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The ability to present your work in English is essential
for your career development as a scientist. To aid your
training in scientific writing, the Department of Genetics
offers an opportunity to prepare your progress report in
English and to obtain comments from your colleagues and
faculty members. By going through the process of drafting
and editing, we hope you will learn how to effectively
convey your thoughts to others through your writing.
First, make a draft of the report well in advance of the
deadline for the submission to the Progress Report (PR)
Committee. Then ask your colleagues (graduate students and
postdocs) to comment on readability, logic, and English
usage. People outside your lab who are not familiar with
your research field are excellent readers, because they
likely will not tolerate gaps in your logic, which experts
in the field unconsciously fill. Revise your draft based on
the comments received and show it again to your colleague to
check for improvement. Do not submit your report to the
PR Committee without undergoing at least one cycle of
comment-revision-check. You may also invite your thesis
advisor for comments, but don't let her/him rewrite your
report.
When you meet with the PR Committee, committee members will
also provide comments on your writing and advise how you
might be able to improve your report. After the PR Committee
meeting, revise your report again and ask your advisor to
check it.
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Prepare your Progress Report according to the
following instructions:
Prepare your report double-spaced, using fonts larger than 10 pt. You do not need to print the report but submit it as both word (only text) and PDF (including figures) electronic files. Include figures and tables with brief
legends, methods and selected references. A suggested length of the
report is 1000-3000 words, excluding methods, references and legends.
Remember that your report is to be read by people outside
your research field. Define difficult technical terms and
concepts. Expect intelligence but not knowledge from your
reader.
Arrange your report as follows: (1) Title, (2) Abstract, (3) Introduction,
(4) Results, (5) Discussion and Future Plans, (6) Methods, (7) References.
(1) Title should be concise with maximum information
content, and should serve to "attract readers". At this
point of your research you may not yet have a "message" ---
the conclusion of your work that you would like to announce
to the world --- to place as the Title. In such a case
choose the "topic", i.e., the problem you wish to solve.
(2) The abstract should contain main objective and results of new findings and the significance. Abstract sample offered by “Nature” is a good place to start.
http://www.nature.com/nature/authors/gta/Letter_bold_para.doc
(3) Introduction section should be written to "awaken
reader's interest". Define the problem you want to address,
and present it in such a way that readers can appreciate its
importance. Provide sufficient background information so
that readers outside your field can understand your work and
the story line. At the end of the Introduction section, list
the specific aims of your thesis project.
(4) Results section should be used to tell the PR
Committee what you have done and found so far. Because this is a
progress report and not a research paper, you are welcome to
include positive, as well as negative, results, and describe
technical difficulties you encountered and how you handled
the problem.
(5) Discussion and Future Plans section should
present interpretation of the results. You should make a
clear distinction between solid conclusions based on your
results and published literature, and what is still
speculative. Try to suggest what the results you obtained
might mean in a wider context. Finally, list your future
plans for the project.
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