Instructions to write a biomedical as an expert
– Include figures, a title page, and references please. PHM/NEU422 Papers All students enrolled in PHM/NEU422 are required to submit an original paper on someaspect of pharmacology. The topic of the paper is selected by the student with Dr Cobbett’s approval – topic choices should be approved by Spring break. The paper should show that the student has read from several sources and hasunderstood and integrated the material from those sources. The paper should be 4-5double spaced pages (with title page, reference list, figures, and tables in addition): thelength of the paper should be sufficient to demonstrate the student’s readings andunderstanding of the topic (without creating boredom for the reader!!). As author of the paper, the student should be considered a topic expert. The paper shouldnot be written for a reader who is also an expert in the topic. The student should assumethat your reader is someone who has a BS degree in a biomedical discipline. The studentshould write his/her paper so that the reader is neither bored by his/her writing nor “out oftheir depth” by his/her writing – and (s(he) should learn from reading your paper.Your paper is due 5.00pm Monday 6 April 2020 – there is a dropbox for papers at the D2Lsite for the course.NOTE: You may not submit a paper which you or anyone else has previously submitted forevaluation as part of an MSU course and you should read the section on plagiarism below.Writing A PaperSome hints and guidelines to help you communicate with the reader(s) of your paper(whether for this course or any other situation)….1) You must tell a story in the sense that your writing must make sense and mustengage the reader – you must make the paper interesting and easy to read. You arecommunicating with your reader: you must introduce your topic sufficiently andmake some final conclusions or opinion statements based on evidence or scientificfacts that you have provided as the main part of your paper. Make sure that thereader will understand what you write: your English language must be good andyour desсrіption of science must be comprehensible.2) Headings and subheadings within your text can be useful. They will allow you toorganize your thoughts and writing and to provide structure your paper. They willalso allow your reader to recognize each heading and subheading as a break in1 your text and any such break should make reading your paper easier.Before you start writing sentences, create a working skeleton structure of your paper. Takea (paper or electronic) note pad: write down the titles of the major sections of the paper; inbullet form, fill in this working skeleton structure with the topics you want to cover in theappropriate place and order. Use the working skeleton structure as you write to “keep youon track” with your original vision of how the paper should look. [unique_solution]However, even with aworking skeleton structure, you need flexibility – as you write, changes to the skeletonstructure may become necessary and/or useful. You can use these section topics to divideyour text with headings and subheadings – these will help you and your reader stayorganized and will signal to your reader when to “take a break, here’s a new topic”.3) The first sentence of a paragraph sets up the reader for the rest of the paragraph. Itcan help the reader and you to make this sentence an introductory or summarystatement of sorts. With such a sentence, the reader will know what to expect in theremainder of the paragraph; you, as author, can use this sentence to maintain thetopic of the paragraph as you write and revise your text. But be subtle if you can -no one likes reading paragraph after paragraph where the first sentence sets up thereader in an overt, “in your face” manner.4) Poor writing will prevent your reader understanding what you wish to communicate.A) In consideration of every sentence which you write – read it very carefully.(i) Is the sentence complete?(ii) Have you missed out a word or added a word so that the sentence doesnot make grammatical or logical sense?(iii) Does the sentence make grammatical and logical sense?(iv) Does the sentence follow logically and smoothly from the previoussentence?(v) Does the sentence flow logically and smoothly into the next sentence?B) In consideration of sentence structure, check also:(i) In any one sentence, make sure that when the subject of the sentence is asingular noun then you use the singular form of the verb attached to thatnoun; and, in any one sentence, make sure that when the subject of thesentence is a plural noun then you use the plural form of the verb attached tothat noun. (ii) In any one sentence, make sure that you use verbs in their correct tense.5) Figures and tables can be very useful to help you illustrate facts and ideas, butregardless of whether figures and tables in your paper are your originals or copied2 from a source, they require an attached explanation or legend. A) Use a legend to describe to the reader what the figure/table shows: use yourlegend to guideyour reader to understand the figure/table and to what you wanthim/her to see in figure/table. You can and should bring your reader’s attention towhat you consider as the most important parts of a figure/table even if, for a copiedfigure/table, your focus is not the same as the original authors’. (You are permittedto write a legend for a copied figure/table that is not the same as the legend thataccompanied the figure/table in the source from which you copied the figure/table.) If you copy a figure, or table, or legend, make sure that you cite the source wherethe figure/table/legend appears in your paper and include the cited source in yourlist of references at the end of the paper.B) You should also refer to any figure or table in the main body of your text – youcan briefly describe what the figure/table shows and why the figure/table is importantin the context of your paper. Again, use the text referring to a figure/table to enableyour reader to better know and understand what you want him/her to know andunderstand about your topic.6) Be careful when you use “this” or “these” without a directly attached noun. When“this” or “these” appears without a directly attached noun, the reader must attach anoun which appeared in the previous part of the sentence or in the previoussentence, and (s)he may attach a different noun than the one which you intended tobe attached. Also, when “this” or “these” appears without a directly attached noun,the reader may have to insert a noun (to attach to “this” or “these”) which does notactually appear in the text – for example “this idea” or “this result” or “this person” -and (s)he may insert a different noun than the one which you intended to beinserted. (Such incorrect association of “this” or “these” with an unintended nounmay be the reader’s fault or yours but fault doesn’t matter: your reader will not readand understand your text as you intended if the wrong noun is attached.)You know that you would not use “the” without a directly attached noun and, asmuch as possible, I encourage you to follow the same practice with “this” or “these” -attach the noun directly. If you use “this” or “these” without a directly attached noun,you should very carefully read your text so that, from the perspective of the reader,there can be no confusion about which noun should be attached. 7) Similarly to the issue on “this” and “these” without a directly attached noun, be verycareful with “it” (or “they”). When you use “it” (or “they” or “their”) in your text, yourreader will effectively substitute “it” (or “they” or “their”) for a noun that appeared inthe previous part of the sentence or a noun in the previous sentence. Your readermay substitute “it” (or “they” or “their”) with a noun which is not the noun you hadintended. (Such incorrect substitution of “it” (or “they” or “their”) with an unintendednoun may be the reader’s fault or yours but fault doesn’t matter: your reader will not3 15) Sourcing your information is important. If, in your paper, you provide a fact or ideafrom previously published material (research articles, books, newspapers,webpages, etc), it’s important to provide your reader the opportunity to read thefacts and ideas in the place they were originally published. To do so, you must citethe source of information by including the authors of the source in the text of yourpaper and you must include a full citation for each source in a reference list. A) Research Articles.Research articles can be considered to be articles in which new experiments andtheir results and significance are described. You should be citing this type of articlewhen the article is the source of information obtained in the studies described inyour paper.Any citation in your text to a research article in a peer reviewed journal should bemade as the last name of the author(s) (in the order in which they appear in thepublication) with the year of the publication. That information should be containedwithin parentheses and within the sentence (before the period ending the sentence)containing the cited fact or idea – many students have the citation incorrectly placedafter the sentence is terminated by a period.For example:…the earth is flat (Cobbett and Smith, 2015)… rather than …the earth is flat. (Cobbett and Jones, 2015)… For multi authored papers you do not need to list all the authors in your text citation -just first author followed by “et al.” (et al. is short for et alteri which is latin for “andothers”)For example: …the earth is flat (Cobbett, Smith, and Jones, 2015)…would be shortened to…the earth is flat (Cobbett et al., 2015)…B) Secondary Citations and Review Articles.When you cite a fact/idea published as part of the introduction or discussionsections of a research article or as part of a review article, then you should indicateto the reader that your cited source is not the original source of the fact/idea.For example:…the earth is flat (as reviewed by Cobbett and Smith, 2015)… and…the earth is flat (cited by Cobbett and Smith, 2015)… C) WebpagesThere are occasions when a webpage is appropriate to source but webpages arenot the appropriate source to cite when information/ideas to which you referappeared in a research article prior to appearing on the webpage; a webpage israrely the original source of facts and ideas.5 It is unusual to find the author of a webpage, so when citing a webpage I suggestthat in your text you use the owner/publisher of the webpage as the author. For example:…the earth is flat (Mayo Clinic, 2015)…and…the earth is flat (Epilepsy Foundation, 2015)…The date provided in the citation would be the date (year) in which you accessed thewebpage.16) Your reference list should include all sources, and only those sources, cited in thebody of your text. Any style can be used for references but it is expected that thesame style will be used for every reference in the list of references of any onepaper. In your list of references, each reference of a published research article or book orwebpage should contain the names of the authors of the material, the title of thematerial, and the source of the material so that your reader can easily find thematerial in the relevant electronic or hard copy journal or book or webpage. For areference to a journal article or to a book, there is no need to add an internet URLaddress. However, an internet URL address within the reference is required forcitation to a webpage – you should also include the date on which you accessed thewebpage.The reference list should be in alphabetical order by last name of first author.A. Research Articles and Review Articles in Peer Reviewed JournalsFirst author, second author,…last author, title of article, (abbreviated) journalname, journal volume, page numbers, year of publicationFor example:Alicia, B., Murthy, S., Keaton, S.A., Cobbett, P., Cibelli, J.B., Suhr, S.T. Defining the diversity of phenotypic respecification using multiple cell linesand programming regimens. Stem Cells Devel. 22: 1-14, 2013.B. Chapter in TextbookFirst author, second author,…last author, title of chapter, book name (bookeditor), publisher, page numbers, year of publication.For example:Cobbett, P., Mason, W.T. and Inenaga, K.: Ionic mechanisms of phasicbursting in vasopressin cells. In: Pulsatility in Neuroendocrine Systems (G.Leng, ed.). CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, pp. 155-180, 1988.6 C. TextbookFirst author, second author,…last author, book name, publisher, year ofpublication.For example:Leng, G Pulsatility in Neuroendocrine Systems. CRC Press, Boca Raton,FL, 1988.D. WebpageAuthor(s), page title, URL of page, date on which you accessed the webpage.For example:Center for Disease Control and Prevention (2017). More Americanshave epilepsy than ever before. Retrieved fromhttps://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2017/p0810-epilepsy-prevalence.html. Accessed 11/20/2017 and Mayo Clinic. (2017). Lamotrigine (Oral Route) Desсrіption and BrandNames. Retrieved from https://www.mayoclinic.org/drugs-supplements/lamotrigine-oral-route/desсrіption/drg-20067449.Accessed 11/20/2017Writing Matters: Conclusion. Poor writing means that facts and ideas will not be properly understood by yourreader. Poor writing (such as those referred to above) may suggest to your readerthat you have not properly and completely read and understood the literature inpreparation to write your text. In the case of writing a paper about experimentswhich you have been performed, careless (poor) writing may also suggest to thereader that you have performed those experiments carelessly or not in the mannerdescribed in your methods section and that your results should be not be trusted. (Of relevance to life outside of academia, poor writing may also be the reason why ajob application is not successful, why a business fails to persuadepeople/government of the value of an intended business opportunity, and why apolitician fails to persuade his/her constituents of the value for his/her plan forgovernment.)