PRESENTATION AND WRITING UP IN

RESEARCH

Professor Yusuf Y. Deeni

(PhD, FRSB)

PROFESSOR OF MOLECULAR BIOLOGY & BIOMEDICINE

DEPARTMENT OF MICROBIOLOGY & BIOTECHNOLOGY
FEDERAL UNIVERSITY DUTSE
 Outline
• Introduction

• Steps in Writing Seminar Report and chapters

involved

• Steps in Writing Review Essay and chapters

involved

• Steps in Writing Project and chapters involved

• Summary/Conclusion
 Introduction
What do Researchers do?

Investigate, Create, Innovate and Advance

essential Knowledge.

Share knowledge by presentation in the form of:

Seminar
Poster
Review
Dissertation/Thesis
Original research paper
Monogram, etc.
 Introduction
What do Researchers do?

Investigate, Create, Innovate and Advance

essential Knowledge.

Share knowledge by presentation in the form of:

Seminar
Poster
Review
Dissertation/Thesis
Original research paper
Monogram, etc.
 Introduction
Originality
The ability to think and be creative
independently

The quality to be novel, distinct, unusual,

ingenious, or extraordinary

The quality of being interesting,

outstanding, new, inventive and special
 Introduction
Originality in Research
It is defined or qualified by invented or
created work that is unique, novel and/or
new.

It is distinguishable and devoid of being

reproductions, clones, forgeries, or mainly
derivatives of other work(s).
 Originality in Research
Some Attributes?
Focus on goals, not barriers:
There are obstacles and difficulties in undertaking Original Research
Why/When/Where/What/How? – Magical Ws/Talismanic H!!!

Original Research needs preparation, planning, management,

targets, and goals (Aims & Objectives?).
Original Research needs time (hours, weeks, months, and/or years
of training) to develop, emerge, and executed; overcoming barriers
and setbacks along the way.
Original Research needs technical help from experts, advice from
the experienced, and support when things go wrong.
Original Research needs funding (resource(s), ethical
consideration/permission, and recruitments (human subjects/patients
could be major hurdles/barriers).
Original Research cannot be from inappropriate research and
researchers.
 Originality and Plagiarism in Research
Research Code of Conducts:
Commit all staff, students and visiting researchers to the principles of
the Concordat to Support Research Integrity, in order to achieve
Originality in Research and avoid Plagiarism. Researchers must:
maintain the highest standards of rigour and integrity in all
aspects of research;
ensure that research is conducted according to appropriate
ethical, legal and professional frameworks, obligations and
standards;
support a research environment that is underpinned by a culture of
integrity and based on good governance, best practice and
support for the development of researchers;
use transparent, robust and fair processes to deal with allegations
of research misconduct should they arise ;
work together to strengthen the integrity of research and review
progress regularly and openly.
(adapted from the Concordat to Support Research Integrity https://intranet.abertay.ac.uk/media/TheConcordatToSupportResearchIntegrity.pdf )
 Introduction
Important questions to ask:

Do I/you/we have a story to tell?

Yes, if Original, Innovative, Advancement (adds

to field/area of study); Conclusion must be
sound and supported by sufficient and robust
data (Results).

Is/are there audience(s) for my/your/our

research findings?

Yes, if Original, Innovative, and Interesting.

 Introduction
The Scientific Writing Process (Seminar, Review
Essay and/or Dissertation):
Some Attributes?
• It is usually a difficult, challenging and arduous
task for many students
• It may appear overwhelming, in particular when it
presents with new and complex content(s) or
concepts.
• It deepens knowledge and understanding of the
subject matter as the writer is forced to present a
coherent and logical story, which is
supported/underpinned by previous research work
and new findings (Results).
• Facilitates dissemination or transfer of information
from Author(s) (writer(s)) to Reader(s) (audience).
 Introduction
The Scientific Writing Process (Seminar, Review
Essay and/or Dissertation):
It generally follows a specific format/trend with
key sections.
Some Key Sections?
• Introduction/Background to a topic
• Statement of Purpose/Aims/Objectives and
Hypothesis to be tested.
• Methodology – a description of Methods and
Materials used.
• Key findings/results.
• Discussion – tying the results to the
broader/wider knowledge and understanding of
the subject matter – before, now and future.
 Introduction

The Scientific Writing Process (Seminar, Review

Essay and/or Dissertation): Overall?

It should be information rich, specific, concise,

succinct, terse, clear, coherent, and logical.

It should be devoid of frustrations, while

streamlining the process.
The Scientific Writing Process : Seminar
and Seminar Report
The Scientific Writing Process : Seminar
• Your delivery (15%?) - loud, clear, coherent,
confident, eye contact & professional.
• The structure of your talk (15%?) – structure &
organisation with the expected sections, logical
progression
• The clarity of slides/visual aids (10%?) -
• Your ability to answer questions from the panel
(20%?) – demonstration of knowledge &
understanding
• Your understanding of the topic (20%?) -
demonstration of deeper knowledge &
understanding
• Explanation of the approach and data analysis
(20%?) – evaluation, critical thinking & creativity
The Scientific Writing Process : Steps in
Seminar Report and Chapters Involved
It is primarily and more or less a miniature Literature
Review/Review Essay on the subject matter.
It should have the usual structure & organisation
with the expected sections, characterised by
richness, concise, clear, succinctness, coherency
and logical progression. (Refer to Review Section)
• Usually consists of 3 chapters.

• Chapter 1 - Introduction

• Chapter 2 – Literature Review

• Chapter 3 – Conclusion, Recommendations &

Listed References
The Scientific Writing Process : Review
Essay
Steps in Writing Review Essay and chapters involved

A review essay/literature review is a summary of

the major studies that have been published on a
research topic.

It is primarily a comprehensive Review

Essay/Literature Review on the subject matter,
but you consider the information available on a
topic.

Review Essay/Literature review is usually

included as part of the introduction in research
papers.
Steps in Writing Review Essay and chapters involved

Review essay/literature review should have the usual

structure & organisation with the expected sections;
characterised by richness, concise, clear,
succinctness, coherency and logical progression.
(Refer to Review Section)
Usually consists of 3 chapters.
Chapter 1 - Introduction
Chapter 2 – Literature Review (Wide and deep)
Chapter 3 – Conclusion, Recommendations & Listed
References
Steps in Writing Review Essay and chapters involved

The role of a good Review Essay/Literature

review is to find and present the relevant work
from the primary literature in a logical, organized
manner and to bring the reader to up-to-date as
possible.

Primary literature is defined as peer-reviewed

journals/sources that publish the original
research findings.

Review articles and general science articles are

called secondary literature.
Steps in Writing Review Essay and chapters involved

The literature review should accomplish three goals:

It should identify the major findings on a topic up
to the present;
It should point out the principal deficiencies of
these studies or provide a sense of what is lacking
in the literature; and
It should conclude by leading into your research
question, by explaining how your research proposes
to contribute to the literature or address some short-
coming of a previous study.
Steps in Writing Review Essay and chapters involved
Your Literature Search
• How do you find the key literature in your field?
• Consult your supervisor(s) and they will be able to
offer you some good advice and share key
articles/sources with you
• Identify key words that you can use to search
available relevant data bases (such as Pubmed
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/) as well as
those available from the library
• Attend the library and consult librarian(s) to make
sure that you are using the library resources to the
greatest effect
• As you read article summarise the main points
• Check sources cited by the authors of the work you
are reading – this can help to identify other key
articles/papers in an area
Steps in Writing Review Essay and chapters involved
Structuring your material
• You Review Essay/Literature Review should not
just consist of a set of summarised abstracts
from key papers.
• You need to be able to put the work into context
and critique the papers (critical evaluation &
independent thinking/thoughts).
• Once you have identified key articles/papers
then you need to think how you are going to
organise your material. You first need to group
articles. You can do this by (for instance) looking
for articles with similar ideas or similar methods.
• Once you have grouped your main articles then
you need to comment on the main ideas of this
group.
Steps in Writing Review Essay and chapters involved
Structuring your review
• Your review should contain the following sections:
• Abstract - This should include the main take-home
messages from your review
• Introduction - This should state the topic that you are
covering and define the scope of the review
• Main body of your text - This should bring together your
material in a logical fashion/progression. You should make
sure that you critique the material as well as presenting it.
The section can of course include diagrams, figures and
tables. You can use headings and subheadings.
• Conclusions - The conclusion should draw together the
main points of your review
• References - The references should be presented using,
for example the Harvard referencing system.
In addition you need to include your title and line numbers.
The Scientific Writing Process : Project
and Dissertation
Steps in Writing Project (Dissertation) and chapters involved

It should have the usual structure & organisation

with the expected sections, characterised by
richness, concise, clear, succinctness, coherency
and logical progression.

Usually consists of 3 chapters.

• Chapter 1 - Introduction

• Chapter 2 – Literature Review (Wide and deep)

• Chapter 3 – Conclusion, Recommendations &

Listed References
Steps in Writing Project (Dissertation) and chapters involved
General layout of your report
General points to consider for your report:
• conform to the style conventions described below
• be concise
• be written in UK English (UK spelling should be Oxford
English. See the Concise Oxford Dictionary or
http://www.merriam-webster.com/)
• be organized in the sequence described below
• be double-spaced
• be typed in 11 point Arial or other sans serif font
• have correct diacritics (accents such as acute or cedila) for
non-English words
• acknowledge all funding sources
• be saved as a single PDF file
Steps in Writing Project (Dissertation) and chapters involved
General layout of your report (continued)
• include table and figures with legends within the text.
• define abbreviations at the point in the text where they are
first used
• Include line numbers
• formatting should be kept simple:
• avoid unusual fonts (stick with Symbol, Times/Times New
Roman, Courier/Courier new, Helvetica/Arial)
• be consistent in representing symbols
• distinguish similar-looking symbols (e.g., letter x,
multiplication sign, and Greek chi; minus sign, hyphen,
and dash)
• do not approximate characters by creating your own
symbols (e.g., superscript o for degree symbol)
• do not use underlining to indicate italics or in plus-minus
signs
Steps in Writing Project (Dissertation) and chapters involved
Title page
The title page should contain the following:
• Institutional logo
• Title
• Student/registration number of the author
• Name of project supervisor(s)
• Institution(s) at which research was done
• List of 6 keywords
• Running head/title: an abbreviated/shortened heading that
will run at the top of each page of your submission
(maximum of 50 characters including spaces)
Steps in Writing Project (Dissertation) and chapters involved

Title page (continued)

The title page should contain the following:
• Total length of text (in words, and in characters including
spaces), including all legends and methods, but not
Abstract, references, or tabular content
• Choose a title that contains useful information about
content rather than one with dramatic/sensational impact.
• Choose keywords that accurately map/index your report to
a broad readership.
• Species names should be among the keywords in
articles/papers based on a single species.
Steps in Writing Project (Dissertation) and chapters involved
General layout of your report and sections
• The main text must be no more than 5,000 words
(excluding abstract, references and tabular content) and
should comprise:
• Abstract (to include background, methods, results
obtained and relevance of findings)
• Introduction: this section should specifically state the
background and scientific question within the context of
the subject matter/field of study
• Materials and Methods
• Results: this section should summarize the scientific and
knowledge advance or novel findings/results of the study
• Discussion: the text in the results section should be purely
descriptive, in this section the results should be
INTERPRETED (analysed, explained, discussed,
evaluated,) and compared to those of other workers.
Steps in Writing Project (Dissertation) and chapters involved

General layout of your report and sections (continued)

• Conclusion: You may also want to include not only
conclusions, but also suggestions for future work.
• Acknowledgments: these should be included at the end of
the text
• Funding: acknowledge all funding sources for the work
• References (standard and consistent)
• The length of the sections will to some extent be governed
by the nature of your project.
 Writing your report
At the moment you should:

• Organise your material

• Are your methods clear – check what you

have written in your lab book

• Is your data clear

What is your report suppose to achieve
• Show the reader how you have got to
grips with a particular topic and done
meaningful research in the area
• Your work should look like a logical
progression from hypothesis to
experimental design to results and
conclusions
 5 min exercise
• Write down 3 sentences that capture the
main findings of your project (if you can do
it in less; 2 or 1 then that’s fine and better)
 Abstract
• Write this last
• It should be no more than a page
• It should summarise your findings in context
• Good abstracts are very difficult to write so allow
plenty of time – you may have to rewrite it
several times
• The abstract should have:
- An understanding of the context in which to
put the project findings
- A succinct clear explanation of the main
findings of the project
- A succinct analysis of the significance of the
findings
 The Introduction
• Your introduction should be focused on
the actual work that you have done. Broad/wider dimension
• Try to mirror the type of introduction that or context of Your project
you have seen in research papers in your Your area
field. of study
• You may use some of the information that Introduction
has already appeared in the proposal and
plan
• Your reader should have a clear idea of
what you are doing and why after reading
your introduction Deeper and more
• You may want to include a section on focused dimension
aims and objectives to make this explicit or context of Your
• You may need to move information project
between the Introduction and the
discussion
 The Introduction
The Introduction should have:

• A comprehensive, specific and detailed

explanation of the specific question under
investigation and the appropriate background

• A clear, coherent and logical account of the

rationale for the approach taken in the project

• In addition, for an A grade, the introduction

should be well structured and written in a clear
and accessible style.
 Methods Section
• Enough information should be included so that the
work can be repeated

• Be succinct

• Model you methods on the relevant papers

• Make sure that you include information in a

suitable format (i.e. the g at which you centrifuge
samples not the speed)

• Do not use colloquial expressions (if you are not

sure; if you can use an expression think if you
have ever seen it in a paper; clarity & precision!!!)
 Methods Section
The Method section should:
• Enable the work presented by the student to be
replicated; publication-level detail is provided but
there is no irrelevant detail
• Appropriately reference all methodology
• Explain the rationale for selecting particular
methodology
• A grade A methodology section should be written
in the style of a research paper with the correct
units for all qualities and concentrations
 Results

• This section contains your data!

• Divide your results into logical sections –
these may not be in the same order that you
did the experiments
• Results can be in the form of tables, figures
(photographs, graphs, etc.).
• Tables and figures should be self contained
i.e. you should be able to interpret them using
the title and figure legend, respectively
• Analyse and report your statistics correctly
Results

• Figure legend?
• What type of gel is
this?
• How has it been
stained and
visualised?
• What does each lane
contain?
– Sample
• Should give details of
samples
– Amount
• What % gel was used?
 Results
• What type of gel?
i.e. is it SDS
PAGE?

• What % gel?

• What does each

lane contain?
– Sample
– Amount or
protein [ ] in µg

• MW of markers

• Primary and
secondary antibody

• Visualisation
technique
 Results

• What is this??

• Axis?

• Samples
 Results
• Clearly presented
results Phlebia sp. -

Clear and descriptive title

Conditions used to
obtain data

Axis labelled
 Results & Tables

Deeni et al. (2013) PlosOne 8(9)e75494

Results & Figures

Deeni et al. (2013) PlosOne 8(9)e75494

 Results & Commentary
• As well as containing your data the results
section should include a presentation and
commentary on the data; Why and How
you obtained the data; explain what the
data mean (interpretation).

• i.e. The graph in figure 3 of oxygen

concentration against temperature clearly
shows that as the temperature of water
increases the oxygen concentration
decreases at a rate of ……..
 Results
The Results section should:
• Clearly display the main findings of the project,
using ideal levels of data reduction and forms of
presentation
• Explain the significance and limitations of the
data with a suitable commentary associated with
all the results
• Contain any statistical analysis of the data and
an explanation or rationale of why particular
statistical tests have been used
• A grade A results section will exhibit all the
features of a grade B but with additional clarity
and insight
 Discussion
• In this section you should interpret your results
and compare them with other published work (ie
come back to your introduction)

• It is vital that you make reference to the

published literature in this section

• If your results deviate from your expectations

then discuss the reasons why
– Do not always assume that you have made a
mistake!

• Do not over-conclude from your data

 Discussion
The discussion and conclusions should:
• Be fully justified by the results
• Relate the results to the existing literature and the
original research question posed in the introduction
• Contain references to a range of appropriate papers
• Suggest appropriate future experiments/directions to
build upon successful findings and/or suggests
alternative experimental/procedural approaches to
improve on the projects limitations
• A grade A conclusion will typically demonstrate a
high level of critical analysis and interpretative skill
 Supplementary material
• As a rule of thumb a reader should be able
to make sense of your report without
referring to supplementary material!
• Your supplementary material should be
organised and presented to the same
standard as the rest of your report. It is not
be a dumping ground.
• You should refer to your supplementary
material in the main body of you report
Overall structure of your report

Introduction Methods and results

Discussion
 References
• Make sure that your work is correctly
referenced.

• Make use of the information provided by

the library/relevant guide on the subject of
referencing
 References
• The following is a series of tips and advice regarding the
use of references and the conventions for citing and
listing them in scientific literature.
• Use a reference to support any factual claim (other than
your own results) in your text, except that you need not
cite references for very general and widely accepted
knowledge (e.g. chlorophyll is the main photosynthetic
pigment; DNA carries heritable, genetic information).
• Do not misquote authors.
• Use references in acknowledgement of the source, other
than your own work, of any diagrams, graphs, images or
tables that, within the laws of copyright, you have
incorporated into your report.
 References
• If you have knowledge of a fact for which there is no
published support (or which you have been unable to trace),
it should be cited as “personal communication” and cite the
person(s) who has/have given you this information, this may
be your supervisor. It is usual to ask permission of the person
before you quote a personal communication.

• Cite primary, peer-reviewed sources only, except for

inaccessible references (for example, if you are using
information which has been reported by an intermediate
author (e.g. an editor of a book or a review) then state “the
fact” as reviewed by “the reviewer” or as “Bloggs (1942) in
…..” but it is much preferable to get a copy of the original
paper as cited by the reviewers and cite this directly; for very
old references this is sometimes a problem.
 References
• Cite only those references which you have actually read
and which you have used in the text. If you have some
particularly interesting references your supervisor may
want a copy. Double check this before you submit your
report.

• Conform to the standard of referencing based on, for

example, the APA style of citation/reference or Harvard
System of citation/reference, which uses the author and
the year of publication.
 References
• The reference criteria:

• The presentation of the project follows all

the prescribed guidelines and the correct
form of referencing (in text and in list) is
used throughout.

• The number of textual (spelling grammar

etc.) errors are trivial
 Other advice
• Gantt Chart

• Tools/Software to help in effective research

writing

• Show a draft to your supervisor

• Proof reading!

• Ask other people to read it (include non expert)

Good luck
 Deadline Reminder
• Submission of report: ?

• Lab/note book (all students to keep and

maintain)
– Note book or electronic lab book
Some Further Reading/References
• Elsevier (2018) Understanding the publishing Process:
How to Publish in Scholarly Journals, 10pp.

• Lee A, Dennis C and Campbell P (2007) Nature’s Guide for

Mentors. Nature 447:791-797

• The Concordant to Support the Career Development of

Researchers, www.resarchconcordant.ac.uk, 24pp.

• Turbek SP, Chock TM, Donahue K et al. (2016) Scientific

Writing Made Easy: a Step-by-Step Guide to
Undergraduate Writing in the Biological Sciences. The
Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America 97(4)417-426.