1. Writing Titles and Captions for Scientific Figures
AP Biology

2. A little practice… Pretend you are a newspaper reporter.
Look at the picture and jot down on a paper what you think it is a picture of.

3. Image Src: http://www. zimbio

4. Which of these could be a good title?
Man plays sports
Hockey player shoots puck
Two players on the ice
Very athletic people
None of the above 

5. Why not?
If a title could be easily applied to any other figure, then it is not an effective, descriptive title.
Man plays sports
Hockey player shoots puck
Two men on the ice.
Very athletic people.
Image Src:

6. The Title should… Be specific
Answer the question, “What am I looking at specifically?”

7. What information would be necessary to make the title of this picture more appropriate?
Name of players
Team names
Date of game
Etc.
Specifics!

8. The Caption should…
Highlight relevant information found in the figure.
Note trends in the data
NOT restate the title
NOT include any analysis of the data (state what the data shows, not what it means).

9. Practice with scientific figures
Take a minute to look at the sample figure you have been given. Ask yourself these questions:
What is this graph showing?
What are some specific details I want someone else to notice about this graph?
Now, describe the figure to your partner while he/she writes down what you say.
Switch roles and repeat for the second figure.

10. Generating a title
Look at what you said to your partner and pick out the one sentence/phrase in there that best sums up what this graph is showing. You can reword it a little if needed.
This would be your title!
If this was the only info someone got along with the figure, would explain what he/she is looking at?

11. Generating a caption 1-2 additional sentences.
Look at the rest of what you said. These are additional things you wanted the reader to notice– they would be what you put into your caption.
But… no analysis! If any of the statements you made draw conclusions about the data then they should not be included
If it could follow the phrase “Therefore…”.. Leave it out!