Hi.
This is Karen McKee, retired scientist and author.
Today I'm going to be covering how to outline your scientific paper.
So what is an outline and why do you need one?
Well, an outline provides an overview of essential elements necessary in a scientific paper.
It helps the scientific author organize their material to create a logical presentation
of their research before getting into the nitty gritty of writing the narrative.
Starting with an outline is particularly important for inexperienced writers who may be overwhelmed
at the daunting task of condensing a three-year study, for example, into 8,000 words.
Now I know that some of you are probably thinking at this point that you don't need an outline,
that you prefer just diving in and letting things develop organically.
Well, maybe that works for writing a novel, but not for a scientific article in which
logic and adherence to a formal narrative structure are expected.
So how do you create an outline?
The easiest way to create an outline is on your computer and start with the basic elements
of a scientific paper.
In Microsoft Word, there is an outlining feature that's really easy to use.
Now, you don't have to use it to make an outline, but I'm going to use it in this tutorial just
so you can see what it can do.
So here I am in Word and if you open the drop-down menu under View, you'll see the outline function.
Select that and start typing.
Let's list the major parts of a scientific article, which most of you already know.
And here, you want to follow the journal's requirements for headings and other formatting.
But I'll use a generic format that works for most scientific journals.
First, there will be a title page, which we can fill out later.
Next is the abstract, to which we can add some subheadings that will help organize the
writing.
Background or aim.
Methods.
Key findings.
And conclusions or significance.
Next is the Introduction and we can include three subheadings there that will organize
the narrative flow.
You first want to explain why the topic is important.
In other words, the big picture.
Next describe what is already known about the topic.
This is the literature review.
Then state what information is missing.
The last part of the introduction poses the research question or objective and how that
information will fill the knowledge gap you've just described.
Next is the methods and we can also add a few subheadings.
Perhaps a site description where you would fill in details of where the study was conducted.
The experimental design
Physical, chemical or biological analyses that you performed.
And statistical analyses.
This will vary depending on your particular paper
The results section is next with subheadings that might relate to individual experiments.
So we'll type in experiment 1, experiment 2, and Experiment 3
Next is the discussion with a few subheadings that relate to the questions or points raised
in the introduction.
So subtopic 1, subtopic 2, and subtopic 3
Acknowledgements usually come next
Followed by the references that you cited in the narrative.
Tables
And figures
OK.
Now that we've got the basic outline, we can begin to elaborate by inserting some actual
verbiage related to the research.
And what I'm going to do is use a previously published paper as an example.
So let's go back to the subheadings under the introduction to see how this will work.
The first subheading is a placeholder for text explaining why the research topic is
important.
So here, I wrote that mangrove wetlands offer important ecological and societal benefits
along tropical and subtropical coastlines.
This is a topic sentence for a paragraph that will spell out some of those important benefits.
The next topic sentence says that the habitat stability of mangroves and other coastal wetlands
depends on the capacity of the system to maintain soil elevations relative to sea level.
And I'll later expand upon this statement, filling in details of why coastal wetlands
must adjust their positions to match the pace of a changing sea level.
I turn to the next major placeholder where I want to explain what is already known about
the specific topic I'm researching and what is missing.
So here's the sentence I add to fit that placeholder.
Although the biogenic nature of these and other peat-forming systems is generally recognized,
the processes controlling the accumulation of organic matter have not been directly linked
to elevation change.
So here you can see that I've pointed out what is known and what's missing in one sentence.
I would later write additional details fleshing out all the information that's known along
with the appropriate literature citations.
The third subheading prompts us to state the research objective and point out how it fills
the gap we just stated.
I summarize the objective by saying that
To better understand the rates and processes of mangrove peat formation, we examined the
rates of elevation change and accumulation of root matter in a mangrove system in Belize.
Then, I explain how it's going to add to knowledge by saying,
We used the results to predict how peat-forming mangroves may respond to future scenarios
of sea-level rise.
You can see then that by starting with an outline, you can write a well-organized introduction
that makes the case that the research is important and worth publishing.
You would then use the same procedure to fill out each of the other sections, adding more
and more text until all the relevant details are included.
So once you have a good outline with subheadings reflecting the specifics of your study, you
want to check to make sure you've not overlooked something.
for example, if you describe an analysis in the methods, you need to include those data
in the results.
So you want to use your outline to check that all your sections are balanced in terms of
subheadings.
Once you are ready to work on the narrative, you can go back to print view
Here you can format the headings and subheadings and remove the placeholders that helped guide you during outlining.
So we'll remove that placeholder.
That placeholder.
and the third placeholder.
And this text has been changed to body text.
If your word processing program doesn't have an outlining function, you can still create
an outline using headings and subheadings formatted for your target journal.
In conclusion, let me encourage you to use an outline to write your scientific articles,
especially if you are struggling to make progress on your manuscript or thesis.
If you found this video useful, please let me know by tapping the like button below the
video.
If you have a question about something I did not cover here, please leave a comment.