Write the materials and methods section AND the results section of your paper. These sections work hand-in-hand. In materials and methods, you explain in detail what you used to conduct your study (materials) and how you conducted your study (methods). In results, you present the data that you collected by conducting your study. Usually, this takes the form of graphs and/or tables. Further instructions below:
Materials and Methods
A materials and methods section is like a recipe – every detail must be included and made very explicit so that someone else can replicate it exactly as you did it. The materials are your “ingredients,” and the methods are the “cooking instructions.”
First, lay out the materials you used in your study. Depending on your study, these may include equipment, animals, surveys, human participants, etc. Be detailed. If you used rats, what kind of rats? If you used people, what age range? How many were men? How many women? Do they need to be from a similar socio-economic status for your results to be accurate? If so, why? Etc., etc. etc.
Next, provide a step-by-step account of the techniques used to collect your data. Again, be detailed. If you’re trying to determine whether one group had more likelihood of tumor development than another, how are you testing for tumors? Are you counting number of tumors or measuring size of tumors or both? What unit of measurement are you using? Are you including both benign and malignant tumors or only malignant? Don’t leave any gaps in explaining your process/techniques.
