How to Write Chemistry Paper From Scratch

By: Henrique Bertulino

17 min

1

10.04.2022

How to Write Chemistry Paper From Scratch

Chemistry paper is the main result of a student's activity. A scientific article on chemistry should contain a short but sufficient understanding report on the research and an objective discussion of its significance. The report should include an adequate amount of data and links to published sources of information so that colleagues can evaluate and check the work themselves.

The most common type of scientific articles in chemistry among undergraduate and graduate students is theoretical. Such works are based on the processing of scientific questions, analysis, and display of our developments, taking into account the generally recognized achievements of science. The second type is empirical or practical articles. In this case, the experiment is based on experiments or justified by practical developments. Globally, this is a more challenging level.

To write a good article, you must comply with the standards for building a general plan for a scientific publication and the requirements of a scientific style of speech. This ensures that the reader can perceive and appreciate the data. The main features of the scientific style: consistency, uniqueness, objectivity.

If you don't know where to start writing an article, then start by looking for an interesting topic. The title is an essential element of the paper. The name judges all work. Therefore, the title of the article should fully reflect its content. The article should briefly and clearly state the current issue, the purpose of the work, research methodology, results, and discussion of the data obtained.

What is Chemistry?

Chemistry is the science of nature that studies the molecular and atomic transformations of substances. That is transformations in which the molecules of some substances destroy, and molecules of other substances form in their place.

What role does chemistry play in life? Firstly, chemistry is our life, everything that we feel, see around us, and consist of chemicals that continuously react. Viruses, ants, people, planets, stars, galaxies - everything in the world consists of chemical elements. The entire universe is too big and too complicated a chemical reactor. Secondly, it is an essential branch of the economy. There is no industry in which chemistry is not involved and whose development does not depend on advances in this area.

When some substances turn into others that differ in composition and structure, this means that a chemical reaction has occurred; you should have met this in a chemistry class. In molecules, the atoms of one substance link to the second. In a chemical reaction, the bonds between the atoms of one compound destroy, and new bonds are formed with another combination of atoms. When describing the reaction's course, chemists use the symbolic notation: iron is denoted by several letters and oxygen by one.

Types of Chemistry Writing

All chemists use four types of documents in their work. The same standards bound every kind of paper, but different sections may appear as it is written. Students attending school could perform chemistry homework or experiment tasks under the supervision of a teacher. Those students who study at a college and university with an in-depth study of chemistry must complete these four types of papers:

  • Literature review;
  • Research proposal;
  • Research paper;
  • Lab report.

These documents are mandatory in the learning process, but each student must also write a dissertation and coursework in the science of chemistry. A dissertation for the title of the candidate of chemical sciences usually consists of three parts: theoretical and experimental research, a methodological part, and a discussion of the results. The volume of a dissertation in chemistry can vary from 100 to 150 typewritten pages. Coursework in chemistry contains a practical part, including studying specific chemical reactions, laboratory experiments, and problem-solving.

If you need homework help or advice on literature review, research proposal, research paper, lab report, coursework, dissertation, publish the article in a journal, then you can contact the authors of Studybay. Chemistry works are performed only by those who have a successful experience performing various types of work. Having received help from the service, be sure that the task will be prepared by all the requirements and without mistakes.

Literature Review

A literature review is a document about various authors' discussion on a given topic (monographs, collections, multivolume publications, educational and methodological literature, articles from collections and periodicals, reviews, and abstracts of dissertations electronic media). The literature review is a brief overview of works that have previously considered the subjects of interest and are directly or indirectly related to the study's subject.

The literature review tasks are intermediate stages, the achievement of which is necessary for the implementation of the set goals, that is, the description of the stages of your work. The tasks describe the plan of research actions in a chronological or logical sequence.

The review should not be limited to the literature on a narrow research topic. If the experiment is innovative, then there may not be such works at all. First, it is necessary to link a specific research topic with the problem statement. When writing this part, the source should be primarily the most authoritative textbooks and a small number of generalizing monographs with the highest citation index. More specialized works should be resorted to if they present fundamentally new approaches and ideas.

Research Proposal

A research proposal is created to describe an experiment that a student wants to complete and still receive financial support for the job or special equipment. This document also includes a large section of the literature review that supports the researcher's assumptions and ideas. Reliant on specific scientific works, the student can prove that his work makes sense for science. University students work with this type of paper in their final or penultimate year of study and take part in the literature capstone.

Research Paper

The research paper is a form of work-related to solving a research problem and includes certain elements listed below:

  • The object of the experiment is a particular process or phenomenon that generates a problem situation.
  • An experiment subject is a specific part of an object to which research activity is directed.
  • A topic is a perspective from which a problem is viewed. It should be of interest not only to the author, but also to society, and be relevant.
  • To justify the relevance means to explain the need to study a given topic in the general process of scientific knowledge.
  • The experiment goal is the result that the researcher would like to achieve when completing his work.
  • The experiment task is the choice of ways and means to achieve the hypothesis's goal. Objectives are best formulated as statements of what needs to be done to achieve the goal.

Lab Report

After completing the laboratory work, a report on the work done is performed. The chemistry lab report has a certain structure. It contains, in addition to the name of the laboratory work, goals and equipment, a minimum of the theory that is necessary for implementation, a description of what to do, and what results obtaining, processing, analysis, and conclusions.

Particular attention is paid to the design of graphic elements. The lab report is performed individually on A4 sheets on one side of the sheet. The report should be drawn up neatly, in legible handwriting, without abbreviations of words, except generally accepted designations.

The lab report is a practical work carried out by students independently and serves as a peculiar way of recording the acquired knowledge, skills, and abilities. This document can write at the end of the experiment itself or in its passage. If you started writing a laboratory report, then, accordingly, it should be less than the study itself. The lab report cannot exceed 8-10 pages of the main text in terms of volume.

Writing the Chemistry Research Paper

A chemistry research paper is an experiment on a narrow topic, involving scientific literature and documentary sources, both published and unpublished. The research paper consists of introducing any new documents, facts, theories, proven facts, etc.

When writing a scientific text, it is essential to understand that you are writing it not for yourself and not for your supervisor. Your article intends for a reader who has no idea what you are describing and does not understand a single, even unless you explain it in detail. It often seems that a thought written in simple language, without tricky words, is bad. An idea that is difficult to explain is often better understood by the reader than banal phrases. Don't be afraid to experiment with the presentation style. It is the key to success.

Researchers have to deal with a standard structure that includes the following elements:

  • Introduction;
  • Results and discussion;
  • Conclusion;
  • Experimental.

Let's take a look at each of them together.

Introduction

The purpose of the introduction is to interest the reader. Tell us about yourself, what interests you, and how you came to the research topic. Don't be afraid to be sincere. The work of those who are genuinely passionate is different from formal, boring papers. Infected by your enthusiasm, the reader will patiently follow you along the winding paths of your experiment.

An excellent way to get attention is to start with some unexpected fact or event that impresses you. A little bit of storytelling skill, and the reader is already intrigued. Example: "At the beginning of July 2019, we, students of the school of a young chemist, made an expedition to the Engineering-Chemical backwaters. The trip left an indelible impression. "

Having hooked the reader, get down to business - tell us what you researched, what sources for research you used, what story you want to tell and why. The main thing is not to be too annoying and to be short. Talking about the study's tasks, one should not say that it does not directly relate to it.

Results and Discussion

This section is one of the most difficult, even for experienced authors. If the blocks of experimental data (figures or tables with captions and explanatory text) have already been prepared, then writing the "Results and Discussion" section will be more comfortable. Indeed, what is the discussion?

In a sense, the Discussion of Results is a mirror image of the Introduction. In the Introduction, we substantiate the task of a specific study, proceeding from the level of modern science. In the Discussion of Results, we try to understand the significance of the newly obtained data for science as a whole. Such comprehension involves comparing the received data with each other and the relevant data of other authors.

The ultimate goal discussion is to understand what has changed in world science due to this work (according to the authors). The immediate task of the discussion is to substantiate the general conclusion.

Conclusion

The purpose of the conclusion is to remind the reader of your results drawn in the work's central chapters. The tried and tested method is to write in conclusion, several general sentences on the essence of the work as a whole, to compare the written text with the tasks formulated in the introduction. Such a conclusion will not cause any complaints, but it will not impress readers either.

Anyone who has read your work to the end will be interested in knowing what thoughts you have in connection with this work and what difficulties you encountered while writing it. And also, what you plan to do with the results obtained further. Perhaps there is something special that you would like to tell the reader. All of this will find its place in a reasonable conclusion. Don't be afraid to go beyond your work and only write what you think.

Another option for the conclusion may be a kind of epilogue to your story. What happened to the experiments you described? Perhaps what struck you the most is other researchers' results or a passage from a scientific document - this can also be good material for the final part. You can quote the statement of researchers or write in the form of indirect speech. There are many options for how to effectively and interestingly complete the work. The main thing here is to resist the temptation to write formally.

Experimental

This part is the last in the research paper. Sometimes it is also referred to as additional information. This information concretizes and clarifies the main one. Its inclusion in the study depends on the purpose and knowledge of the compiler on the topic. Additional information in the form of examples, illustrations can enter in words: for example, so, the same. Specifying information is introduced by the union analog in particular.

This part may also contain a listing of objects, phenomena, and facts that have not processes in the text's central part. Experimental has a clarifying character and develops some ideas of the primary paragraph that do not fully research. This part often contains digital data. In the scientific style, sentences are often used that illustrate, concretize, or duplicate the main point of the previous statement. Types of additional information:

  • introductory information;
  • illustrative information introduce with particular signal words, for example, so, for instance, as an example, we will give an illustration, as an illustration;
  • specifying information - in particular, namely, more precisely, in a word, and the like;
  • clearing information - in other words, it means repeating what has been said, etc .;
  • summarizing (generalizing) information - thus, in conclusion, it follows from what has been said, summing up, in a word, etc.

Citation and Formatting

Any research work or project of a student is drawn upon A4 sheets on one side according to the following parameters:

Fields are exposed:

  • left margin - 20 mm
  • right - 10 mm
  • top - 15 mm
  • bottom - 15 mm
  • The text of the research paper is typed in Times New Roman.
  • Font size 14.
  • Line spacing - 1.5 (one and a half).
  • Alignment of text on the page - in width.
  • The height of capital letters in the figure's inscriptions should be 1/15 - 1/20 of the figure's height.
  • The thickness of the lines should be approximately 1/10 of the height of the letter.

Typing and printing the bibliography correctly is a matter of skill and accuracy. However, this work will be greatly simplified if you have a personal computer: it will take over a significant part of your work at all article preparation stages. Paragraph indents are required with a value at the discretion of the author. The text of the experiment project should be well readable and well-formed.

Citation involves borrowing a fragment of the author's text, borrowing formulas, statements, illustrations, tables, and other elements; analysis of the content of other publications in the text of the work. Distinguish between correct citation - bringing an excerpt from the text indicating the author and title of the work in the amount justified by the citation's purpose. An incorrect citation is an excerpt from the text without indicating the author and title of the work or in an amount that is not justified by the citation's purpose.

The citation must have a link to a specific source from the bibliography. The absence of a link in the quote or the absence of a quote in the presence of a link is a gross mistake in the work design. However, it is generally accepted that citations in scientific texts should not exceed 25% of the total work volume.

Topics For Your Chemistry Paper

Scientific work in chemistry requires new knowledge, so here is a list of exciting topics for your attention:

  1. Spectrophotometric determination of catecholamines using gold nanorods.
  2. Analysis of synthetic heat transfer oils by gas chromatography with electronic ionization.
  3. A new generation sensor based on self-doping of boronate-substituted polyanilines.
  4. Determination of rare earth elements in soils at the level of natural contents using trace element analysis.
  5. The chemical experiment in inorganic chemistry in the system of problem learning.
  6. Interaction of humic acids with polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons: chemical and toxicological aspects.
  7. Initiation of cumene decomposition.
  8. Quantitative structure-property models of organic compounds.
  9. Organometallic complexes of d-elements as catalysts.
  10. Modifications to steroid skeletons.
  11. Development of methods for the synthesis of monomers and polymer modifiers.
  12. Individual ions in water and non-aqueous solvents.
  13. Binary solvent.
  14. Physical and chemical foundations of environmental analysis.
  15. Unusual structural properties of water within the hydration shell of a hyperactive antifreeze protein.

Chemistry Scientific Method

Scientific work in chemistry encompasses many methods. Let's take a look at some of them:

  1. Observation is the initial cognition method, which allows one to obtain preliminary information about the study object. Observation is a purposeful, systematic, active method of scientific knowledge. It is carried out to solve predetermined tasks strictly according to a plan drawn up by the researcher, consistent with the tasks set. The active actions of the researcher accompany it.
  2. The experiment is a more complex method of cognition than observation. It differs from the observation method in that during the investigation, the researcher can change the conditions (pressure, temperature, voltage, etc.), eliminating side factors that complicate the experiment process. The experiment can be repeated several times to obtain the most reliable results.
  3. Measurement is the process of determining the quantitative values of the object's properties under study using special technical devices.
  4. Observation is the initial cognition method, which allows one to obtain primary information about the study object.

Now let's take a look at how to choose a scientific chemistry method.

Formulate a Question

Before doing research, it is essential to ask a question to understand what you want to do. For example: with a solution of ammonium chloride in water, will it be an endothermic or exothermic process? You see that this question cannot be answered theoretically, so you need to choose an experimental research method and find out what results you get.

Conduct Background Research

To answer the question, you need to do a little research. Let's go back to our example of ammonium chloride. Water is the most versatile solvent. This property is because water molecules are electric dipoles. As a result, molecules of electrolyte substances dissolve exceptionally well in water. When dissolved, a NaCl crystal exists surrounded by a dense group of water molecules. This ion is called hydrated. Interestingly, the size of the hydrated ion is much larger than the size of the free ion. This explains the presence of osmotic effects in electrolyte solutions.

During the experiment, water molecules unfold differently when they approach positive sodium ions and negative chlorine ions. With a sufficiently strong attraction from the water molecules, the ion is detached from the crystal. Based on the data, we formulate a hypothesis.

Construct a Hypothesis

A hypothesis is a scientific assumption, a guess. Unlike an axiom, a hypothesis requires proof. The hypothesis is expressed based on several observations. Subsequently, it is proved or refuted. A scientific hypothesis must meet the criteria of scientific knowledge: explain facts, be logical, not contradict previous facts, be fundamentally verified by experiment, etc.

Hypotheses are transformed into theories through scientific testing. Based on the theory, you can build new assumptions and look for confirmation using experiments and observations. The number of hypotheses increases by the nature of the solution to the problem - the more creative it is, the more hypotheses will be used. Again, we believe in the example. Here only one hypothesis will be used, and it looks like this: a solution of ammonium chloride in water is an exothermic process. And further, based on your experimentation and scientific work of other authoritative writers, you prove your hypothesis.

Experiment and Analyze Data

Your task is to conduct an experiment and describe it date-wise, then analyze the data and draw a conclusion. For example:

Place some sodium chloride crystals in a test tube and add water. After a while, the crystals will dissolve. Simultaneously, the water temperature gradually decreased from 23 C to 10 C. Sodium chloride is a non-molecular substance. A NaCl crystal consists of Na and Cl ions. When such a crystal enters the water, these ions pass into it. This breaks ionic bonds in the crystal and hydrogen bonds between water molecules. Ions trapped in water interact with water:

NaCl + H2O = [Na(H2O)] + [Cl(H2O)]

During the experiment, it was found that the hypothesis was not confirmed. After all, the reactions proceeding with the release of heat are called exothermic. Reactions involving heat absorption are called endothermic. This means that the dissolution of sodium chloride in water is an endothermic process.

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Henrique Bertulino

Head of Customer Success

I'm a medical doctor and brand manager. The process of getting into Med school and studying at it made me learn and apply many strategies to keep my productivity high while spending less time and effort. As a working student, I had to figure out how to study smarter, not harder. During this period, my interest in neurology and psychiatry, as well as my aspiration to help others, intensified. At Studybay, I use my knowledge, skills, and experience to develop helpful solutions for students and make their study paths more productive and fun.

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