentence Fragments |
| Subject-Verb Disagreement |
| Noun-Pronoun Disagreement |
| Revising for Word Choice |
| Affect, Effect |
| As, Because, Since |
| Amount, Number |
| Compose, Comprise |
| Gender, Sex |
| Less, Few, Fewer, |
| Study, Experiment |
| That, Which |
| Than, Then |
| Who, Whom |
| Revising Punctuation and Mechanics |
| Problems Involving Commas |
| Problems Involving Semicolons |
| Problems Involving Apostrophes |
| Problems Involving Colons |
| Problems Involving Hyphens |
| Problems Involving Quotation Marks |
| Problems Involving Capitalization |
| Revising for Biased and Inadvertently Offensive Language |
| Sexist Language |
| Age-Biased Language |
| Biased Language Involving Ethnic and Racial Groups |
| Rhetorical Goals for Scientific Papers / Chapter 8： |
| Rhetorical Goals for Introduction Sections |
| Present your research issue and explain its unresolved status. / Rhetorical Goal 1： |
| Convince readers that your research issue is truly important and therefore worth resolving. / Rhetorical Goal 2： |
| State your hypotheses and explain their rationale. / Rhetorical Goal 3： |
| Introduce the novel and unique features of your research and writing project. / Rhetorical Goal 4： |
| Present the specific purposes of your research and writing project. / Rhetorical Goal 5： |
| Present your claims. / Rhetorical Goal 6： |
| Describe the methods that you used, or plan to use, in carrying out your study. / Rhetorical Goal 7： |
| Justify your use of selected methods. Rhetorical Goals for Results Sections / Rhetorical Goal 8： |
| Present the results that are essential for reaching and supporting your conclusions. / Rhetorical Goal 9： |
| Rhetorical Goals for Discussion Sections |
| Briefly reintroduce the defining features of your study. / Rhetorical Goal 10： |
| State your conclusions and support them with your study's results. / Rhetorical Goal 11： |
| Relate your study's outcomes to those from previous studies on your research issue. / Rhetorical Goal 12： |
| Discuss the mechanisms that underlie your study's main results, and argue for the most plausible underlying mechanisms (when such an argument is warranted). / Rhetorical Goal 13： |
| Acknowledge significant methodological shortcomings to your study, and explain how they may have influenced its outcomes. / Rhetorical Goal 14： |
| Discuss the practical implications and applications of your study's results. / Rhetorical Goal 15： |
| Propose future studies on your research issue. / Rhetorical Goal 16： |
| Rhetorical Goals for the Body of Review Papers |
| Provide essential background knowledge about the studies, critical evaluations, and arguments that are central to your review paper. / Rhetorical Goal 17： |
| Summarize the published studies on your topic or research issue. / Rhetorical Goal 18： |
| Synthesize the published studies on your topic or research issue. / Rhetorical Goal 19： |
| Explain and argue for the mechanisms underlying the results of the published studies you are reviewing. / Rhetorical Goal 20： |
| Convince readers to accept your original arguments. / Rhetorical Goal 21： |
| Rhetorical Goals for the Conclusion Section of Review Papers |
| Briefly reiterate the key information, ideas, and arguments that were central to the body of your review paper. / Rhetorical Goal 22： |
| Suggest future directions and new studies on your paper's topic or research issue. / Rhetorical Goal 23： |
| Guidelines for Preparing and Delivering Oral Presentations and Poster Presentations / Appendix A： |
| Glossary of Sentence Grammar Terms / Appendix B： |
| References |
| Index |
| Preface |
| An Introduction to Writing in the Life Sciences |
| Intended Audiences |
| The Culture of Science and Scientific Communication |
| Our Approaches to Successful Scientific Writing |
| A Critical Thinking Approach |
