SCIENTIFIC WRITING AND PRESENTATION (Ent-402)

Course Title: Scientific writing and presentation

Course Code: ENT-402

Credit Hours: 3(2-1)

Instructor: DR. MUHAMMAD ARSHAD

To familiarize the students to research methods, handling of experimental data, writing of a research report, and presentation skills. A course designed to give graduate students the skills necessary to write a thesis, and to prepare other professional materials for presentation or publication. The course will be helpful for the students to distinguish different types of research, their audiences, and how research material might be effectively presented and to prepare scientific and technical papers, and presentations. This course is designed as a practical "how-to" course for students who plan to write up and publish their research results and give presentations at international conferences. This course consists of two parts. In the ﬁrst part, the students will learn how to write and publish a scientiﬁc paper, including how to structure a paper, how to write the abstract, introduction, materials & methods, results, discussion, and conclusions.

Learning Outcomes

The students will also learn how to represent experimental and analytical results graphically. Another important component of this course is how to avoid common mistakes and pitfalls in the writing process, including problems of grammar and style. In practical exercises, the students will improve their academic writing skills. The second part of the course focuses on academic presentation skills. Here, we will study how to design eﬀective presentation slides, and how to give an oral presentation.

Course Content

Theory:

Introduction to scientific writing
The literature search for entomological information
Citation
Collection of data and tabulation
Analysis and interpretation of research data
Report writing
Lab/field experimental designs
Concepts of synopsis, thesis, research paper, research project and monographs
Presentation skills

Practical:

Use of internet sources and databases for entomological information
Layout of experiments
Collection of data and tabulation
Analysis and interpretation of research data
Writing synopsis, thesis, research paper, research project, and monographs
Preparation and delivery of multimedia presentations
Visit and use of digital libraries

Readings

Day, R. A., B. Gastel, 2006. How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper. 6th Edition. ISBN: 0-313-33040-9
Alley, M. 2003. The Craft of Scientific Presentations: Critical steps to succeed and critical errors to avoid. Springer, NY. 241 pages. ISBN:0-387-95555-0.
Davis, M. 2005. Scientific Papers and Presentations. Academic Press.
Dawson, C. 2009. Introduction to Research Methods: A practical guide for anyone undertaking a research project. 4th edition. Howtobooks, UK.