Cover: A Student Handbook for Writing in Biology, 6th Edition by Karin Knisely
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A Student Handbook for Writing in Biology

Sixth Edition ©2021 Karin Knisely

The newest edition of Knisely’s Student Handbook for Writing in Biology is the helping hand your students are looking for, offering the support they need to write within the conventions of biology. Topics range from reading technical literature and writing scientific papers, to preparing...

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ISBN:9781319440206

ISBN:9781319308322

Cover: A Student Handbook for Writing in Biology, 6th Edition by Karin Knisely

The essential companion for writing in biology!

The newest edition of Knisely’s Student Handbook for Writing in Biology is the helping hand your students are looking for, offering the support they need to write within the conventions of biology. Topics range from reading technical literature and writing scientific papers, to preparing lab reports and giving oral presentations of scientific findings. Students get practical advice from MS Office appendices, tutorial videos, and various checklists. Examples and resources throughout the text show not just what to do, but how to do it.

The newest edition mirrors the ways students use online resources and social media platforms for research, making sure the information is both credible and relevant. A new statistics chapter covers the application of descriptive statistics to actual datasets and selected tests of significance.

Features

Updated Content

  • Updated coverage on data analysis including the application of descriptive statistics to actual datasets and selected tests of significance
  • Updated poster examples produced with poster design software
  • Restructured literature search chapter reflects how students look for information using website searches, making sure their information is both credible and relevant

Newly Added

  • New chapter on documenting sources
  • New section comparing a journal article with a science news article on the same topic
  • Chapters include objectives at the beginning and self-assessment questions at the end

Topics Covered

  • Introduces the scientific method and experimental design
  • Describes how to find information about topics in science and how to assess the credibility and relevance of  the sources
  • Provides strategies for reading technical material, emphasizes the importance of paraphrasing when taking notes, and gives examples of how to present and cite information to avoid   plagiarism
  • Explains how scientific writing differs from science writing
  • Gives specific instructions for writing scientific papers with accepted format and content, self-evaluating drafts, and using peer and instructor feedback to refine  writing
  • Describes how sample datasets could be analyzed using tools in the programming language R
  • Describes the revision process
  • Provides sample student lab reports with helpful  annotations
  • Describes the characteristics of a well-designed poster
  • Provides suggestions on how to prepare oral presentations and develop a good rapport with the audience
  • Describes features of MS Word, Excel, and PowerPoint that are commonly used when preparing scientific papers, posters, and oral presentations
  • Provides tutorial videos for both Mac and Windows, which show time-saving tips for formatting document elements in Word and   applying formulas and making graphs in Excel

 

New to This Edition

 

  • Chapters include objectives at the beginning and self-assessment questions at the end
  • Restructured literature search chapter reflects how students look for information using website searches, making sure their information is both credible and relevant
  • New chapter on documenting sources expanded to include more online sources such as blogs, podcasts, and social media
  • Restructured chapter on reading and writing about science describes how communicating science to a general audience differs from communicating science to other scientists
  • Updated coverage on data analysis including the application of descriptive statistics to actual datasets and selected tests of significance
  • Updated poster examples produced with poster design software
  • Updated appendices for MS Office 2019 and Office 2019 for Mac

 

“It is simple enough for anyone to follow and offers useful information for any level of biologist. I recommend my students purchase and keep this book for reference throughout their career in graduate school and after.”
-Jamie Newman, Louisiana Tech University, Knisely user

“This textbook is the best balance Ive encountered of an introductory guide that could also serve as a professional review reference.”
-Anonymous Pechenik user

“It provides good coverage of the main elements of good scientific writing that we often aim to convey to our students in a short amount of time. It serves as a good reference manual for outlining the key moves of scientific writing that we hope our students to gain.”
-Anonymous Knisely user

“I have always liked the strategies presented in this chapter - starting with the timetable. I like the comparison of "faulty" and preferred text. I also think that the sequence that is suggested for preparing the report and designing the figures is good. […] Writing examples and style suggestions are excellent.”
-Lisa Baird, University of San Diego, Knisely user

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Read online (or offline) with all the highlighting and notetaking tools you need to be successful in this course.

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Table of Contents

Chapter 1 The Scientific Method
Chapter 2 Finding Information About Topics in Science
Chapter 3 Reading and Writing About Science
Chapter 4 Documenting Sources
Chapter 5 Step-by-Step Instructions for Preparing a Scientific Paper
Chapter 6 Data Analysis Using Statistics
Chapter 7 Revision
Chapter 8 Sample Student Laboratory Reports
Chapter 9 Poster Presentations
Chapter 10 Oral Presentations
Appendix 1 Word Processing in MS Word 2019
Appendix 2 Making Graphs in MS Excel 2019
Appendix 3 Preparing Oral Presentations with MS PowerPoint 2019


 

Headshot of Karin Knisely

Karin Knisely

Karin Knisely is Lab Director of Core Course Biology at Bucknell University. She earned a B.S. in Biology from Bucknell (where she was a three-sport athlete and is now enshrined in the Athletics Hall of Fame) and an M.S. in Zoology from the University of New Hampshire. She then completed a Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) fellowship at the University of Konstanz. Bilingual in German and English, she translated “You cannot imagine what it is like in America,” an authoritative book by Friedemann Fegert about emigration from the Bavarian Forest to the United States from 1841 to 1931 (2021 Lichtland).