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| Preface | |
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| General Aduice about Writing and Reading Biology | |
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| Introduction and General Rules | |
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| What Lies Ahead? | |
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| What Do Biologists Write About, and Why? | |
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| The Keys to Success | |
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| Avoiding Plagiarism | |
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| On Using Computers in Writing | |
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| On Using Computers for Data Storage, Analysis, and Presentation | |
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| Summary | |
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| Using Shortcuts and Autocorrect | |
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| Locating Useful Sources | |
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| What Lies Ahead? | |
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| Easy Ways to Access the Primary Literature | |
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| Using indexes | |
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| Using Science Citation index | |
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| Using Current Contents Connect | |
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| Using Medline and Other Databases | |
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| Prowling the Internet | |
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| Conducting Web Searches: Developing Productive Search Strategies | |
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| Final Thoughts about Efficient Searching: Technology Isn�t Everything | |
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| Closing Thoughts | |
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| Summary | |
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| Using Search Engines Effectively | |
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| General Advice on Reading and Note Taking | |
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| What Lies Ahead? | |
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| Why Read and What to Read | |
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| Effective Reading | |
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| Reading Data: Plumbing the Depths of Figures and Tables | |
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| Reading Text: Summarize as You Go | |
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| Take Notes in Your Own Words | |
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| Final Thoughts on Note Taking: Document Your Sources | |
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| Summary | |
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| Reading and Writing About Statistical Analyses | |
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| What Lies Ahead? | |
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| Statistical Essentials | |
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| Summary: Using Statistics to Test Hypotheses | |
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| Moving Beyond p-Values | |
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| Reading about Statistics | |
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| Writing about Statistics | |
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| Summary | |
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| Citing Sources and Listing References | |
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| What Lies Ahead? | |
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| Citing Sources | |
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| Summary of Citation Format Rules | |
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| Preparing the Literature Cited Section | |
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| A Sample Literature Cited Section | |
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| Bibliographic Management Software | |
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| Producing Hanging Indents | |
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| Revising | |
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| What Lies Ahead? | |
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| Preparing the Draft for Surgery: Plotting Idea Maps | |
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| Revising for Content | |
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| Revising for Clarity | |
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| Revising for Completeness | |
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| Revising for Conciseness | |
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| Revising for Flow | |
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| Revising for Teleology and Anthropomorphism | |
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| Revising for Spelling Errors | |
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| Revising for Grammar and Proper Word Usage | |
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| Becoming a Good Reviewer | |
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| Checklist | |
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| Tracking Changes Made To Documents | |
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| Guidelines for Specific Tasks | |
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| Prelude: Why Are You Writing Papers and Proposals and Giving Talks? | |
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| Writing Summaries, Critiques, Essays, and Review Papers | |
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| What Lies Ahead? | |
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| Writing Summaries and Critiques | |
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| Sample Student Summary | |
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| Writing Essays and Review Papers | |
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| Checklist for Essays and Review Papers | |
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| Answering Essay Questions | |
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| Basic Principles | |
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| Applying the Principles | |
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| Summary | |
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| Writing Laboratory and Other Research Reports | |
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| What Lies Ahead? | |
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| Why Are You Doing This? | |
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| The Purpose of Laboratory and Field Notebooks | |
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| Components of the Research Report | |
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| Where to Start | |
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| When to Start | |
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| Writing the Materials and Methods Section | |
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| Writing the Results Section | |
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| Citing Sources | |
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| What to Do Next? | |
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| Writing the Discussion Section | |
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| Writing the Introduction Section | |
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| Talking about Your Study Organism or Field Site | |
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| Deciding on a Title | |
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| Writing an Abstract | |
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| Preparing an Acknowledgments Section | |
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| Preparing the Literature Cited Section | |
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| Preparing a Paper for Formal Publication | |
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| A Note about Co-Authorship | |
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| Checklist for the Final Draft | |
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| Using Computer Spreadsheets for Data Collection | |
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| Graphing with Excel | |
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| Writing Research Proposals | |
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| What Lies Ahead? | |
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| What Are Reviewers Looking For? | |
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| Researching Your Topic | |
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| What Makes a Good Research Question? | |
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| Writing the Proposal | |
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| Tightening the Logic | |
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| The Life of a Real Research Proposal | |
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| Checklist | |
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| Presenting Research Findings: Preparing Talks and Poster Presentations | |
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| Oral Presentations | |
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| Checklist for Being Judged | |
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| Poster Presentations | |
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| Checklist for Making Posters | |
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| Writing Letters of Application | |
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| Before You Start | |
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| Preparing the CV | |
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| Preparing the Cover Letter | |
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| Recruiting Effective Letters of Recommendation | |
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| Revised Sample Sentences | |
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| Commonly Used Abbreviations | |
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| Recommended Resources | |
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| Index | |