write a scholarly article

I have to write a scholarly article for my thesis for my masters. I have no idea where to begin and what kind of format I should be following. Can anyone help?????

Dana

I have written a paper about the finding of pUc19 Plasmid DNA adhesion to Cleaned and Atomically Flat Silicon Dioxide Wafers Treated with 3,4 Amminopropyltriethoxysilanes at Various 4-(2-hydroxyethyl)-1-piperazineethanesulfonic acid (HEPES) Buffer pH’s and also the formation of 3 and 4 tile DNA rafts and their adhesion to cleaved (not cleaned) Mica with a Mg+2 trisacetate buffer at a constant pH using an atomic force microscope. However, I don’t feel these articles are scholarly because they are only a few pages long and do not encompass much reasearch, rather they are just results. I want to write a paper that gets into a journal.

... but an interesting undertaking in its own right. Doing research can be, well, fun. Doing the writing is tougher, but it provides completion to the process as well as enforcing a level of discipline.

I’m working on it! Two possible manuscripts in progress at this juncture in time.

While it was cool the first time my name was on a paper, it was even better the first time I was one of the primary authors. We happened to get the cover of the journal—I sent reprints of the article and cover to all my family members, since it’s the closest I’ll ever come to “the cover of Rolling Stone”.

I could go on about the problems with academic publishing (the publish-or-perish culture, the proliferation of journals existing solely to create publishing venues for those threatened by the p-or-p culture, the general irrelevance and lack of originality of what does get published, etc.), but there’s no denying the thrill that goes withn seeing your name on the byline of a professional publication. So go for it!