Experiment/Lab Write-up Title A Lab Report typically includes a title clearly identifying the lab. A title should be descriptive and accurate, but not wordy, verbose or too terse. And, of course, you should always include your name and the date on a title page, as well as any other information identifying the lab. Abstract The abstract is a brief summary of the report. It typically ranges from 50 to 150 words, depending on the report’s length. Abstracts can be organized in a number of ways. A typical organizational pattern presents the objective of the experiment, briefly lists the procedures that were followed, and briefly reports the key findings. Depending on the importance of the findings, some abstracts report the results first. Equipment Readers may expect, and require, a list of all the equipment used in a test. This list includes the equipment's name, as well as the equipment's number. Listing your equipment ensures that you use the same piece of equipment throughout a test. This may be either a standard bullet list or written in paragraph form. Provide a separate "Equipment" heading before "Procedures." Procedures Here is where you document everything you did/observed during the lab or experiment. In a way, this section is like a recipe because you present the exact steps you followed. In fact, someone should be able to read your procedures section and imitate the test or experiment exactly. You may incorporate graphics here to help describe exactly what procedures you followed if that helps. This section should be at least paragraph or it may extend to a few pages depending on how complex the procedures were. Results In this section, you report the experiment / lab outcome(s). Here, tell your readers what was measured using exact data. You might also include, tables, graphs, calculations or equations. This section may or may not include data interpretations. Some readers expect interpretations, or conclusions, to be a separate heading. Check with your instructor for what to include in your results if you are unsure. This section could be as short as one or two paragraphs or as long as a few pages depending on the complexity and scope of the experiment or lab. Conclusions In the conclusions, you comment on the outcomes of an experiment or lab. Here, you might also speculate about the implications of the results or even about the methods used to obtain the results. As a student, you need to interpret, or make recommendations about, the results for your readers. This should be one or two paragraphs in length not including the “for further study” component of the conclusion section. For further study does not require a separate heading as it is part of the Conclusions. In this final paragraph comment on based upon this experiment or lab, what researchers could study which would further scientific knowledge on the subject. This might be to make modifications to the experimental procedures which may result in new and interesting findings or it may be to conduct the same experiment with identical procedures on a different population. This section should be about one paragraph long.
