The effect of amylase on enzyme functioning.
I have to write a lab report on the effect of amylase on enzyme functioning. I already started by writing the introduction, methods, and results/ figures. However, I am sure there are many errors in my work that need to be fixed and or worked on. If there is any chance you can edit my work that would be great. I also have to add an abstract and discussion section as well. The rubric for all the sections are as follows.... Title: Scientific titles should be very concise descriptions of the work. Generally titles are less than 20 words long but should be informative enough so that a reader could glance at your title and know what the paper will be about. Introduction Text: You can think of your introduction as serving three purposes Get the reader interested in what you studied- What did you study and why is it interesting? Does it have implications for human health, basic scientific understanding, technologies, the environment, etc? You need to explain to your reader why the topic is important/interesting using scientific information to back up your statements. You should also describe scientific knowledge/studies that your project directly builds off of. Be sure to give a clear description of the exact question/hypothesis you studied so the main point of your paper is clear to the reader. Briefly describe how you studied your question- The complete description of your experiments will be included in the results and methods sections of your paper but you should give the reader a vague sense for your approach to the study in the introduction. This gives the reader a general sense for the study that they can use to contextualize the detailed experimental descriptions in results/methods as they continue reading the paper. Touch on your findings and why they’re exciting- The real interpretation of your results will go in the discussion section of your paper but you do want to briefly summarize your most important finding/s in the introduction. This will likely be quite short (perhaps even just a single sentence) but serves to get the reader excited to closely read the rest of your paper. References: You must include at least 4 total references with at least 2 being primary sources (ie a peer-reviewed research article). Lab lectures and the lab manual can not be used as references – find a primary source (from a peer-reviewed scientific article) for that information. Pubmed, Google Scholar and Web Of Science are all good search engines you can use to find primary references. You need to include citations within the text in the format of (author/s, year) as well as a References section at the end of your introduction. Examples of citations within the introduction text could be (Smith & Jones, 2008) or (Smith et. al. 2009) if there are more than 2 authors. The reference section should be ordered alphabetically in the following general format but please refer to ‘A Short Guide To Writing About Biology’ page 69-79 or your instructor for more help. Smith, MC, Jones, KF, Knowles, BG and Carter, SC (2013) How to name a child. J Childhood Dev 131:435-42. Writing Style: Scientific papers are generally written in the past tense – you may use the past tense in the introduction even when describing the experiments you will do next week (this will save you from having to change the tense later when you turn in your final report). Make sure to check your writing for grammar and for a nice, logical flow from one topic to the next. Be as concise as possible while still including all information relevant to understanding your study. Abstract: Abstracts provide an overall summary of the paper so that readers can read a short abstract and decide whether they will read the entire paper or not. Thus, abstracts must catch the reader’s attention by explaining the importance/relevance of the study, the general experimental approach and the most notable finding(s). Your abstract is limited to 250 words or less. Write the methods section for your amylase lab report. Methods sections in scientific papers serve two key functions. First, they allow the reader to have a detailed understanding of how you performed the experiments, which for knowledgeable readers, can affect how they perceive the work (ie. the experiments were performed in an appropriate manner, statistical analyses were used appropriately, and the technical manner of the experiments can support the authors’ conclusions). Second, the methods section allows readers to reproduce the experiments (or modified versions of them) in order to build off of the results to further science. Methods sections are written using full sentences in passive voice and can not be bulleted lists of experimental procedures. The key to writing a good methods section is to provide a clear description of experimental details while being as concise as possible. Thus, methods sections often are broken into sections for various assays so that readers can quickly find the relevant section they wish to read (readers generally do not read the methods section unless they are looking for particular information). If you performed an assay several times with slight variation each time, a methods section would include a single assay description and then describe how the methods varied for each experiment. Similarly, you can assume your reader has a basic understanding of general laboratory equipment and techniques (ie. you do not need to explain how to use a micropipette or include the brand and model of centrifuge used). Results Text: In describing your results you will also necessarily have to describe the experimental set-up. This is different from your experimental descriptions in the methods section. Descriptions of experiments within the results section should give enough information for the reader to understand the general experiment and approach (such as enzyme activity was measured using measure of color change of Lugol’s solution) but should not include all the minute details of the experiment needed to replicate it (readers can refer to the methods section if they are interested in more detail). Results sections often include a statement on the reasoning behind performing an assay (i.e. in order to determine if disulfide bonds are important to amylase activity, we measured amylase-catalyzed starch breakdown in the presence of increasing 2-mercaptoethanol). Note that results sections are generally written in the past tense. Your results section should also refer to your figures (for example - amylase activity was reduced by addition of 2-mercaptoethanol (Figure 1)). This allows you to concisely describe your results without having to list specific numbers in the text (although results often do point out any numbers that are particularly striking or important to note). Figures: You must include at least one figure in your report. Carefully consider the type of figure you choose (bar graph, scatterplot, etc.) relying on the graphing prelab exercise and in-lab discussion on making graphs. Replicate data sets should not graphed separately unless there is a particular need to do so (if one set gave poor data due to an error, for example). Replicate data points should instead be graphed as an average point with error bars indicating standard deviation. Scientific figures include figure legends that should be stand-alone text. Thus, readers should be able to look at the figures, read their legends and understand what the figure is displaying without referring back to the text (in fact, many scientists read papers by reading the figures and only going back to the main text if they are interested). The figure title should describe the main purpose of the figure (ie. Figure 1. Amylase activity is reduced by addition of 2-mercaptoethanol) and is included in the legend and not on the figure itself. Your figures and legends should not be imbedded within the text but can instead be included as additional pages after the text (one figure per page). In your final report you should include the figure page(s) after your references page (this is how scientific articles are submitted and then the publisher embeds the figures within the text). Discussion: Discussion sections are where you finally get to interpret your results for the reader and explain what they might mean in the broad scheme of the topic at hand. You should relate your experimental results to what you know about the biological processes being studied and to the greater importance of the findings. Discussion sections should begin with a short summary of your experiment and question/hypothesis in order to then lay out an argument for how your results speak to that question/hypothesis. The following questions may help guide you in writing your discussion section: Do the results support or refute your hypothesis? Do the results affect how we view the original question? What are some potential problems or limitations with the experiment? Is there primary literature that supports (or contradicts) your results? What is the significance of the results? Are there medical/ecological/biotechnological/etc. implications? Are there lingering questions remaining or new questions that arose? What further experiments would be worthwhile to do to address these?