© Kathryn Tosney
Chair of Biology
The University of Miami

Tosney home page
Society for Developmental Biology
ktosney@miami.edu

9. Differentiate data, summaries,
and conclusions.

Commit yourself

Be bold and explicit

Summaries merely restate results;
conclusions interpret the results and identify their significance.

In the conclusion section, do not merely repeat the results; state the interpretations.

Make the strongest statements your data will support. Why soft-peddle exciting findings?

Make the title as explicit as you can. Go beyond stating “The effect of X on Y.” If you found an interesting effect, then
identify it explicitly in the title.

1. negative 1. positive 2. negative 2. positive	7. negative 7. positive 8. negative 8. positive
3. negative 3. positive 4. negative 4. positive	9. negative 9. positive 10. negative 10. positive
5. negative 5. positive 6. negative 6. positive	11. negative 11. positive poster home page

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