A Quick How to on Writing Lab Reports

Bruce Phebus

What are we looking for in a lab report?First the course isn’t just about the answer. It’s about how you get to the answer. What does the answer mean in context?

Comparing the values you get along with the uncertainty in those values to other values with the subsequent uncertainties in them is the whole point of this course.

Title

The title is the most important “sentence” of your document.

It should be brief and concise but inclusive at the same time.

A good rule of thumb is to say what you did and how you did it and why.

Abstract

This is the most important paragraph in your paper!

This paragraph is what people will read to decide if they want to invest the time to read the rest of it.

It should start with explaining the goal of the experiment. Explain the pertinent findings, aka results. Finish with why the reader should care!

Introduction

This a section of your paper only an interested audience will read.

It should contain background and relevant theory for the work.

It should then cover equations relevant to the work explaining their origin, for instance if you use the Boltzmann distribution equation it should be so named and introduced.

Introduction continued…

Stuff to include: what the experiment is going to measure (actually measure!) aka the solution is going to turn blue and we are going to measure it with our eye…

What does that measurement mean and how does it relate to the equations.

Experimental

The Goal of the experimental section is to describe how to do the experiment such that a competent & trained individual could replicate the work.

Define the equipment used, origin of special chemicals.

Explain the procedure & DON’T COPY THE MANUAL! That isn’t what you did that is what you were asked to do! There is always a difference!

Results

Note the Results section is often combined with the Discussion section. Which is just fine. If it is difficult to present results and data out side of context then this is usually the case. It is up to you.

The major results of the experiment are presented here. If there are observations that need to happen during the experiment they often go in the experimental section.

Results continued…

Table of data, Note the singular! More than one table of data in a paper is extremely rare. Don’t make a bunch of tables put the data together.

Present only pertinent results. If you are not going to talk about it but you report the numbers you are not doing your job.

Figures should always have captions! The caption should explain what is of interest in the figure and how to read it.

Discussion

This is the heart of your paper. This is where the “why” of your is fleshed out. Give as much detail as needed to explain the findings.

Don’t assume the reader knows your goal! I can’t tell you how many papers I read where people say yea but you know what I am trying to say… Yea but can you say it? That is up to you!

Discussion Continued…

Describe what your results mean in terms of your introduction. Refer to theories, proofs, equations, tables, graphs, figures as necessary.

Your goal is establish the relationship between the measured results and the predicted results. Do the two coincide? What was learned from the experiment? Use your own words and substantiate your opinions.

Conclusions & References

A brief overview of the experiment and what was accomplished. Touch on the key points of the paper. What was tested, how & why, results (what was found) and lastly what does it mean. Be simple restatement is ok.

References, present a list of journals, books and the like that were used. The WEB (Wikipedia) is not an acceptable reference! However NIST data bases are…

What’s Graded…?

All the stuff listed above is graded along with:

Sigfigs, Figures, Tables, and the like.

Don’t Plagiarize! We will catch you. It is so SO much easier find than you would think.

Also if you pull stunts, leave early, leave a big mess we will take off points. Oh and I am not going to warn you, I am not going to have a debate how much your mess is worth.