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Writing Lab Reports

Page history last edited by Hassan Wilson 14 years, 10 months ago

 

 

Guidelines for writing lab reports

Updated 4/20/09
 

The objective of writing lab reports in this course is to demonstrate that you understand laboratory science and the relevant course material associated with the given lab assignment. A successful lab report is concise, organized, and discusses sophisticated ideas. Think of a lab report as a persuasive essay that must follow a particular format. The entire report except hypothesis and conclusion must be written in past tense. The entire report must be written in first or fourth person. All sections must stand out from each other; this can be accomplished by including a title of each section.

 

Lab reports will begin with a title, followed by the author’s name and names of group members. The title should give the reader a clear idea about the lab’s specific hypothesis, crucial materials, test subjects and variables. It should give a hint of the findings/conclusions, tell what you discovered. The title should be detailed and somewhat long-winded. It should be written as a statement, not a question. Do not write the word “title” on your lab report; make it obvious in some other manner by underlining, changing the size of the font, etc.

 

The first section is the abstract. The abstract is a short summary of the experiment and findings. A person may read an abstract before deciding to read through the entire report. The abstract, written as one paragraph, must include your hypothesis. A hypothesis is a possible explanation of an observation. It should be written in present tense. We will write most of our hypotheses in the form: “ ________ affects_________.” The abstract will also include an experiment description, make it brief by only mentioning the most important details—like test subjects, the different variations or levels of the independent variable, and the dependent variable. Do not use the terms independent variable or dependent variable, someone should be able to infer these from reading your description. The abstract continues with a brief summary of the results; in most cases, a one-sentence summary that states the averages should work fine. Finally, include a short summary of the conclusion—hypothesis was supported, not supported or inconclusive.

 

The next section is materials and methods. Included in the materials and methods is the materials list. The list must be complete, specific, detailed, and written in bullet form. If someone wanted to replicate the exact same experiment and needed to shop for the items, the materials list must be the source of information. Include important details like amount, type, name brand, etc. Following the materials list is the methods (procedure), a step-by-step account of the experiment. The methods must be complete, specific and detailed just like the materials list. The steps should be numbered and written in complete sentences. Make sure, during the steps, you specify how the independent variable is manipulated and how the dependent variable is determined/measured. You should also include photographs with captions or labeled drawings of the experimental set-up as part of the procedure. The experimental set-up is a visual representation of the procedure. If done correctly, only one picture/drawing may be enough--not all steps need to be represented in the drawing/picture.

 

The results section follows the materials and methods section. The results section is reserved only for organized data and observations. Do not interpret or discuss the data or observations in this section. You must incorporate all of the data, including data from other groups members, if they replicated the same experiment. This section contains at least one optional observation table (at least your own observations), one mandatory data table (include averages, if applicable) and one mandatory graph, but some labs may require more figures. The figures must be titled, labeled and include metric units. (Guidelines and tips for making tables and graphs can be found on moodle.) The data and observation tables should be word processed, while the graph will be drawn to scale on graph paper. (A pdf of blank graph paper or a word version of Blank Graph Paper Word document can be found on the course moodle site.) Note: it may also be appropriate to include photographs that may help show your results (for example, photographs showing or comparing plants in your experiment.) For more information, visit the page Graphing and Data Tables.

 

The conclusion section is written in paragraph form (total five paragraphs); each subsection or bullet point is equal to one paragraph.

The conclusion section:

  • evaluates (judges) the hypothesis and explains how confident you are in this decision, while briefly summarizing the trend (pattern or lack of pattern) of the data (remember all data from group members must be considered);
  • explains why the results do or do not make sense (outside research and relevant facts learned in class may be needed here);
  • explains why the findings are important and relate to the real world (this may not always be obvious, intense thought, outside research and relevant facts learned in class may be needed here);
  • evaluates the lab design (explains what you would do differently to improve the experiment and why; include things which should have been constant but you were not able to make constant; it also discusses a few important & likely sources of error--things which could have affected your results);
  • poses new questions and/or suggests follow-up experiments.

 

Related Resources

SCI-design_experiment_notes.pdf

SCI-experiment_design_template_final.pdf

 

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