At the beginning of December I finally attended the "Scientific Presentation" course. Couple of deadlines were already missed and couple of others looked at me from the nearest future.
Now I would like to share some tips I have got from the course. They might be helpful for the new PhD students and to the old ones who has not attended that course.
The first tip: take the course as soon as possible! ;)
... honestly, I remember NO thoughts. All my thoughts were somewhere else, so there were nothing to transfer to the document.
(http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=1732)
It happened because I forgot 2 important steps before I started writing:
1. to find a silent place without Internet, phone and people to clean thoughts and be focused.
2. to ask myself: What did I find?
If these two steps are not missed, then, writing a draft abstract can be a good start.
1. introduction (background + aim)
2. results
3. methods
4. conclusion/discussion
Sometimes results and discussion can be combined.
And, of course, do not forget to collect data, calculate statistics, draw preliminary figures, find references (and use ENDNOTES!) and choose a right journal!
Once the first draft is ready, get comments and suggestions from your co-authors and REWRITE your manuscript!