SUNY Empire State College Does Red Meat Cause Colorectal Cancer Question
Question Description
I’m working on a writing case study and need a sample draft to help me learn.
There are several challenges in creating a well-crafted scientific writing piece. One is getting used to the formality and objectivity of style. Another is synthesizing competing narratives or pieces of evidence into a logically designed presentation of research findings. This assignment will focus on both of these two elements.
There will be 5 articles uploaded onto Blackboard.
Task: You have multiple studies with differing conclusions. Your task for this assignment is to create a one page maximum (DOUBLE SPACED) summary (1 inch margins, Calibri 11 point font). Use AMA formatting/bibliographical style, and therefore you should be using in-text citations2 <<< like that number 2. The goal is to create an easily readable summary of the findings, but the key word here is SYNTHESIS.
In a sense, think about it this way: a patient/client asks you whether red meat causes colon or colorectal cancer your job is to answer the question based off these 5 articles alone, but in a formal manner, as if you were writing for a professional/trade journal.
To be clear, I think somewhere between half a page and 3/4s of a page is PLENTY of space to do this well.
DO NOT just reduce your findings of a study to a single line and just say this study says this . But this other study says that. What you want to do is leave the reader will an overview of the issue, and LEAVING AMBIGUITY IS OK. Most of the time in our fields, we do not have crystal clear facts or conclusions.
Take a look at this excellent student paper from back when I taught EX 362. Notice how she took the results of multiple studies (within just a few lines) and created a cohesive narrative:
Although IV is able to affect more large muscle groups (9,10), DV is able to emit a vibration with a higher frequency without the soft tissue signal reduction associated with IV (8,10). The duration of an individuals exposure to vibration can affect the function of the muscle being trained (19). The duration can be only 60 seconds (13,15) and they can also involve a session of four 60 second bouts of VT (17,18). Individual applications of VT greater than 60 seconds may fatigue the muscle too soon for NM benefits to occur (3).
Forgive her for not using proper AMA in-text citation style. Given that these articles had a lot of similar conclusions, I would expect some sentences to have multiple citations1,3-5. << kind of like that. Condense, condense, condense. If you write a whole page, rewrite it until youre down to half a page! No fluff, no wordiness, and then reread for readability and avoiding choppiness.
Four things will help you do well on this assignment, besides simply effort.
- Review all the common mistakes below, but then make sure you re-review them once your piece is finished.
- Watch the two videos related to scientific writing on BB. The second video is a portion made for my graduate students but all the suggestions are just as applicable here.
- Read the A+ example on Blackboard. Although the topic was different, note how well-designed her presentation of the material was and how she synthesized seemingly conflicting information into a coherent narrative.
- I cannot state this enough. Do the above three things!
Review of AMA style for citations: https://researchguides.uic.edu/ld.php?content_id=10003294
Here are some guidelines/common mistakes related to scientific writing:
- Misuse of Review Articles (do not cite the review in place of the original research contained in the review)
- DO NOT use contractions
- Numbers follow AMA style
- Spell out numbers when they start a sentence
- Spell out numbers when less than 10
- Proper use of e.g. versus i.e.
- Avoid run-on sentences and sentence fragments
- Use of undefined acronyms RECT
- Inconsistent AMA notation style
- Check in-text references and reference list
- Note: Just because you found it on the internet doesnt mean it is an internet source. Almost everything you cite will be from a print journal, therefore do not treat it like an online citation.
- Dont use first names and initials in text only last names
- The word data is plural
- Do not use direct quotes (except with qualitative research)
- Correct use of tense throughout paper
- Methods are past tense (unless writing a research proposal)
- (e.g., Greer measured .)
- Results & Conclusions of an article in present tense
- (e.g., Greer reports )
- Methods are past tense (unless writing a research proposal)
- Use punctuation appropriately
- Semicolon, colon use dont use if you do not know how!!!
- Use of the word belief/believes instead of hypothesis/hypothesize
- Use of the word prove you can only disprove in science
- Improper use of affect (verb) versus effect (noun)
- Dont cite sources in an abstract
- No use of first person (singular or plural)
- Correct use of et al. (NOT et al or et. al.)
Other Issues to Consider:
Avoid use of bombastic language
One study does not validate your point you need multiple lines of evidence when available
Make outlines before writing to ensure proper/logical structure with headings and paragraphs
Be careful of statements without a citation provided
Makes Titles descriptive & concise
Research does not claim or state (or perform any other human action). Researchers can claim. Authors can state, but research cannot.
You will be graded by the following rubric (insert points, in vertical order: 5, 15, 30, 50).
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