The summary must be written in YOUR OWN WORDS so that FIRST year biology students can understand it (minimize scientific jargon). In the summary, you must INCLUDE the following:
i) An introductory paragraph that states the BIG PICTURE question that the research is trying to address. It should include the MAIN HYPOTHESIS (or specific research question) that the researchers were using for this study.
ii) A paragraph or two stating the main findings from the key figures in the paper and the main experimental methods used to get each research finding.
iii) A concluding paragraph indicating the importance of the research in the BIG PICTURE and any future research areas opened up by this study.
iv) An APPENDIX which simply and clearly explains how ONE of the main experimental methods works to give specific results shown in the paper. This explanation MUST include a figure (Created by YOU in PowerPoint, Illustrator, etc.) to explain the process (e.g. flow chart, cartoon representation, etc.). If the figure is modeled after another figure then a citation must be included.
