230 THE MANUSCRIPT 



Two copies are sent to the journal; therefore, you will need at least 

 two carbon copies so that you may keep one yourself. Type on one side 

 of the paper and double-space everything. Leave adequate margins (1 to 

 1^ in.) for editorial comments and instructions to the printer. 



Check the entire manuscript for typographical errors and errors in 

 spelling, grammar, or content. Set it aside for a few days and then check 

 it again. Let someone else, say a person not too familiar with your work, 

 read it and criticize it. Select the readers carefully. If a reader says every- 

 thing is "just fine," he must not have read it critically or he does not want 

 to hurt your feelings. If another reader cannot find anything good about 

 the manuscript and hands you a list of nasty comments, suspect him also. 

 Eventually, after a few such trials, you will find two or more friends, 

 relatives, or colleagues who can give you the kind of criticism you need. 

 The purpose of the criticism, after all, is to improve the paper. The good 

 critic will question something that is not clear to him; you had better 

 rewrite that sentence or paragraph because you cannot explain it ver- 

 bally to every reader. 



Minor corrections can be corrected in ink or by typing on the manu- 

 script. Major corrections may require retyping a page. Probably if the 

 criticism was adequate you will want to retype the whole manuscript. 

 After all, the scientific paper is usually only a few pages long, and the 

 final typing is a small part of the entire job. 



Title and abstract 



These parts have been saved until last because they are the most 

 difficult to write. Since a maximum amount of useful information must 

 be included in a minimum of words, the words must be used very effi- 

 ciently. 



The title is the first item read by a reader searching the literature. 

 Unless your title tells him what is in your paper, he may not read it, 

 even though your findings might be important to him. Abstracting and 

 indexing services frequently pick key words from titles. The title should 

 tell the nature of the study, usually the approach to the problem, and 

 often the kinds of organisms used. "The effects of gamma rays on the 

 yield of peaches," mentioned earlier, provides enough information for 

 a reasonable guess about the contents of the paper. 



The abstract is a one paragraph summary, limited to about 200 words. 

 Any reader is likely to read the abstract before he reads the whole paper, 



