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. 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.
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 were women? Do they need to be from a similar socioeconomic 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 a higher likelihood of tumor development than another, how are you testing for tumors? Are you counting the number of tumors or measuring the size of tumors or both? What criteria are you using to determine if a tumor is benign or malignant? Don't leave out any process/techniques.
Materials and methods should be written in the past tense because you're pretending you already conducted the study. Use of the first person is okay here (but not in the rest of the paper). Do not use separate subtitles for materials and methods. Just develop a coherent section in the paper.
Length requirement: 2 to 4 pages
