Introduction
An important component of the scientific method is effectively communicating your findings. In this pressbook we will focus on analyzing and interpreting data and communicating your findings in the results and discussion section of a scientific paper. You will be asked to critically read examples of undergraduate biology writing, and apply the principles you discover to your own writing. You will also complete exercises to sharpen your understanding of the required scientific conventions.
Learning Objectives
General:
- Describe the content and organization of a results and discussion section
- Identify the differences between a results and discussion section
Results:
- Analyze, understand and present your key findings
- Describe the major trends (using data values and correct scientific conventions)
- Communicate findings in figure(s) and/or table(s)
Discussion:
- Interpret your results with respect to your original hypotheses using appropriate scientific language
- Identify and communicate potential sources of error and any effect they may have had on the experiment
- Compare your findings to those of others
- Identify interesting and novel future experiments based off of your findings