Ask anyone who's been through it and they'll tell you it's next to impossible to get out of college without having to do some writing in one subject or another. Indeed, writing and college go together like salt and pepper - or pineapple juice and Courvoisier.

So, if the task of writing is an inevitability in college, it behooves you to do it well. Your grades utterly depend on it.

The fact that grades are at stake need not trouble you too much; rather than any literary tour de force, instructors expect that students essays be competently and clearly written, anchored in fact and reason, and highly organized. Unlike fiction or poetry writing, writing for various college subjects is a means to an end, not the end itself. That end is, of course, comprehensible communication of ideas and insights.

Such communication you might typically associate with courses in the social sciences or the humanities - literature, history, philosophy, sociology (to name a just a few disciplines) - but it may well also come to pass that your instructors in the physical sciences will also expect you to produce an essay or two. Whether its microbiology, particle physics, or organic chemistry that you must tackle in a paper, a few simple pointers can, if you closely observe them, contribute significantly to your success in the assignment.

Knowing how to write a scientific paper involves understanding each element of the paper's structure in its appearance and function. You must begin, naturally enough, with your science essay's beginning. The introduction accomplishes several tasks. Specifically, it:

• Situates your topic in its proper scientific context;
• Offers adequate - but none too lengthy - background on the topic;
• States your argument or proposition;
• Stakes out an interpretation of the topic;
• Provides definitions of any key technical terms;
• Outlines your approach to the topic;

Once you have addressed these tasks to produce an introduction, you must now concern yourself with the body of your essay. How many paragraphs your essay's body will require depends on the required length. Understand, however, that the same tasks apply to every body paragraph, regardless of whether you end up with two or 20 of them. Taken as a whole, your essay's body paragraphs accomplish a number of tasks. Specifically, they:

• Feature a section heading (if appropriate);
• Foreground the logical elaboration of your argument or proposition;
• Offer justification for your point of view and explains what led you to it;
• Deploy relevant information in support of your argument or proposition;
• Present figures and tables that support your argument or proposition;
• Reference all sources of information (tables and figures included);
• Numbers and labels all tables and figures used;

The heavy lifting finished with the development of your final body paragraph, you can attend to the conclusion of your essay. Knowing how to write a scientific paper means knowing how to finish as strongly as you began. To this end, consideration now turns to the conclusion, which accomplishes several tasks. Specifically, it:

• Briefly restates the essay's purpose;
• Runs down the main points made in the essay's body;
• Presents in a clear and concise manner your conclusions;
• Discusses the reasoning behind your conclusions;
• Offers suggestions for future research (if appropriate);

Once you've developed your conclusions you're close to calling it a wrap. Your final responsibility is to list all references that you cited in the text of your essay. After that, it's simply a matter of getting it ready to hand in. Remember that you should always proofread carefully. Don't simply rely on your word processor's spelling and grammar checker; these lead you astray as often as they lead you to glory.

Also remember that hard work done is no substitute for hard work done smartly. And being smart is in this context mostly a matter of paying attention to smart advice. With tips like the ones presented above to guide you, there's no telling the academic heights you'll reach!