For your group assignments, I recommend the IMRaD outline, the world's most recommended format for scientific papers. The letters stand for:
Introduction: What did you want to accomplish? What did you do?
Material and Methods: What did you work with, and how?
Results: What were the results?
and...
Discussion: What is the significance of your results? What could you have done differently? Why did it end up the way it did? What do others say? Do your results confirm or contradict earlier research?
You can of course choose to alter this sequence, or select a different outline altogether. My experience is that the IMRaD style is smart place to start, however.
Here's a couple of links to descriptions of the IMRaD style.
- University of Wisconsin-Madison Writing Center
- How to Write a Scientific Paper by Bruce Lewenstein, Cornell U.
If you need good examples, look at the papers from the Hypertext and Multimedia Conferences. (You can access the full text papers from University of Oslo computers.)
Some other writing tips:
- John S. Knight Institute for Writing in the Disciplines
- Essay Writing Guide by David Gauntlett.