How do your results compare with other studies?

/in /by

Females prefer men as mates with deeper pitched voices over men with higher pitched voices.
A couple points to keep in mind:

• Use active voice over passive voice: “We did this…” reads better than “This was done…”

• Correct grammar and spelling are important, so proofread!

Results:

What patterns did you find? Write what were the major trends.
No interpretations – Be concise!
Use graphs (or tables) to represent findings [see Figures section below]
Do NOT “throw out” or ignore results
Do NOT present the same data in more than one way
Do NOT present raw data. The reader should not be able to tell how each of the 100 people you surveyed answered your questions. Remember we care about the population as a whole.

Figures:

You can include the figures and/or tables in the Results section with the text or at the end of the document.
Figures and tables need fully explanatory captions of what is being displayed: below for figures, above for tables.
Numbering of figures and tables starts at 1 and continues in consecutive order, based on appearance of reference in your papers text
Figures and tables have separate sets of numbering
Only include figures/tables that you refer to in text – if youre including a figure/table, you need to talk about it in your text.
How to refer to a figure/table within the text: “X appears twice as often as Y (Figure 1).”
NOT “See Figure 1.”, “Figure 1 shows something.”, etc.

Discussion: specific → general

Start by addressing the original hypotheses: supported or refuted?
Do NOT say “prove” – you cannot prove anything with one study.
It is OK if your hypothesis was refuted. There is no point to conducting an experiment if we always expect to be right!
Discuss the results, major findings, any anomalies…
Provide biological explanation of all results. Use the literature to support your ideas.
Discussion should tie back to introduction. Do not be afraid to revisit the topics you wrote about in your introduction.
Problems with your study? How might these have affected the interpretation of the results? How might the study be improved?
How do your results compare with other studies? What did you do similarly/differently?
Refer to the studies brought up in the introduction
Assume your findings are just as valid as theirs
What future research can be done? Why do your findings matter (big picture)?

Literature Cited:

At least 2 journal articles are required in your citations.
Reports with more citations tend to do much better.
Only include citations here that are actually cited in your papers text.
Citations should include:
Last name, first initial. Year published. Title of article. Journal title. Volume number: page numbers.

When citing within the text of the report: “Female birds tend to prefer a male that has brightly colored feathers (Seamus 2009).”