How to Write a Composition Essay in Biology
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The dynamic development of biological knowledge in the 20th century made it possible to discover the molecular foundations of the living and directly approach the solution of the greatest problem of science – the disclosure of the essence of life. Biology itself and its place, its role in the system of sciences, and the attitude of biological science and practice have radically changed. Biology is gradually becoming a leader in natural sciences.
In order to fully understand this science, you just need to look around. Plants, animals, people and even organisms invisible to the human eye are the objects of study of this discipline. This means that students who have been given the task to write a composition essay in biology have an almost endless scope for research. In this article, we will tell you how to write a quality and interesting study in biology.
Such Ample Opportunities for Biological Research
Depending on the structure, properties, and manifestations of the individual life of the studied organisms in biology, there are:
- Anatomy and morphology that study the structure and forms of organisms;
- Physiology in which the functions of living organisms, their relationship, and dependence on conditions (both external and internal) are analyzed;
- Genetics that works with the laws of heredity and variability of organisms;
- Development biology tells us about the patterns of development of the organic world in the process of evolution;
- Ecology studies the way of life of plants and animals and their relationship with the natural environment;
- Biochemistry and biophysics study the chemical composition of biological systems, their physical structure, physicochemical processes, and chemical reactions.
The Main Methods of Scientific Research in Biology
Biology, like any other science, has its own scientific research methods. That is, these methods represent a set of techniques and operations for building a system of scientific knowledge. Biology uses the following basic research methods:
- The descriptive method was used in the early stages of the development of biology. It consists in observing biological objects and phenomena, their detailed description. This is the primary collection of general information about the subject of study.
- Observation is a system of constant monitoring of the state and course of the processes of a particular living organism, ecosystem or the entire biosphere. Observations can be direct or indirect, they can be carried out with or without technical devices. So, an ornithologist sees a bird through binoculars and can hear it, or it can capture sounds outside the range heard by the human ear. The histologist observes a fixed and stained tissue section with a microscope. And for a molecular biologist, the observation may be fixing the change in the concentration of the enzyme in the test tube.
- The comparative method reveals differences and similarities between biological objects and phenomena.
- The historical method allows you to track the development process based on data on the modern organism and its past.
- The experimental method involves the creation of artificial situations to identify certain properties of living organisms. An experiment can be performed in vivo when the experimental organisms or phenomena are in their natural conditions and laboratory. Nowadays, laboratory research and experiments have reached new heights in all scientific fields.
It is noteworthy that you can use any of the above methods or a combination of them in your composition essay. Next, we will look at how to write an essay within each of these subsections of biology using the above methods.
Anatomy
The task of anatomy is to study the structure of the human body using a descriptive method for systems (a systematic approach) and its shape, considering the functions of organs (functional approach). At the same time, signs characteristic of each specific person – an individual (individual approach) are considered. At the same time, anatomy seeks to find out the causes and factors affecting the human body, determining its structure (causal approach). By analyzing the structural features of the human body, examining each organ (analytical approach), anatomy studies the whole organism, approaching it synthetically. Therefore, anatomy is not only an analytical science but also a synthetic one.
Interesting Biology Topics for Research:
- The Internal Environment of the Body. Blood Value;
- Possibilities and Features of the Human Eye;
- Age-Related Changes in the Dynamics of the Vital Capacity of the Lungs;
- Riddles of Interhemispheric Asymmetry;
- Riddles of Memory;
- Research and Comparison of the Dentition of the Dog and Man.
Genetics
The tasks of genetics at the present stage are:
- the study of qualitative and quantitative characteristics of hereditary material,
- analysis of the structure and functioning of the genotype,
- decoding the fine structure of the gene and methods for regulating gene activity,
- search for genes that cause the development of hereditary human diseases and methods for their “correction”,
- creating a new generation of drugs like DNA vaccines,
- designing with the help of genetic and cellular engineering tools organisms with new properties that could produce the necessary drugs and food for humans,
- as well as complete decoding of the human genome.
Hint! Use the tasks of genetics as the topic of your essay, and make sure that it has scientific and practical value.
Developmental Biology
Wildlife is not a homogeneous formation, like a crystal, it is represented by an endless variety of its constituent objects (about 2 million species of organisms are currently described). At the same time, this diversity is not evidence of chaos reigning in it, since organisms have a cellular structure, organisms of the same species form populations, all populations living on the same land or water form communities, and in conjunction with inanimate bodies form biogeocenoses, in turn, constituting the biosphere.
Thus, wildlife is a system the components of which can be arranged in a strict order: from lower to higher. This principle of organization makes it possible to single out individual levels in living nature and provides a comprehensive picture of life as a natural phenomenon. At each level of organization, an elementary unit and an elementary phenomenon are determined. As an elementary unit, a structure or object is considered, the changes of which contribute specific to the corresponding level to the process of preservation and development of life, while this change itself is an elementary phenomenon.
The task to do in your essay. Pick up one of the elementary phenomena and keep track of the history of its development.
Biochemistry and Biophysics
Biophysics is a science that studies the physical and physicochemical phenomena that occur in living organisms. Also, this science studies the structure and properties of biopolymers, as well as the influence of various physical factors on living organisms and living systems.
Throughout the longest period in the history of mankind, it was believed that sciences were ‘immiscible’. Many centuries have passed, and humanity has realized that for further development it is necessary to study the ‘hybrid sciences’. The world’s first attempts to apply physical methods and ideas to the study of a living organism were made back in the 17th century.
Further development of biophysics is associated with:
- the study of the works of Luigi Galvani. In his works, he advanced the existence of ‘animal electricity’;
- the study of the works of G. Helmholtz, as well as the study and development of acoustics and optics;
- the study of the mechanics and energy of living organisms;
- the study of ionic and membrane theory of excitation.
Hint! We have listed the main stages in the development of biophysics above, and you, in turn, can dwell on any of them to find a narrower topic for your essay.
How to Cope with Your Biology Composition Essay
Now we will provide you with practical tips on how to cope with your biology essay comprehensively.
Start from Understanding the Topic
If you have a clearly defined topic, you first need to understand its essence. To do this, first determine which section of biology it belongs to in order to immediately narrow the scope of scientific research.
Next, highlight the keywords in your topic. If some term remains incomprehensible to you, specify their meaning in the explanatory dictionary. It will be even better, and even more scientifically, if you, first of all, learn how a particular term is interpreted by different scientists, and come to your own understanding of the term, and the topic as a whole.
Find the Perfect Object to Study
As mentioned earlier, biology is a very multifaceted science. Therefore, if you can choose a topic to study on your own, you should be careful. It is very important here to find a balance. On the one hand, you need to find such an object for research that has scientific potential. That is, biological science itself must recognize the fact that a certain object is not fully understood, and a certain topic has some gaps.
But on the other hand, you must have scientific material to be guided by and supported in your essay. It is unrealistic to start your research from scratch in order to write an essay. In any case, you need certain scientific hypotheses that have already found their support, or, conversely, have been refuted.
Hint! It is a good idea to add the opposite opinion to your work. If the topic allows this, find a theory or hypothesis that will contradict yours, and describe why the author of this study concludes that this hypothesis does not correspond to scientific truth.
Use Scientific Sources Wisely
Since biology is a science that implies the direct interaction of the researcher with the object that he is studying, then your scientific materials will be, first of all, the observations and experiments of other scientists. However, it is important to analyze the available materials correctly and draw relevant conclusions.
For this, always pay attention to the following points. Make sure that the scientific source you use is not older than five years. Modern technologies contribute to even more accelerated scientific progress in biological science. Therefore, those studies that were relevant seven to ten years ago, today formed the basis for further discoveries and new conclusions. You should use only modern sources to be able to work in the current scientific field, as well as develop your own ideas regarding this or that object.
Come up with a Clear Plan
Despite the fact that biology is a difficult science to study, there is good news. The structure of the composition essay remains standard. This means that you will need to write an introduction, which should contain a thesis statement, a few basic paragraphs, as well as a conclusion.
We recommend creating something like an outline, where you depict the structure of your essay and briefly describe your main thoughts. Do not worry if you originally came up with one thesis statement, but in the process of researching and compiling a plan, you realized that it needed to be refined or rephrased. Your task is to come up with a thesis that you can really justify.
Pay Attention to Your Supporting Graphs and Illustrations
Since biology cannot exist without practice and live observation of natural objects, most likely, it will be necessary to add accompanying materials to your composition. These can be graphs, for example, if you track the cyclical nature of a particular natural process, or drawings if you study the internal structure of a particular object.
Important! It is possible to leave all additional materials at the end of the essay, but it will be better if you immediately insert a picture or graph in the corresponding paragraph, and then talk about it further. It will be easier for your readers to understand your train of thought if they see illustrative material right before their eyes.
Let’s Write Down the Results
So now you need to write the first draft version of your essay. It is very important that it contains several citations from scientific sources, which should be designed according to the academic formatting style adopted by your university or college. At this stage, you can write down everything that comes to your mind, and then you need to re-read the paper again and try to make it as consistent and logical as possible.
How to Make the Right Conclusions to Sum Up Your Biology Research
Conclusions are a very important part of an essay on biology. It is important not only to say which object you studied, what properties or signs you found. It is important to find the relationship of your results with the current state of biological science at the moment. In other words, you should clearly describe how the results of your essay can be put into practice, or at least just be useful for the further development of biology.
