Science 101: Writing a Lab Report
1. All parts of the lab report should be in past- tense and no personal pronouns should be used.
For example, no “I’s” or “we”. Font is of personal preference but a clearly readable font size
such as Time New Roman, Arial or Cambria is ideal. Font size is of personal preference but
11-14 is reasonable.
2. First you will construct the title page. On the upper right-hand side of the page, you will
want to include your name, your class information, the date of submission and your lab
partner(s) name. Each of these points should be on a separate line.
Chemistry 11 Stoichiometry Laboratory 2019
3. The second part of the title page is the title in the middle of the page. All of the following
points should be centred in the middle of the page and on separate lines. This should include
the class title, the title of the experiment and any subtitles/ titles of the parts within the
experiment. The semester is optional.
4. On the next page will be the introduction. The heading should read “introduction”. On the
next line you will write a brief paragraph to introduce the lab to the reader. The main
methods used in the experiment and the main goal of the experiment should be included.
Any equations, values or terms necessary for completion of the lab should be defined in the
introduction.
5. The next part of the lab report will be the body. The body of the lab report should be divided
by the parts of the lab. Two major components should be included under each part of the
lab; the method (procedure), the results (data and observations).
6. The next part of the body is the results. This should have a clear heading as well. The data
should include all values, calculations, tables, and/or graphs that are necessary for the lab.
Each lab will vary with how much and what type of data to be included. All values should
include units and all calculations should have work shown. Tables should include labels and
graphs should always have a title and labelled axes.
7. The last part of the body is the observations. Observations include all physical, notable
changes occurring throughout the experiment. Initial and final observations are also
necessary for some labs. Observations could be included in the data if it is presented in a
table form as in this example.
8. Discussion: In this section, the observations and potential explanations for those
observations are explored. Any questions asked at the beginning of the lab can be addressed
here. Most teachers don't require the questions to be written in the lab report but just
detailed answers to all the questions.
9. The last part of the lab is the conclusion. The conclusion should include the result to the
main goal stated in the introduction. Any significant values that were obtained and/or
percent errors correlated with the values should be included. Any other significant concepts
obtained from the completion of the lab should be included in the conclusion.
Your lab report should be detailed and elaborative! You can include diagrams and images to support
your points.
Minimum 2 cited sources. (Any source that allows editing of information or post should not be used
as a reference. For example, Wikipedia should not be used as a reference.)
No Plagiarism! You will lose marks if you get more than 20% for plagiarism.
Set Date: 8th November 2019
Due Date: 15th November 2019 (Friday by 5 pm)