Draft Introduction and Results¶

NEU466G, Dr. Harris · Class documents

Overview¶

You submit drafts of the Introduction and Results for your final lab report. It is due by 11:59 PM on the Sunday after the Week 12 class. Submit on Canvas. You do not need to submit revised Figures 1 to 4 with it. In Week 11 the class discusses the draft in class.

Draft introduction (25 points)¶

Write 250 words that introduce three-dimensional reconstruction from serial section electron microscopy (3DEM). Tell the reader what it is, what types of data can be gathered from it, and what types of questions can be answered with it.

Draft results (55 points)¶

Write 600 to 800 words in total that describe Figures 1 to 4. For each figure, describe these things about the objects you analyzed:

• the functions of the objects
• how the objects were identified

Then follow these steps:

1. Give each part of your Results a subheading on its own line. The title of each figure is a good subheading.
2. Open each part with a topic sentence about the goal of the assignment. For example: "Three dendritic spines were traced using the program PyReconstruct to learn about the distribution and size of synapses."
3. Write descriptive sentences that point to the figure in parentheses, for example "(Fig. 1A)."
4. Describe exactly how each figure was prepared. Start with how you identified the objects, then say what each EM image shows, referring to the panels as Figure 1A, B, C, D, and so on.
5. Describe exactly what you traced, and refer to your 3D objects in their figures.
6. Describe how you quantified the objects you traced, and the outcomes the figures illustrate.
7. Be exact and clear about what each part of a figure illustrates.
8. Interpret any graph you made and any statistical test you ran.

Citations and bibliography (20 points)¶

• Citations (10 points). Cite at least five papers, 1 to 2 for each of the 4 figures, from the assigned lectures or the reading material from the semester (see Readings). Cite in the text in 7th edition APA format.
• Bibliography (10 points). List the references in 7th edition APA format, including the DOI. Put the bibliography at the end of your paper.

Legend versus Results¶

Both the figure legend and the Results section report results, but they have different jobs. A legend is a brief key. The Results section has more flow.

Here is the same figure described both ways.

Figure legend: Fig. 1. A) 3D reconstruction of a CA1 pyramidal dendrite (yellow) with dendritic spines (yellow) and excitatory synapses (red). Scale cube = 0.5 µm.

Results: A dendrite segment from a CA1 pyramidal neuron was reconstructed along with its dendritic spines and excitatory synapses (Fig. 1A).

Describe all four figures and their parts with these examples in mind.

Suggested formatting¶

Put the main headings, Introduction and Results, in bold and a larger font, followed by the word count for that section in parentheses. Make the subheadings in the Results a modified version of your figure titles, in sentence case, since each part refers to one figure.

Introduction (### words)

Text of the introduction.

Results (### words)

Your title for Figure 1 in sentence case

Text for Figure 1.

Your title for Figure 2 in sentence case

Text for Figure 2.

Your title for Figure 3 in sentence case

Text for Figure 3.

Your title for Figure 4 in sentence case

Text for Figure 4.