"Research Paper Stuff" 

My research paper is important to me because it is all about my major. When doing most writing assignments it is often common to see them as not relevant or a waste of time, however when you do come across an English class that allows you to do something with your major it all of a sudden has this relevance.

          So what I mean by relevance is that this paper is directly involved with how communicating is done in my field. When I first began this paper I did not really know exactly how communicating and writing worked in my field, but I definitely gained this knowledge through obtaining my sources and other types of research done by myself. This proved to be really important to me.

          This paper is so important to me because it gets me more involved with my major and topics that I could possibly be studying. I had the chance to search for any sources that would help with my paper, as long as it was relevant to my topic. I think that this is paper could be important to others as well.

          This paper that I will be constructing, is going to have a lot of good information for how many scientific majors communicate. Often there is a lot of overlap in the sciences for how writing is done so this could be used my even biology, chemistry, and even physics majors. The research paper has information on the communication and types of communication done by the sciences, specifically biochemistry. It also, has credible sources that will help guide and inform the readers of how this type of communication is done. Obtaining this many sources was sort of a challenge but will be rewarding when the paper itself will be written.

          As mentioned prior to this paragraph I had to obtain 12 sources. This was not super difficult once I really got into it. I found it to be less and less of a burden the more I got into it. I started reading different articles about my major and found many interesting articles. The hardest and most frustrating part of the sources so far was the annotative bibliography. I did not really understand exactly how to make one. Also, the work involved was a lot at the time because I had so much other homework to do. I have never done anything like that so it was all new to me. I’ve cited sources, but not in that type of manner. Another issue I ran into was citing the pictures. I didn’t really understand how to do so, but am still in the process of fully understanding it.

          Overall even with these struggles, I do think this paper will be rewarding for me and to others in the sciences who read it.

Proposal

“Research Proposal”

Being a biochemistry major through even just this freshman year has made me propose the question of how writing works in my field and how they communicate as well. There is a lot of crossover with biology and chemistry in this, as the writing in those fields is almost exactly the same. The writing and communication for the sciences can almost all have the same categories of communication. The way that I plan to attack this problem is through the normal 5 paragraph style. I will incorporate three main body paragraphs.

The first main body paragraph will be about one style of how writing in my field works and specifically lab design/procedure. Designing labs is one way that scientists need to write with precise detail so that the results they find can be validated. If you have a well-designed lab and it is free of any flaw and error then the findings you obtain can help prove or reject your hypothesis. I will be putting 3-5 sources into this section. This paragraph is the first style I was exposed to so far as an ISU student.

The second type of writing that I encountered as a student here was lab reports. It is very important in the science world to get the results that they need. It is even more important to be able to take the results that you acquired from your lab and be able to organize the data thoughtfully and effectively to accurately describe and convince others that your findings are important and also correct. This is a key piece of writing for science and I will again be using 3-5 sources for this paragraph and the last body paragraph.

For my final paragraph of the body, it will consist of how scientists communicate and how they have communicated to gain further knowledge and draw new conclusions as well. Collaborating with other scientists can be key to your research. I plan on using some classical experiments as examples and will also, give a good example of a more recent way in which researchers have communicated to make new discoveries. I also want to note here that this way of collaboration is pivotal to almost any science-based major.

As far as everything else other than the body, I plan on going about my introduction and conclusion just as would be normally made with a thesis and map in the introduction, and a re-stated thesis in the conclusion.

12 sources

"Lab Report Template." Lab Report Template. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 2014

This article is an outline for a possible lab creation. It has certain aspects that are important for creating a lab proposal, as well as lots of questions and ideas you should be thinking about when creating a lab. There is really no bias or opinion as this is an outline. I will be using this lab template as an example in my first body paragraph which is one of my main points on how writing works in my field.

“BBMB 102: Introduction to Biochemistry”. Spring 2014. N.p., n.d

The manual that I was given in my biochemistry lab has all sorts of lab experiments in it. They all start with some background information, have a materials list, procedure, data tables, etc. It is a procedural type of writing and has little bias if any. I will use this manual in my first and second paragraphs and tie it how it uses elements of a good lab experiment and how the analysis questions and data report are involved in the research part of scientific writing.

“Biology: for Bio 211 and 212”. Iowa State University. Brooker, Robert; Graham, Linda; Stiling, Peter; Widmaier. Copyright 2011 The McGraw-Hill Companies.

The biology book has a lot of useful sections including one’s that have experiments which include some procedural parts as well as reports of findings. It also talks about the importance of communication and collaboration of scientists with other scientists. Lastly, there are some experiments that include collaboration including Watson and Crick’s conclusion of the shape of be very helpful and has little bias because it is a science resource textbook.

"College of Arts and Sciences." The Writing Center Scientific Reports Comments. 11 Mar. 2014 <https://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/scientific-reports/>.

This article by the UNC writing center has a really in-depth and well thought out guideline to writing scientific lab reports. It has a lot of information regarding how to structure it, what the goals of the paper are, and many other important pieces for this topic. This is a very useful resource for my first body paragraph (as explained in my research proposal) to create a basis for how reports work in my field.

Brandeis University. "Key structure in heart cells that helps regulate heart contractions illuminated by research." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 4 March 2014. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/03/140304141740.htm>.

This article is a report about using fluorescence to identify proteins, specifically in the cells of the heart that regulate heart contractions. This is key to scientists for developing heart disease treatments as well as understanding heart disease as a total. This is a good example of a report in the field of biochemistry. It is not as in-depth as the lab report outline is however it is a really good example of being concise and still effectively communicating there results and will be good for the second main body paragraph. This is a great example of scientists communicating their findings to the science world.

University of Cambridge. "Crop-infecting virus forces aphids to spread disease." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 5 December 2013. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/12/131205102323.htm

This is an article about aphids and how they spread viruses to plants, and how scientists are trying ways to stop the spread of this mosaic virus. The scientists are collaborating with others and received a grant for their research in hopes to strengthen developing countries agriculture, specifically Africa’s. The article will be used for either my second body paragraph or third one, and could be used for both. It is a good example of both a report of finding, and use of collaboration between scientists.

"Design Research: The Scientific Method." Design Research: The Scientific Method. 12 Mar. 2014 <http://depts.washington.edu/rural/RURAL/design/scimethod.html#communicating>.

This article has a great information on some of the questions that you could be asking yourself when you want to communicate your results after performing an experiment. It has some questions that you can ask yourself when you’re trying to make a lab report that will have information on how to write what you did in an experiment as well as some questions for how tocommunicate your results. I can use this article to help out with my first two body paragraphs mainly and it will be used so.

"Survival of the Extraordinary – A Fly With Tricky* Wings." Dot Earth Survival of the Extraordinary A Fly With Tricky Wings Comments. 12 Mar. 2014 <http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/04/survival-of-the-extraordinary-a-fly-with-ants-on-its-wings/?ref=biologyandbiochemistry>.

From this source, there is information about a fly they have discovered that has painted images of jumping spiders on its wings. At first it was thought that the images were ants, but a specialist in ants and spiders thinks they are these spiders. I think this will be used in my last body paragraph and is a good example of how scientists communicate with one another to get the correct details of information they saw. Initially some people thought these colorings were to depict ants, however after another scientist added his observations, people think that it is not of ants but of spiders.

"Experimental Design Outline." Experimental Design Outline. 12 Mar. 2014 <http://www.zoology.ubc.ca/~bio310/121T_files/06S_experiment.htm>.

The article explains what it takes to create a good experimental design and has certain paragraphs about what makes a good hypothesis and other factors that go along the lines of an experimental procedure. This source is perfect for my first body paragraph and will be helpful when describing how scientists in my field look to setup an experimental design and how to make one better which is why this source is useful.

"The Challenge of Communicating Science to the Public." The Challenge of Communicating Science to the Public. 12 Mar. 2014 <https://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~wilkins/writing/Resources/essays/sci_comm.html>.

The title of this article says it all as far as what it is about. It is a really good piece about how it is a challenge for a lot of scientists to communicate to the public and what scientists should be doing to do so. It also talks about how professors should be preparing their future scientists to communicate to the public. This will be primarily used in my third body paragraph and I am considering referencing it in my second but am not sure exactly.

Visual #1:

"BioPerspectives." GEN. 12 Mar. 2014 <http://www.genengnews.com/bioperspectives/science-leadership-project-teamsgroup-dynamics-and-team-failures/4853>.

This image is going to be used as a visual for my last body paragraph which touches on scientists collaborating with one another. It is a good example of how scientists talk and share information to gain new understandings or insights.

Visual #2:

"Redirect Notice." Redirect Notice. 12 Mar. 2014 <https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&docid=-MKe5Z_eeB-A5M&tbnid=rJZ3xOVSdXFKcM:&ved=0CAYQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.abcteach.com%2Fdirectory%2Fclip-art-graphic-organizers-9832-2-1&ei=r7ogU7S1NOS2yAGVlYGQDQ&psig=AFQjCNGH1IwAmiiwu_qU8IBpzqYdqZzQfg&ust=1394740242596321>.

This is a great example of an outline for a lab report/experiment design. It is a basic template that hits on a lot of points that I will be making in my first and second body paragraphs so it will most likely be featured in one of those two and will tie into what I’m saying at the time. It also helps the reader visualize a sort of outline that I will be describing.