COMMUNICATION IN THE BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Department of Biology

"Twenty-five µl of each sample were loaded onto a 10% polyacrylamide gel and subjected to electrophoresis for one hour at 120V."

Comment: The number 25 is spelled out . Although this number is greater than nine, and hence would normally be expressed as "25," numbers at the beginning of sentences are always spelled out. In addition, the abbreviation for microliters is used, and the sentence is written in third person and past tense. This is a good sentence!
 

A more lengthy example:

"Newts and efts of N. viridescens were collected in Cattaragus County, New York in September 1982. Animals were dehydrated in an apparatus similar to that used by Ray (1958). Compressed air from a SCUBA tank was adjusted to enter a 6 x 6 x 32 cm chamber at a flow rate of 2 l/min. Prior to entering this chamber, the air passed through a column of CaCl₂. The entire apparatus was maintained at a temperature of 20-22°C. Food was withheld from all specimens for 3-5 days prior to testing to ensure their being in a postabsorptive state. Before being placed in the chamber, each animal was dried with absorbent paper, its bladder was emptied by applying gentle pressure to the abdomen and total length (cm) and mass (g) were recorded.

Dehydration was continued to the critical activity point (CAP), the point at which animals lost their righting response (Ray 1958). At this time, each specimen was removed from the chamber, weighed and placed in a dish containing water-soaked cotton. Only individuals that survived 24 h after testing were used in the statistical analysis of these data. All means were compared with the t-test while analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to compare the regressions of rate of water loss on body mass (Sokal and Rohlf 1973)."

Comment: Note how clearly and concisely these paragraphs were written. They were not overly detailed, although all needed information was presented.

POOR EXAMPLES

"Take 25 µl of each sample and load them on a 10% polyacrylamide gel."

 Comment: Avoid telling the reader what to do; tell them what you did.
  

"Next I would take 25 µl of each sample and load them on a 10% gel."

 Comment: Avoid the first person. Write in third person and past tense.
 

"1. Load 25 µl of each sample on a 10% polyacrylamide gel.
2. Run the gel at 100 V for 30 minutes.
3. Transfer the gel to nitrocellulose for one hour at 70V."

 Comment: Avoid lists. Describe what you did in sentences.
 

"25 µl of each of the 3 samples were then loaded on a 10% polyacrylamide gel."

 Comment: Avoid starting sentences with numbers or abbreviations. In addition, spell out numbers less than 10.
 

"Then we ran the proteins on a gel."

 Comment: Avoid slang ("ran the proteins") and first person.
 

"Twenty five µl of each sample were drawn up and loaded onto the top of a 10% polyacrylamide gel. Buffer was then added to the upper and lower chambers and the electrodes were connected. The samples were then subjected to electrophoresis for one hour at 120V."

 Comment: Factually correct, but three times longer than necessary.
 

"Samples were subjected to electrophoresis on a gel."

Comment: Too little detail.
 

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