Whitesides' Group: Writing a Paper

Citation: George Whitesides (2004/08/04) Whitesides' Group: Writing a Paper. Advanced Materials 16(15):1375-1377 (RSS)
DOI (original publisher): 10.1002/adma.200400767
Semantic Scholar (metadata): 10.1002/adma.200400767
Sci-Hub (fulltext): 10.1002/adma.200400767
Internet Archive Scholar (search for fulltext): Whitesides' Group: Writing a Paper
Tagged: Chemistry (RSS)

Summary

The article by George M. Whitesides points out the pivotal role of a paper throughout the life of a research project, Not only is it a final product of the research sescribing data and results but the construction and development of the paper is essential to the planning, organizing and constructing of the project itself.

Whitesides originally produced the article as a handout for his students in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University in 1989. He centers the article on the process of creating an outline for one’s paper on his or her research staring at the very initiation of the project. By structuring the outline to include sections on Introduction, Results and Discussion, Conclusions, and Experimental (to be included in the Results section) the researcher begins the development of hypothesis, experimentation, and data collection and analysis strategies. This outline is then repeatedly reworked and adjusted as the project proceeds and evolves.

The main body of the article characterizes what should be included in each of the sections of the outline so that the final paper will efficiently present the research project and its findings. As the various elements of the sections of the outline are iterated those portions of the project come into focus as the work moves forward. For example in generating the Introduction section the hypotheses investigated and its relevance and importance within the field is clarified. Similarly with the Results and Discussion part of the outline planning for the experimentation design and data recovery strategies will evolve and fall into place. The importance of the use of tables, equations, figures and schemes to convey data is strongly emphasized. The article concludes with a section offering several “points of style” which the author suggests to help the writer finalize the text of their paper and some references to sources about the style elements used by the American Chemistry Society.