from “How To Write Backwards”
By William E. Magnusson
Rule 1: Write the conclusions to your paper. Even a large paper or
thesis chapter will not have more
than five or six substantial conclusions. Each conclusion must be
succinct, and occupy one sentence
and less than two lines. The conclusions as written here will not enter
into the final work so they
do not need modifiers such as “however” and “that is.”
Rule 2: Write only the results necessary to make the conclusions you
presented.
Rule 3: Write only the methods necessary to understand how these results
were obtained.
Rule 4: Write the discussion, which should present only additional
information (e.g., literature)
that modifies, extends, confirms, or contradicts the conclusions based
on your results.
Rule 5: write the introduction, which will have only the minimum
information necessary to present
the questions to which the conclusions are the answers.
When you have this, the story is told.
[Rule 0: Before you can draw your conclusions, you need to analyze the
data to the point where you
are certain of your conclusions. This means that you should make all
your figures and tables first –
that is rule zero.]