This book provides practical advice to students who are learning to write according to the conventions in biology, including step-by-step guidance and numerous examples of faulty writing (along with revisions) to alert students to pitfalls when writing different sections of a scientific paper. Most of the sections are designed to stand alone so that readers can look up a topic in the index and find the answer to their question. Those who want to learn more about the topic have the option of reading related sections or entire chapters.
Most first-year students have had little experience producing Greek letters and mathematical symbols, sub- and superscripted characters, graphs, tables, drawings, and equations. For exactly this reason, almost half of the book is devoted to Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint features that enable scientists to produce professional quality papers, graphs, posters, and oral presentations effectively and efficiently.