How to Write About Biology: The Essential Guide for Students

Provides a firm foundation for all types of biological writing. It plugs the gaps in essential study skills which lecturers should not be expected to fill and which students often find that they are lacking.

The logical development of ideas and the clear, precise and succinct communication of those ideas through writing are among the most difficult, but most important, skills that a biology student must master.  How to Write About Biology shows students how to meet the demands of writing at all levels of biology. Some of the key features of this compact guide include:

• Coverage of every aspect of writing in biology - lab reports, essays, project reports, research papers, job and graduate applications, drawings, oral presentations.
• Advice on how to tackle examination questions of all types.
• A special section on improving punctuation, grammer, spelling and word choice - painlessly!.
• A section on critical reading and notetaking that highlights strategies for developing a clear understanding of the subject.
• Examples of good and bad biology writing throughout.
• Advice on the use of computers in searching primary and secondary sources, and in preparing reports, graphs and tables.

Jan Pechenik is a professor in the Department of Biology at Tufts University, Massachusetts.

Bernard Lamb is a reader in genetics in the Biology Department at the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London.  He is also the Chairman of the London Branch of the Queen's English Society.