In the sciences and engineering, you must be able to respond to a diverse range of writing and speaking tasks. Often, you must maintain lab or engineering notebooks that include careful records of experiments. You will also write memos, papers, project proposals and reports, literature reviews, and progress reports; in addition, you may develop print and Web-based presentations for both technical and lay audiences. Particularly common writing assignments in the sciences are the literature review, research proposal, and research report.

Assignments in the natural and applied sciences

Writing a literature review enables you to keep up with and evaluate developments in your field. Literature reviews are an essential first step in any research effort, for they enable you to discover what research has already been completed and how you might build on earlier efforts. Successful literature reviews demonstrate your ability to identify relevant research on a topic and to summarize and in some instances evaluate that research.

Most scientists spend a great deal of time writing research or grant proposals aimed at securing funds to support their research. As an undergraduate, you may have an opportunity to make similar proposals to an office of undergraduate research or to a science-based firm that supports student research, for instance. Funding agencies often have guidelines for preparing a proposal. Proposals for research funding generally include the following sections: title page, introduction, purpose(s) and significance of the study, methods, timeline, budget, and references. You may also need to submit an abstract.

Research reports, another common writing form in the sciences, may include both literature reviews and discussions of primary research, most often experiments. Like journal articles, research reports generally follow this form: title, author(s), abstract, introduction, literature review, materials and methods, results, discussion, and references. Many instructors will ask you to write lab reports (example), which are briefer versions of research reports and may not include a literature review.

Today, most scientific writing is collaborative. As you move from introductory to advanced courses and then to the workplace, you will increasingly find yourself working as part of a team or group. Indeed, in such areas as engineering, collaborative projects are the norm.

Style in the natural and applied sciences

In general, use the present tense for most writing you do in the natural and applied sciences. Use the past tense, however, when you are describing research already carried out (by you or others) or published in the past.

As a writer in the sciences, you will need to produce complex figures, tables, images, and models and use software designed to analyze data or run computer simulations. In addition, you must present data carefully. If you create a graph, you should provide headings for columns, label axes with numbers or units, and identify data points. Caption figures and tables with a number and descriptive title. And avoid orphan data—data that you present in a figure or table but don’t comment on in your text.

Finally, make sure that any writing you do is as clear, concise, and grammatically correct as possible to ensure that readers see you as capable and credible.

Student Writing: Lab report, chemistry (Allyson Goldberg)

Student Writing: CSE-style literature review in biology (Joanna Hays)

Student Writing: Research proposal, biology (Tara Gupta)