When describing an experiment (inside a thesis paper), I want to explain that we took a sample and did two things to it, but not together, rather as two separate experiments.
One way to write it is :
We took the sample and either did X to it, or did Y to it.
Another way is:
We took the sample and did X to it, and separately did Y to it.
Frankly I'm not happy with either forms. What's a good way to write this?
Sample taking is pretty much assumed, so no need to emphasize that at the start of your sentence. How about something like: "Samples were subjected to Kjeldahl analysis or Multiplex polymerase chain reaction followed by capillary electrophoresis"?
It is unclear from the example sentences how the sample was treated. One might more clearly say something like the following:
We did X to the sample, and then did Y to that result.
We did X to part of the sample, and Y to another part.
Separate portions of a sample were given treatment X or treatment Y.
You could prefix "After taking the sample," or "A sample was taken and" to the above if for some reason you wish to emphasize that a sample was taken, but otherwise could leave the sample-taking as an implied fact.
