Writing the Results Section

All sections of a journal article lead up to or away from the results section, and the results section may retain its value long after the methods and conclusions have become obsolete. 

We use the term graphics to refer to figures, tables, and schemes. 

As you work through the chapter, you will write a Results section for your own paper. The Writing on Your Own tasks throughout the chapter will guide you step by step as you do the following  

In many journal articles, the Results section is actually a combined Results and Discussion (R D) section. Combined R D sections are preferred by many scientists who want to present and discuss results in an unbroken chain of thought. The combination is often more concise because less time is spent reminding the reader which results are being discussed. Combined R D sections are not all alike rather, they fall on a continuum with fully separated R D sections at one end and fully integrated R D sections at the other. Within this continuum, three patterns emerge blocked R D, iterative R D, and integrated R D. 

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Despite the frequency with which combined R D sections now appear in the chemical literature, we have chosen to address the sections separately in this textbook. The different purposes of Results and Discussion sections are important to understand and distinguish, even if you ultimately choose to write a combined R D section. In this chapter, we focus on the Results section. The Discussion section and the integrated R D approach are examined in chapter 5. 

Read the Results sections of the journal articles thatyou collected during your literature search (starting with Writing on Your Own task 2C). As you read these articles, pay attention to how the authors organized their results and what results they chose to emphasize in both text and graphics. What ideas do these articles give you about ways to write your own Results section ... 

Part 2 Analyzing Writing across the Results Section... 

The ability to use we appropriately comes only from reading the literature and growing accustomed to the convention. As we ve said before, many aspects of scientihc writing are not right or wrong they are simply conventional or unconventional. It is not incorrect to use we frequently in the Results section it is simply not customary for experts to do so. To sound like an expert, you must learn the convention. 

Also explain the following to a friend who hasn t yet given much thought to writing a Results section for a journal article ... 

Using parts 2 and 3 of the Peer Review Memo on the Write Like a Chemist Web site, review the Results section draft. Provide specihc suggestions in your memo that can be used to improve the Results section. (The Results section below is adapted from an original source, noted in the Instructor s Answer Key.)... 

The first move is reiterated as needed for multiple sets of results, ideally paralleling the order that was used in the Results section. As in the Results section, you can use subheadings to help the reader locate the discussion for each result. If, while writing the discussion, you question the logic of your sequencing, you need to revise both the Results and Discussion sections to align them. 

The experimental section is often the easiest to write once you have decided what to report. There may be minor variations in style, but the one shown in Box 52.2 will be suitable in the majority of cases. The results section is the next easiest as it should only involve description. At this stage your should be jotting down ideas for the Discussion - this may be the hardest part to compose, as you need an overview of both your own work and the relevant literature. It is also liable to become wordy, so try hard to make it succinct. The Introduction should not be too difficult if you have understood fully the aims of the experiments. Write the Abstract and complete the list of references at the end. To assist with the latter, it is a good idea to use or pull out their cards from your index system. 

Automatic Continuous-Flow Analysis. At the time of writing, the only system of automatic analysis to have gained widespread acceptance in clinical chemistry laboratories employs the principle of continuous flow devised by Skeggs (S4) and incorporated into the AutoAnalyzer. Application of the AutoAnalyzer to large batches of samples can materially improve the reproducibility of the results (Section 6.2). The principles of the AutoAnalyzer are by now well known and do not require recapitatulation relevant features of the functioning of the basic process modules will, however, be discussed. Other more specialized modules... 

If you find it difficult to start writing on the blank page or screen in front of you, leave the introduction for later and start with any section you have already drafted or made detailed notes about. The materials and methods section is often the easiest place to begin, and the results section the next easiest. Once you get going, write as quickly as you can. If the article is short, try to finish it in one sitting, to give it as much unity as possible ... 

This quantity is zero unless s = +2, since this is an up-spin electron and the spin factor ur(.s) is interpreted as in Section 1.2. If we are not interested in spin, but only in where the electron is, we can sum over all spin possibilities (i.e. integrate over spin) and obtain the probability of the electron being found in dr with any spin. We write the result in the form... 

Redundant, isomorphic structures have to be eliminated by the computer before it produces a result. The determination of whether structures are isomorphic or not stems from a mathematical operation called permutation the structures are isomorphic if they can be interconverted by permutation (Eq. (6) see Section 2.8.7). The permutation P3 is identical to P2 if a mathematical operation (P ) is applied. This procedure is described in the example using atom 4 of P3 (compare Figure 2-40, third line). In permutation P3 atom 4 takes the place of atom 5 of the reference structure but place 5 in P2. To replace atom 4 in P2 at position 5, both have to be interchanged, which is expressed by writing the number 4 at the position of 5 in P. Applying this to all the other substituents, the result is a new permutation P which is identical to P]. 

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