Structure, format, content, and style of a scientific paper

Why scientific format

Research	Section of Paper
What did I do in a nutshell?	Abstract
What is the problem?	Introduction
How did I solve the problem?	Materials and methods
What did I find out?	Results
What does it mean?	Discussion

What does it mean? 

Discussion

Who helped me out? 

Acknowledgments

(optional) 
Whose work did I refer to? 

Literature Cited

Extra Information 

Appendices

(optional) 

The scientific format may seem confusing for the beginning science writer due to its rigid structure which is so different from writing in the humanities. One reason for using this format is that it is a means of efficiently communicating scientific findings to the broad community of scientists in a uniform manner. Another reason, perhaps more import ant than the first, is that this format allows the paper to be read at several different levels. F or example, many people skim Titles

to find out 

what information is available on a subject. Others may read only titles and Abstracts . Those wanting to go deeper may look at the Tables and Figures

in the 

Results , and so on. The take home point here is that the scientific format helps to insure that at whatever level a person reads your paper (beyond title skimming), they will likely get the key resul ts and conclusions.