Name:_________________________Block:_________________Date:____________

Quarter1LabPacketIntroductiontoScientificWritingandPepsinLab
Tableofcontents
1. PepsinLabPartISelfdesignandprocedurewriting.pg15
2. PepsinLabDataTablepg.6
3. HowwewriteaboutBiologybyRandyMooreReflectivepieceaboutvoiceinsciencewriting.pg
79
4. LabReportGuidelinesThisdocumentprovidesanoverviewofalabreportsinourbiologyclass.
Pg.1012
a. ForthislabwewillfocusonwritingformalTitle,Materials/MethodsandResultssections.
5. PepsinLabPartIIPepsisLabReportInstructionspg.13
6. PepsinLabPartIIIGraphinginGooglespreadsheetstutorialpg.13
7. PepsinLabPartIVAnalysisQuestions.Pg14

PepsinLabPartISelfdesignandprocedurewriting
WhatfactorsaffectthePepsinenzymecatalyzedbreakdownofprotein?
Inthislab,youwillbeinvestigatingfactorsthataffecthowquicklypepsin(anenzyme)digestsits
substrate(albuminproteinmolecules,foundinfoodslikeeggwhite).Pepsinisanenzymefoundinyour
stomach,whichisveryacidic.Soakingapieceofeggwhiteinthepepsinsolutionovernightwillresultin
partialdigestionofthepieceofeggwhite.Bymassingtheeggwhitebeforeandafterovernightexposure
topepsin,youwillbeabletodetect/measuredigestionofthiseggwhite.
Prelab:Completethefollowingbeforethenextclassperiod.
1. WriteoutabasicwordequationforthisenzymecatalyzedReaction:

a. Inyourreactionabove,circlethesubstratemolecule(s).
b. Inyourreactionabove,placeasquarearoundtheenzymemolecule(s).
c. Inyourreactionabove,underlinetheproductmolecule(s).
Alongwithasmallgroupoffellowscientists,youwillbeinvestigatingoneofthefollowingquestions:

Overthecourseof24hours,howdoesenzymeconcentrationaffecthowmucheggdigestion
occurs,ascatalyzedbytheenzymepepsin?
Overthecourseof24hours,howdoestemperatureaffecthowmucheggdigestionoccurs,as
catalyzedbytheenzymepepsin?
Overthecourseof24hours,howdoesion(NaCl)concentrationaffecthowmucheggdigestion
occurs,ascatalyzedbytheenzymepepsin?
1

2. WriteanIf,thenhypothesisforeachoftheabovevariables.Followtheformatcarfullyandtry
tomayyourhypothesisspecific.Circlethehypothesisthatyouaremostinterestedinstudying.
a. Enzymeconcentration

b. Temperature

c. Ion(NaCl)concentration

Day1and2:TeacherDemonstrationofControlGroups
Establishingcontrolsandintroductiontomaterialsandmethods
Ourfirststepistocompleteapositivecontrolsetup,whichisasetupwhereweKNOWthereshouldbe
areaction.Thissetupallowsustestthatthechemicalsareworking.Ourpositivecontrolsetupwillbea
singlepieceofegg,thatsoaksfor24hoursina5%pepsinsolutionat37degreesC(bodytemperature).
Initialmassofegg=___________
Finalmassofegg=___________
Changeinmassofegg=___________
%changeinmassofegg=____________
Ournextstepistocompleteanegativecontrolsetup,totestthatthepresenceofpepsinistheonlyfactor
affectingthechangeinmassoftheegg.Ournegativecontrolsetupwillbeasinglepieceofegg,that
soaksfor24hoursin100%waterat37degreesC(bodytemperature).
Initialmassofegg=___________
Finalmassofegg=___________
Changeinmassofegg=___________
%changeinmassofegg=____________
Day1:GroupmeetingandProcedurewriting
Althoughthislabisclearlydesignedtohelpyougainabetterunderstandingofenzymesandfactorsthat
mayaffectthespeedofanenzymecatalyzedreaction,itisalsoaboutexperimentaldesign:including
appropriatecontrolsetups,keepingnonexperimentalvariablesconstant,collectingextensivedata,and
2

representingyourdatagraphically.Withallofthisinmind,yourfirststepwillbetoplanyour
experimentaldesign,basedupontheresearchquestionthatyourgroupchooses.
Completethefollowingstepsusingtheprovidedgraphicorganizeronthenext2pages.
1. Chooseoneoftheaboveresearchquestions.
2. Developandrecordacorrespondinghypothesis,andarationaleforthathypothesis.Your
hypothesisandrationalemustbebasedonpriorknowledge,research,orobservations.Sharethe
hypothesizesthatyourwroteintheprelabsection.Combineandrefineyouideasasagroupand
writeyourimprovedhypothesisintheIf,thenformat.
3. Designyourexperiment,keepinginmindthatyoumustincludecontrolsetupsandthatthedata
gatheredmustbebothqualitativeandquantitative.
Yourexperimentwill
havethreeexperimentalgroupsinadditiontoyourcontrols.
musthavethreetrialsforeachgroup(experimentalorcontrol)
useeggsamplesofapproximately1cm3
use1015mLofpepsinsolution(justenoughtocovertheegg)
collectdatausingthedatatableonpg.
AvailableMaterials:
Pepsinsolution,5%
Pepsinsolution,8%(forgroup
investigatingenzyme
concentration)
Boiledeggwhite
Electronicbalances
Refrigerator(4degreesC)
Classroom(~20degreesC)
Incubator(37degreesC)

Waterbaths(50degreesC,100
degreesC)
Rulers
Plasticknives
Testtubes
Testtuberacks
Parafilm
NaCl
Distilledwater

Ourgroupsresearchquestion:

Ourindependentvariable

Ourdependentvariable

Hypothesis:UsetheIf,thenformat

Rationale:

ThreeExperimentalGroups:

ControlGroups:

Controlledvariables:listatleast6variablesthatyouwillneedtoholdconstant
Contro
lled
Variabl
e

How my procedure will eliminate (or at least

minimize) this variable

Day1Homework
1. Reviewthegivendatatableonpage6.
2. Individuallywriteadetailedproceduregiventheplanningyoudidinclasstoday,thelistof
availablematerialsandthedatatablegiven.

Procedure:

Besuretoincludetoincludepositiveandnegativecontrolsetups

BesurethateachtreatmentshasATLEASTthreerepeats(SAMPLESIZE!)

Useexactamounts,asmeasuredingrams,mL,etc.
1.

 Below,constructadatatable,leavingroomfordatagatheredbothwhenwesetuptheexperiment,ANDwhenweremeasurethemass
ofeacheggpieceonday#2.Dontforgetthatyoullhaveatleastthreereplicatesforeachsetup.Youllwanttoplacethereplicates
onneighboringrowsinthetable,sothatyoucanaveragethe%changeinmassforthesesetsoftubes.Dontforgetnecessaryunits!

Visual Observations

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le
)

How We Write about Biology by Randy

Moore

(The American Biology Teacher 53:388-389

1991)

Recently while grading laboratory reports I came across this

abstract in a student's paper:

Itwasdecidedtodothetranspirationexperiment.Theexperimentwas
donebymylabgroupandwasrepeatedthreetimes.Resultswere
obtained.Theseresultswillbediscussed.

I asked the student why he had written every sentence in passive

voice. He replied that, "Biologists write like this because they're
objective. It's just how real scientists write." I cringed. Apparently,
scientists such as Einstein, Faraday, Watson, Crick, Darwin, Curie,
Lyell, Freud and Feynman - scientists who communicated their
brilliant ideas by preferring active rather than passive voice weren't "real scientists."

My talk with the student frustrated me and reminded me of one of

the failings of education: our failure to teach students to
communicate effectively. With no effective instruction, most
students in biology classes learn scientific writing by mimicking the
writing of other scientists. Since most scientists write poorly, it's not
surprising that my student wrote such a horrible abstract. However,
such writing isn't restricted to students; I regularly read similar
writing in grant proposals and papers submitted for publication in
"scholarly" journals.

In this editorial I can't discuss all the aspects of how to write

effectively about biology. Consequently, I'll discuss one of the most
common weaknesses of scientific writing and one of the most
common complaints of biology editors: the excessive use of
passive voice.

In writing, voice refers to the relationship of a verb to its subject. If

the subject receives the verb's action, the sentence is written in
passive voice. Passive voice is an abstract style of writing based
on to be verbs such as is, was and were. Here are some examples
of passive voice:

Itwassuggestedthattheexperimentbeterminated.

Papersarewrittenbystudents.

AcrackeriswantedbyPolly.

The lead verbs [they are actually auxiliary verbs] in these sentence
are was, are and is and identify no one responsible for the action.
Passive voice typically produces unnecessarily long and weak
sentences that sap readers' strength and sound pompous.
Moreover, passive voice is usually unconvincing because it
suggests that scientists were acted upon rather than that scientists
acted. With passive voice, it seems as if writers report revelation,
not information, because passive voice implies that a force - the
amorphous it - guided their work.

Passive voice can be useful to writers. For example, passive voice

is effective when you want to stress what was done rather than who
did it, as in the sentence, "Darwin's The Origin of Species was
published in 1859." Passive voice is also useful when you want to
avoid accountability - that's why embarrassed politicians report that
"funds were found to be missing" rather than "I stole the money."
Passive voice is also useful for adding variety, softening
commands, avoiding embarrassment and slowing the pace of
writing and reading. However, the excessive use of passive voice
produces ineffective and boring prose - prose that can be avoided
by using active voice.

Active voice is a style of writing in which the subject acts. For

example:

Isuggestedthatweendtheexperiment.

Studentswritepapers.

Pollywantsacracker.

James Watson and Francis Crick used active voice and a simple,
personal, get-to-the-point style of writing to forcefully begin their
monumental paper describing the structure of DNA: 'Wewishto
suggestastructureforthesaltofthedeoxyribosenucleicacid(D.N.A.).'

Watson and Crick knew what good writers know: that active voice
strengthens writing because it improves readability, makes
sentences more concise and increases understanding. No matter
what you're writing about, the use of active voice almost always

increases the clarity and persuasiveness of your writing. Such

persuasiveness is especially important to scientists because
scientific "truths" are the product of effective arguments. Why, then,
do so many scientists insist on using passive voice so much?

Most scientists use passive voice either out of habit or to make

themselves seem scholarly, objective or sophisticated. Scientists
have not always written in passive voice. First-person pronouns
such as I and we began to disappear from scientific writing in the
United States in the 1920s when active voice was replaced by
today's inflexible, impersonal and often boring style of scientific
writing. Since then, scientists have used the anonymity of passive
voice to make themselves appear as modest, passive and objective
observers. This is unfortunate because passive voice greatly
diminishes communication. For example, when speaking, most
biologists provide information in the way that we ordinarily expect to
receive it - as a narrative:

Wewantedtounderstandhowpenicillinaffectsgrowthofbacteria.Todo
this,wegrewbacteriainthepresenceofvaryingconcentrationsof
penicillin.Welearnedthatpenicillininhibitsgrowthofbacteria.

Narratives such as this aren't something that any of us have to think

about - we talk like this all the time. And when we aren't telling
these kinds of stories, we're listening to them. However, compare
this with the abstraction of passive voice:

Thegrowthofbacteriawasstudied.Bacteriaweregrowninthepresence
ofvaryingconcentrationsofwaslearnedthatbacterialgrowthisinhibited
bypenicillin.

Nobody in the real world communicates like this. Consequently, the

insistence of many biologists {including my student) to write only in
passive voice forces readers to shift into a foreign mode of
communication. This makes passive voice hard to write and even
harder to read because, especially when reporting experiments, it
doesn't reflect what really happened and sometimes changes the
substance of what we did. Nevertheless, many students and
professional biologists believe that science must be written in dull,
passive style. Too bad.

The notion that passive voice ensures objectivity is ridiculous

because objectivity has nothing to do with one's writing style or use
of personal pronouns. Objectivity in science results from the choice
of subjects, facts that you choose to include or omit, sampling

techniques and how you state your conclusions. Scientific

objectivity is a personal trait unrelated to writing.

Contrary to the implication of passive voice, science is a personal

activity done by people, not machines. The belief that
using I and we somehow makes science undignified is foolish and
hobbles science. After all, all research is done by someone, and
every paper, book and essay lists someone as the author. Most
biology editors prefer that writers use l or we to describe research.
Indeed, The American National Standards for the Preparation of
Scientific Papers for Written Or Oral Presentations, which includes
an impressive list of organizations represented by its views, states
that, "When a verb concerns action by the author, the first person
should be used, especially in matters of experimental design." If the
purpose of your paper is to tell what you did and observed, then the
word l or we should appear at the beginning of sentences and
clauses. Insisting on using verbiage such as "the authors" or "the
writers of this paper" achieves no modesty and is pompous, distant
and stuffy.

Biology is the great adventure of our time. Let's not suffocate it with
passive, abstract writing.

LaboratoryReportsGuidelines(FormateditedfromWasserman,
BostonUniversity)
BiologyIHonor

Herearesomegeneralrulestofollowwhenwritinglabreportsforthis
class:
Donotusedirectquotesfromjournalarticles,yourtextbook,oryourlabmanual.
instead,rephrasethesectionintoyourownwords,andthencitethesource.
Forthisclass,yourreportshouldbedoubleSpacedwith1to1.25inchmargins,
andthefontshouldbe12point.
Makesureyouspellcheckyourpaper.Ialsoencourageyoutohavesomeoneelse
readyourpaperforerrorsandconstructivecomments.

Title
Createadescriptivetitlethatconveystheproblemorhypothesisthatyou
aretesting.Donotjustgiveyourreportthesametitleasonyoulab
handout.

Abstract

Theabstractshouldbeonlyoneparagraphandoutlinesthepoints
addressedinthestudybysummarizingeachsectionofthepaper:

Whatproblemwasaddressed(introduction)?
Howdidyouapproachtheproblem(methods)?
Whatwereyourmajorfindings(results)?
Whatwereyourmajorconclusions(discussion)?

Althoughthisisthefirstsectionofyourpaper,youshouldwriteitlastso
youcanmoreeasilysummarizethedifferentsections.Itisveryimportant
towriteaconciseabstract.Remember,itisonlyabriefpictureofwhat
youdidandwhatyoufound.Theabstractshouldbeapproximately150to
200wordsinlength.
Introduction
Thissectionisusedtosetthestageforyourexperiment;therefore,it
shouldincludeastatementoftheproblem(s),question(s),and/or
hypothesesbeingtested.Youshouldconvincethereaderthatthequestions
youhaveaskedareimportantandthattheexperimentwasworthdoing.
Youmustplaceyourstudyintothecontextofpreviouslypublished
research(backgroundliterature).Anyhypothesesrelatedtotheexpected
observationsshouldbestatedexplicitly.Theorganizationofthissection
isjustasimportantasthecontent.Youshouldstartoutwithbroadideas
(relevanttheory)andthengetmoreSpecific.Yourhypothesis(orgoals)
willbe
attheendoftheintroduction.
MaterialsandMethods
Thissectionisacompletedescriptionofhowtheexperimentwasdesigned
andconducted.Thissectionshouldbewritteninthepasttense,because
youwillhavealreadydonetheexperiment.DoNOTwriteyourmethods
inalistform.Itshouldbewrittenasaconciseseriesofparagraphs.Your
explanationofwhatyoudidshouldbespecificenoughthatanyonecould
pickupyourpaperandrepeatyourexperiment,butusecommonsense
whendecidinghowmuchdetailtoincludeinthissection.Ifyouhaveused
awellestablishedtechnique,youshouldreferthereadertoapublished
paper,asinreproductiveconditionofeachbatwasassessedusing
palpationoftheabdomenandconditionoftheteats(RaCey1988).Also,
besuretodescribethemethodusedinyourdataanalysis(e.g.which
statisticaltestyouused).
Results

Theresultssectionincludesadescriptionofthefindingsofthestudy,but
notaninterpretationoftheresults(thatisforthediscussionsection).In
additiontowritingoutyourresultsyoushouldpresentyourdatainagraph
oratabletodemonstratetrendsandobservationsthatyourtext
summarizes.YoushouldNOTincluderawdata.Youshoulduseagraph
ORatableforeachdataset,andwhichoneyouusedependsonwhatkind
ofdatayouhave.Afterstatingyourresultsyoushouldrefertothefigure
ortable.Forexample:WefoundthatthepHofstomachacidwas2.2
whilethepHofbloodwas7.2(Figurel).Thetablesandfiguresshould
beputintothetextwheretheyarementioned.Ifyouincludethetables
and/orfiguresinthetext,placethemaftertheparagraphthatdiscusses
them(notbefore)anddonotsplitthesametableorgraphonto2separate
pages.Tablesandfiguresshouldhavelegendsthatdescribewhatthedata
are,writtenincompletesentencesTablelegendsshouldbeabovethe
tableandfigurelegendsshouldbebelowthegraph.
Discussion
Thissectioniswhereyoudiscussthemeaningofyourobservations.This
isthemostimportantsectionbecausethisiswhereyoudemonstratethat
youhavereallythoughtaboutwhatyourresultsmeanandcompareand
contrastyourresultswithwhatisintheprimaryliterature.
Youshouldstartbyrestatingyourhypothesisandthenstatingwhetheror
notitwassupported.
Youshouldmentionwhatsortsoftrendsyousawintheresultsandhow
thissupportedyourhypothesisornot.Youcanmentionwhyyour
experimentdidordidnotfollowyourpredictions.
Youalsoshouldmentionanyproblemsyouhadwhileconductingthe
experiment(butyourfocusshouldbeinterpretationofyourresults,donot
focusyourentirediscussiononwhatmayhavegonewrong).Howwould
youchangetheexperimenttomakeitbetter,orwhatotherexperiments
couldbedonetotestyourhypothesis?Youshouldfinishthissectionwith
aconcludingparagraphthattieseverythingtogether.
LiteratureCited
Thisiswhereyouincludethejournalarticlesandbooksthatyoucited
throughoutyourlabreport.Youusecitationsinyourpaperwhenyoutake
anideaorfactfromanarticleorothersourceandgivethatperson(s)credit
(therebyavoidingplagiarism).
Oneauthorexample:
Thelittlebrownbathastwoforagingboutspernight(AnthonyandKunz,
1977).

OR
AnthonyandKunz(1977)foundthatlittlebrownbatshavetwoforaging
bouts'pernight.
Twoormoreauthorexample
Habitatavailabilityandcompetitionmaybeimportantindeterminingthe
distributionandabundanceOftheIndianabat(Clarketal.,1987).
Hereishowthetwoaboveexamplesofcitationswouldappearinthe
literaturecitedsection.
Anthony,E.P.,andT.H.Kunz.1977.Foragingbehaviorofthelittle
brownbat.Journalof
Mammalogy67:234255.
Clark,B.K.,J.B.Bowles,andB.S.Clark.1987.Summerstatusofthe
endangeredIndianabat
inIowa.AmericanMidlandNaturaliSt11823239.
Hereisthegeneralpattern:
Lastnameofthefirstauthor,initials,andinitials,lastnameOfnext
author.dateofpublication.
Titleofarticle.Title.ofJournal,volume#:pages.
Hereisthegeneralpatternforabook:
LastnameOfauthor,initials.Dateofpublication.Titleofbook.Publisher:
city.

PepsinLabPartII:LabReportInstructions
RefertotheLabReportguidelinesforabroadpictureofhoweachsection
shouldbeconstructed.Thefollowingoutlinesspecificsforthesections
youwillbeaskedtoproduce.Agradingrubricwillbeprovidedduring
thepeerreviewstageofourwriting.
Title(4pts)
Doesyourtitlehelpreaderunderstandtopicandpurposeoflab?(Donot
justcallthisEnzymeLaborPepsinLab)Titleshouldmentionyour
independentvariable,theenzymeandthesubstratebeingstudied.
MaterialsandMethods(15points)
Thissectionmustfullydescribethedesignofyourexperiment.
IndependentanddependentVariablesmustbeclearlystated.Youneedto
haveadetaileddescriptionoftheexactprocedurethatyouused.Notethat
youmustbeasspecificaspossible,bothintermsofthesetupofthelab
ANDthecalculationsthatyoudid.Forexample,donotjustsay
calculate%change.Instead,continuebyalsoprovidingtheequation
youusedtodothiscalculation.Asotherexample,donotjustsayfill
tubeswithpepsinsolution.Instead,specifyhowmanymLpertesttube,
andwhat%pepsinyouused.

Results(15points)

Doyouincludeareformattedandeasytoreaddatatablethatincludesquantitate
andqualitativedata?
Doyouincludegraph,withalllabelsandunits?Thegraphmustincludeatrendline.
Makeeveryattempttocomputergenerateyourgraphoryoumusthaveaneatly
constructedgraphthatis(instructionswillbegiven)
Doyoualsoincludeafewstatementsthatsummarizemajortrendsobserved?(no
inferencesoranalysisherejustdescriptionandobservationsforbothexperimentaland
controltesttubes)

PepsinLabPartIII:GraphinginGooglespreadsheets(seecanvasfor
thetutorial)

1.
2.
3.

4.

Inthespacebelowsetuparoughsketchofyourgraph.Titlethegraph,x
axisandyaxis.Writeacaptionforthegraph.

PepsinLabPartIVLabAnalysisQuestionscompleteandsubmit
incanvas
Whatenzymeisusedinthislab,andwhatisitssubstratemolecule?Whereisthis
moleculefound,inthelab?Also,includethecorrespondingchemicalreaction.(1
point)
Whatisyourhypothesis,anddescribethecorrespondingrationaleyouusedto
comeupwithyourhypothesis.
Statewhetheryouhypothesiswassupportedorrefutedorifthedatawas
inconclusive.Providespecificdatafromyourlabinsupportofthisstatement.As
apartofyourstatementrefertoyourcontroltubesandthelevelofconsistency(or
lackthereof)betweenyourtrialsofwithineachtreatment,
Provideabiochemicalexplanationforyourresults.
o Forenzymeconcentrationgroup:Referringtoyourgraphandusingyour
knowledgeofbiochemicalreactions,explainwhyyourobservedpattern
makessense.
Alongtheway,makesurethatyouillustrateyourunderstandingof
enzymemolecules,activesites,andsubstratemolecules.
o Fortemperaturegroup:Referringtoyourgraphandusingyour
knowledgeofbiochemicalreactions,explainwhyyourobservedpattern
makessense..
Alongtheway,makesurethatyouillustrateyourunderstandingof
enzymemolecules,tertiarystructure,activesites,hydrogen
bonding,andsubstratemolecules.
o Forionconcentrationgroup:Referringtoyourgraphandusingyour
knowledgeofbiochemicalreactions,explainwhyyourobservedpattern
makessense.
Alongtheway,makesurethatyouillustrateyourunderstandingof
enzymemolecules,activesites,andsubstratemolecules.

5. Identifyonespecificdataabnormality.Provideandexplainatleastthreepossible
sourcesoferrortoexplaintheabnormality.