CHEM 260: Concepts of Biochemistry

After developing a research topic, finding supporting research materials, and evaluating your sources, you can begin the reading and writing process. It is highly recommended that you think of reading and writing as a symbiotic relationship. The effort that you put in during the reading process will directly influence the success and ease of the writing process. Work smarter, not harder! 

Tips for reading and writing: 

• Be an engaged reader: As you read, have a place where you can take notes. Highlighting text as you read is not always a winning strategy, as highlighting indicates that you will need to return to the document to sift through your highlighted text. Instead, employ active strategies such as making notes in the margins, summarizing the author's findings as you read, or best of all, have a running notes document where you can collect your thoughts for all of your reading for the project. When you sit down to write, all of your thoughts will be in one place!
• What type of product do you need to Author?: Before sitting down to write, look for examples of the type of piece that you need to produce. This will allow you to write with intention and will reduce time spent editing. Example resources are found on the Open Academics website. 
• Use Zotero: Zotero is a citation manager that will help to streamline the citation process. Additional information about using Zotero is available in a tab on the left side of the screen. 
• Don't multitask as you read and write: The jury is out-- our brains do not multitask well (See this NIH Report). When you sit down to write, create a space that is as distraction free as possible. Give ambient, ASMR, classical, or LoFi music a try, instead of music with words. You might also experiment with Pomodoro videos, easily found on YouTube, to help you establish a flow as you read and write. 
• Start early and ask for help!: Starting early will give you the best opportunity to revise your wiriting and to ask for help. Your instructor and librarian are here to support you, so please be in touch! 

The ACS Guide to Scholarly Communication provides students, researchers, educators, and librarians with the instruction and advice they need to master the art of scholarly communication. The new Guide covers all instructions from previous editions of The ACS Style Guide - completely updated and modernized - as well as a wealth of brand new chapters covering everything from preprints, Open Access, machine-readable data, and much more. 

The ACS Quick Style Guide is a great place to start when learning to write in ACS format. 

Additional resources to consider as you write are below: 

The American Psychological Association (APA) publishes its own style guide, and APA formatting is used across many disciplines. Make sure to use the 7th edition of any APA resources, as this is the most current iteration. Resources for writing in APA style are outlined below: