Short Guide to Writing About Biology, A (Valuepack Item Only) (8e)

This best-selling writing guide teaches students to think as biologists and to express ideas clearly and concisely through their writing.

• Each chapter now begins with a brief overview of the main points to be covered in that chapter to let students know the key topics that are expected to learn.
• The material on plagiarism has been  expanded and is now dealt with in the opening chapter.
• Technology Tips have been updated as needed.
• Information about conducting Web searches has been updated and now includes open access research journals (the DOAJ–Directory of Open Access Journals) as a new area to explore for research sources.
• Specialized note-taking software is now covered as well as how to narrow literature searches to particular domains and file types using Advanced Search functions in Web browsers such as Google and Scirus.
• Chapters 7 and 8 from the previous edition have been combined into a single chapter dealing with the writing of summaries, critiques, essays, and review papers, to emphasize the connections among these assignments. and eliminate redundancy; Writing short critiques, for example, is excellent preparation for writing a meaningful review paper.
•  The chapter on answering essay questions now relates more clearly to material concerning the writing of summaries and critiques. In addition, the chapter has been moved earlier in the book to clarify that connection.
• The chapter on writing essay exams (Chapter 11) now follows this new combined chapter, to show students how the general skills involved in summarizing and synthesizingcan be applied to answering exam questions.
• The  concluding chapter, Chapter 12, on writing letters of application, now emphasizes the importance of linking your research interests with the research activities of potential mentors when applying to graduate programs.