How to write a Lab Report for Biology
Written By: Dr. Marlee Marsh, Columbia College
General Rules:
1) Scientific writing is concise.
2) Avoid writing in first person and present tense. For example, instead of writing, “I
placed 3ml of NaOH in the test tube,” write “Next, 3mL of NaOH were placed in a test
tube.”
3) Always use proper spelling and grammar.
4) Write out numbers only at the beginning of the sentence or when you have 2
numbers side by side. (Ex 1. “Eight mL of salt solution were added…” rather than
“8mL of salt solution were added”) (Ex 2. “Next, five 250mL beakers…” instead of
“Next, 5 250ml beakers…”
5) Once you have written out a scientific term once and indicated its abbreviation, it
is appropriate to just use the abbreviation. (Ex. First, sodium hydroxide
(NaOH)…Next, NaOH…)
6) When reporting a number smaller than one, always precede the decimal with a 0
(I.e. 0.67 vs. .67).
7) Although you work with your lab partners and share data, the lab report should
be written in your own words. No two students should have matching lab reports.
Specific Guidelines:
The biology lab report is split into six sections:
1. Title Page
2. Introduction
3. Materials and Methods
4. Results
5. Discussion
6. References
I. The Title Page:
The title page should include:
The Title of Your Experiment
Your name as the author
a list of your fellow experimenters (lab partners)
your instructor
the date of submission
This information should be on a page by itself and should be centered.
II. Introduction:
The introduction should include background information about the lab you
performed (E.g. What do we know about this subject?). This section should include
proper citations. Quotes should be avoided. The author should paraphrase the
literature and cite within the introduction. You will conclude by listing the purpose
of the experiment and your hypothesis. You do not list independent and dependent
variables or controls.
III. Materials and Methods:
In this section, you will summarize your procedure in a concise manner. You want to
be sure that someone could read your materials and methods section and
understand how to repeat your experiment (a reminder that you should not use first
person or present tense). Here are some important pointers:
 Do not list equipment used (Ex. “In this experiment, we used 10 test tubes, one
test tube rack, 5mL of water, 10 microcentrifuge tubes, labeling table…”).
 Do not write this section as a bulleted or step-by-step procedure (i.e. do not
copy and paste directly from your lab!).
 Do not include superfluous detail that does not dictate the outcome of your
study (Ex. Instead of “We used a graduated cylinder to add 15mL of solution
X,” just write “15ml of solution X was added…”)
 Instead, write this section as a descriptive summary of what you did in lab in
paragraph form.
IV. Results:
In this section, explain your data in words and graphs/tables/figures. Your
graphs/tables/figures should include a title, number and a legend that is detailed
enough that you figure could stand-alone. You report the date in this section, but do
not explain it. Cite your figures within the text of this section. (Ex. When pH was
decreased, we saw an increase in pepsin activity (Figure 2). ) Use Excel to make
graphs (and make sure they are labeled!). Figures should be numbered according to
the order they are discussed and should be placed within the text of this section.
V. Discussion:
In this section, start off by describing what you had set out to determine by
conducting this experiment. Next, explain the results you obtained. Did you expect
certain outcomes? If so, why? Did you record data you did not expect? Why did that
happen? You will need to refer back to specific figures to explain your data (Ex. As
seen in Figure 3, there was a decrease in enzyme activity after the enzyme was boiled.
This is expected because boiling can denature the enzyme, thus affecting its activity).
Were there any experimental errors that could have caused unexpected data? Is
there anything you might do differently next time? Was your hypothesis supported
or rejected? What implications might this have? What future experiments could you
preform to clarify or add more support to your hypothesis?
IV. References:
This section contains an alphabetical list of sources cited within the report. For this
report, you must have AT LEAST three sources; only one can be from a legitimate
webpage.
How do you designate & list references in the body of the paper?
In the body of a report, a reference may be designated in one of two ways -- by name
of author or by number. If you list the references at the end of the paper, the order
depends on which method you use, as follows:
1. By Author & date: One method is to place the last name(s) of the author(s) and
the year of publication in parentheses, immediately following the referenced
thought. As an example, one might write,
"A phosphorylated histidine residue has been proposed as an important component
in the mechanism of action of succinylcoenzyme A synthetase (Bridger, Millen and
Boyer, 1968)."
If this method is used, the list of references at the end of the paper must be in
alphabetical order, according to the last name of the first author.
2. By Number: In the second method a citation may be designated by a number in
parentheses (not a superscript; superscripts are reserved for footnotes). In this
case, one would write:
"A phosphorylated histidine residue has been proposed as an important component
in the mechanism of action of succinylcoenzyme A synthetase (6)."
If this method is used, references are listed at the end of the report in the order in
which they appear in the text, rather than alphabetically.
What is the format of a reference at the end of the paper?
(http://www.columbia.edu/cu/biology/faculty/mowshowitz/howto_guide/lab_report.html )
1. For a periodical/ journal : A reference to a periodical should include, in the order
given:
- Name(s) of author(s), (last name, first initial).
- Year of publication, in parentheses.
- Name of periodical (use standard abbreviations).
- Volume number, underlined.
- Page on which article begins (or where it begins and ends)
For example: Bridger, W.A. Millen, W.A. and Boyer, P.D. (1968). Biochemistry, 1:
3608.
2. For a book: A reference to a book should include, in the order given:
- Name(s) of author(s), as above.
- Title of book, in quotation marks.
- Edition, if more than one have been published.
- Name of publisher
- City of publication
- Year of publication
- Volume number (if necessary)
- Page(s) on which the point cited is found.
For example: Lehninger, A.L. "Biochemistry", 2nd ed. Worth Publishers, Inc. N.Y.
1975, p.224.
3. For a website:
Author(s). Name of Page. Date of posting or revision. Name of
organization/institution associated with the site. Date of Access <electronic
address>.
Chudler, Eric H. Test your Reaction Time. March 27, 2007. University of Washington.
May 12, 2009 <http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/java/reacttime.html>.
4. From a class lecture:
Name of instructor (alphabetically, by last name). Indicate the exact date and topic
of the lecture (including the course in which it was given).
Kurtz, Lee. June 3, 2009, Introduction to Metabolism. Biol 1107, Georgia Gwinnett
College.