COMMUNICATION IN THE BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Department of Biology

EXAMPLE OF A SUCCINCTLY WRITTEN RESULTS SECTION

"Red-efts demonstrated a significantly higher tolerance to water loss as well as a significantly higher rate of evaporative water loss (Table 1). In both forms, rate of evaporative water loss (EWL) was negatively correlated with initial mass, although ANCOVA revealed a significant difference (F=8.92; 1, 53 df; P<0.004) in the nature of this relationship (Fig. 1)."

Comment: Note how clear and concise this Results section is written. Note also how Table 1 and Figure 1 were cited.

HOW TO CITE FIGURES AND TABLES IN THE RESULTS SECTION

Good examples:

"Presence of parasites reduced growth rates in infected animals (Table 1)."

"Species richness increased after flooding occurred (Fig. 1)."

"Presence of parasites reduced growth rates in infected animals. (table 1)"

Comment: There are two mistakes here. First, "Table" is a proper noun and therefore must be capitalized. Second, the end-of-sentence period should be placed after the table citation.

"Species richness increased after flooding occurred (Figure 1)."
Comment: There is one mistake here -- references to figures are usually abbreviated as Fig. 1, Fig. 3, etc. This should be written as, "Species richness increased after flooding occurred (Fig. 1)."

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