Writing your paper

Paper Writing Hints

-  The first few paragraphs of your research paper should focus on application and scientific rationale (this is a very important yet students have a tendency to leave out this section)

-  Reduce the sizes of graphs and charts, to a degree where they are legible but take less space on the page (you would not find a graph half the size of the page in a research/journal publication)

-  Include captions under images which stand-alone (meaning: Someone can read the figure legend while reviewing the figure and understand the context of the data presented in the image - but keep it concise).  Several competition readers don't read the text of the paper but just review the visual data and figure legend

-  Write succinctly and as technical as possible, remember most reader audiences (competition or otherwise) are PhD's and don't need the writer to "dummy down" text

-  Write the literature review and study objectives under 3 pages (for most competitions), the paper majority should focus on the results section/data specifically emphasizing the phases of the data (each year and how each section lead to the progression of the next years’ work).
 

Verbal Presentation Hints

-  50% the “sell”, 50% the “science”
-  Be confident
-  Ask for clarification if you don’t understand the judges questions
 

Board Outline Hints

-  Highlight the results over all other sections
-  Highlight the objectives
-  Focus on your application and how your research benefits science and society
-  Describe Phases in your data collection