Introduction > Going Professional > Basic Contents > Section Details

Section Details   Title: often the last and the hardest thing you'll write! The title has to encompass everything about your paper, in as few words as possible. Keep it short, snappy and intriguing.   Abstract: the second last section that you'll write. The abstract can interest someone enough to read your entire paper, or can turn them off your work completely. It has to include a small section of your introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion and conclusion and it has to read seamlessly! And the word limit can be as little as 100.   Introduction: a literature review that justifies the need for your research ie that no/very little work has been done on this subject before.   Materials and Methods: one of the most important sections. From reading this, anyone should be able to replicate your work and your results, therefore it must be succinct, accurate and contain as much detail as possible.   Results: what did you find? Figure (graph) and plate (photograph) quality must be extremely high.   Discussion: how do your results compare to previous work? This section can be combined with the Results section to avoid repetition, but this is dependant on the journal.   Conclusions: brief summary of what your work actually means - usually in a couple of lines.   Acknowledgements: of colleagues that have helped you (although it shouldn't read like an award-acceptance!) and details of organisations that provided funding.   References: matching up to your citations.

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