How to write a scientific manuscript III
Results
The results section is written in past tense as you describe the results of already performed and evaluated experiments. Use active voice whenever possible. To write this section take the figures and describe each panel in detail. Describe the results in consecutive order starting at Figure 1A.
While writing the results it might happen, that your writing flow is disrupted because you would prefer to describe Figure 1C before Figure 1B. If this happens, just go back to Figure 1 and rearrange the panels by exchanging Figure 1B and 1C. Preparing the figures and writing the corresponding text is a dynamic process, so it is absolutely o.k. to change the structure while writing. While doing this, you can try telling a story to the reader so it is easier to follow your experiments. Explain in a short sentence why you performed a specific test and how the results of this test lead you to perform the next analysis shown in the next panel or figure. However, just tell the story on WHY you did your experiments, do not discuss the outcome in the results section!
The description of each panel should be very precise and state which method was used and which groups were compared, so the reader can easily understand what is shown. This short introductory sentence should be followed by a detailed and precise description of the actual result of the experiment.
When comparing the results of different groups with each other, make sure that you always compare the test group to the corresponding control group and not vice versa. A typical sentence would read: “the test group showed an increase in protein levels compared to the control group”. The control group is always the baseline from which the test group deviates.
As already mentioned in the last chapter, use the same names for your groups as in the figures and figure legends. Additionally, also use the same word for a given object, e.g., if you place your animal in an open field box, always call it a box, don’t rephrase to chamber or crate or else. This rephrasing is often done by German natives but makes it very confusing to English natives that are used to stick to the same word. This rule does not apply to verbs, there you can be creative by using synonyms.
Additionally, when comparing groups, be precise about the observed changes. Just mentioning “protein levels in the test group were altered compared to the control group” is not specific enough, say in which direction. Is it an increase or decrease? The sentence should therefore read “protein levels in the test group were increased compared to the control group”.
Treatment effects or other differences between groups should be always validated by proper statistics. A great statistical guide can be found at the GraphPad Prism homepage. You can only talk about differences between groups, if the statistical analysis proofs it. If you did proper statistic and groups are not significantly different, don’t call it a difference.
When writing the results, make sure that you do it objectively by strictly describing what your figure shows without already discussing the data. If you use the words “suggesting”, “assuming”, “supposing” or similar you are already discussing the results. If you realize that you did it, just paste the text into the discussion section, you can certainly use it there!
Once you completed describing each figure panel in consecutive order, summarize your results in a short chapter at the end of the results. This will help the reader to stay on top of things. What is the overall result of your experiments?
Today’s conclusion about results:
I: Objectively describe the results in consecutive order
II: Only denote data different that are significantly different from the control group
III: Be precise!