Career skills & technical writing BIOC492

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Career skills & technical writing BIOC492

Dr. Ashwag Albukhari

Assistant Professor

Biochemistry Department, Faculty of Science, KAU Website: aalbukhari.kau.edu.sa

Email: [email protected]

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2. The Introduction

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The 5 Stages for a Compelling Introduction

1. General statements about the field of research à context for the problem and its importance

2. More specific statements about the studied aspects of the problem by others

3. Statements indicate the need for more investigation (The missing gap)

4. Statements giving the purpose/objectives of the current project outlining its main findings

5. Optional statement(s) that gives a positive value or justification for carrying out the study

General

Specific

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Common Mistakes ..

• Too much or not enough information

• Unclear purpose

• Lists

• Confusing structure

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What is Citation/Referencing?

• A citation is the way you tell readers that certain material (sentence) in your work came from another source

• It also gives your readers the information necessary to find that

source again

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Citation / Referencing .. Why ??

Credit the original author

Reader can locate the original source

Protect you from

plagiarism

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What is the difference between Quoting and

Citing ??

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How to Avoid Plagiarism ???

USE

Paraphrasing

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Plagiarism

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Plagiarism Checker Software

What else ??

Try to find other software/Website?

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Citation Styles ..

q Different Resources (journals, books, web pages, magazines, newspapers, etc...)

q Different citation Format q Different citation Styles

How to Choose your Style

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Notes ..

• You should reference:

– Peer-reviewed journal articles, abstracts, books

• You should not reference:

– Non-peer-reviewed works or personal communications – Figures & Tables, Equations MUST be Referenced

Common Mistakes:

• Format, Format, …………, Format

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Citation styles

Examples

§ APA style (American Psychological Association)

§ Harvard style

§ Numbered style

§ Nature style

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Reference Elements

“Journal Format”

– Authors (use et al. after x authors, if there are more

than x authors, complete names should not be written. et al must be in italics)

– Article title (should be exact as existing)

– Journal name (should be in standard PubMed abbreviations, full journal name could be written)

– Year

– Volume

– Page numbers

(445-447 can be written as 445-7)

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Authors in correct sequence, and names checked from PubMed

Correct title of the article

Correct

full/abbreviated journal name

Year of the

publication volume number Pages numbers in the journal

Journal Reference Content

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APA Style

Elston, C. W., Ellis, I. O., & Pinder, S. E.

(1999). Pathological prognostic factors in breast cancer. Crit Rev Oncol Hematol, 31(3), 209-223. doi: 10.1016/S1040- 8428(99)00034-7

Author. (Year). Title. [Translated Title].

[Reviewed Item].

Journal|, Volume|(Issue)|, Pages|.

`doi:`DOI

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Harvard style

ELSTON, C. W., ELLIS, I. O. & PINDER, S. E.

1999. Pathological prognostic factors in breast cancer. Crit Rev Oncol Hematol, 31, 209-23.

Author Year. Title. Journal, Volume|, Pages|.

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NumberedStyle

(e.g. Nature)

1 Siegel, R., Ma, J., Zou, Z. & Jemal, A.

Cancer statistics, 2014. CA: a cancer journal for clinicians 64, 9-29,

doi:10.3322/caac.21208 (2014).

2 Elston, C. W., Ellis, I. O. & Pinder, S. E.

Pathological prognostic factors in breast cancer. Critical reviews in

oncology/hematology 31, 209-223 (1999).

Author. Title|.

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Other references elements format

n Book:

Shay, J. (1994). Achilles in Vietnam: Combat trauma and the undoing of character. New York: Touchstone.

n Article in a Magazine:

Klein, J. (1998, October 5). Dizzy days. The New Yorker, 40-45.

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References: Some Examples

n A newspaper article:

Tommasini, A. (1998, October 27).

Master teachers whose artistry glows in private. New York Times, p. B2.

n Web page citations require 2 additional pieces of information:

1. URL

2. Accessed (retrieved) date

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Exercise ..

How could you cite this paper using Harvard style?

Author Year. Title.

Journal,

Volume|, Pages|.

CHOUDHRY, H., ALBUKHARI, A., MOROTTI, M., HAIDER, S., MORALLI, D., SMYTHIES, J.,

SCHODEL, J., GREEN, C. M., CAMPS, C., BUFFA, F., RATCLIFFE, P., RAGOUSSIS, J., HARRIS, A. L.

& MOLE, D. R. 2015. Tumor hypoxia induces nuclear paraspeckle formation through HIF- 2alpha dependent transcriptional activation of NEAT1 leading to cancer cell survival.

Oncogene, 34, 4482-90.

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For easy referencing use

“EndNote” Software

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References ..

• Cargill, M. & O’connor, P.(2009). Writing Scientific Research articles:

Strategy and Steps (1^st ed.). Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester, UK. (ISBN-978-1- 40519335-1)

• Knight, K.L., Ingersoll, C.D., (1996) Structure of a Scholarly Manuscript: 66 Tips for What Goes Where. Journal of Athletic Training 31 (3): 201-206.

• My Personal Experience ++