Formal Lab Reports
– Some personal comments
– Structure
First and foremost
• Know what it is to plagiarize
• Don’t do it !!!
Disclaimer: This is not a substitute for a careful review
by you of the web page that discusses writing a
formal report. I merely present some additional
thoughts.
A few simple, and obvious, thoughts
• Start early. Leave time to:
– Research properly before you write.
– Outline - where in the manuscript will you discuss
what?
– Write carefully and thoughtfully. Think of the
reader.
– Ponder, dwell and rewrite.
– Seek and implement comments from others.
A few simple, and obvious, thoughts
• Write to others as you would have them write to you.
– Clear.
– Organized and logical.
– Free of excessive jargon and acronyms specific to
your local area.
– Don’t click and paste.
– Use a font of reasonable size.
– Look at the figures. Will they be clear when
reproduced? Is all the information needed to
interpret them included? Avoid reliance on color –
you want black and white copies to be readable as
well.
A few simple, and obvious, thoughts
• Write your text as though it were a newspaper article.
– Use paragraphs to separate and emphasize thoughts and
concepts.
– Begin with a summary sentence of the paragraph. This is the
most important sentence of the paragraph.
– Layer on more detail with each successive statement.
– Each paragraph has a theme. Is the theme of that paragraph
clear to any reader?
– Write with maximum clarity.
– Don’t use contorted text that directs the reader elsewhere
(“discussed in sect. 4.3 and as will be discussed in sect.
5.8…….”).
– Avoid acronyms and jargon with which some reviewers may
be unfamiliar.
A few simple, and obvious, thoughts
• Know your audience; assume that they are
knowledgeable and bright, but – How knowledgeable are they of your local topic?
– How well will they know the terminology of your
local topic?
– Assume that they are very busy, very tired and are
prone to be impatient with an awkward
presentations.
A few simple, and obvious, thoughts
• And the most obvious of all:
– Proof read it carefully.
•
•
•
•
Proof read it
Have another who has not previously read it proof it.
Spell check it.
Grammar check it.
– Follow the instructions
• Read the instructions.
• Follow them.
Formal Lab Reports
– Goals
• Present the experiment, including its objectives.
Why was it done? What question did you intend to
answer?
• Record the results to sufficient detail that the reader
builds trust in your thoroughness, can reproduce
your data reduction and can draw their own
conclusions about the results.
• Present your evaluation and conclusions from the
results and give enough background and detail that
others can independently evaluate and draw their
own conclusions.
Structure
• Title Page –
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Name of your experiment
Your name
Other experimentalists’ names
Course number
Section day
TA’s name
Date
Structure (continued)
• Abstract
– No lists. Give it in a few complete sentences
– A brief overview – including a review of the
results and conclusions.
– Remember, most readers of the article will read
only the abstract.
Structure (continued)
• Table of contents
• Introduction and background
– Objectives – should be clear so that you
know when they have been met.
– Experimental apparatus and procedure. Is
this sufficiently complete and clear that
you could return and repeat this
experiment 10 years from now?
Structure (continued)
• Results and discussion – Present results clearly
and completely. The responses to the discussion
questions are to be merged into this text. This is
where you might compare your results with
modeling results or theory.
• Conclusions and recommendations – A short
wrap-up of what was done, what you think about
it, how it is to be used, what might be done as a
continuation, what might have been done
differently.
Structure (continued)
• References – Each entry here must be referred to
in the text.
• Appendices – Appendices hold the details that
only a few of the readers will need. The important
parts of this material should be in the report body.
Don’t expect the reader to read the appendices.
– Lab notebook
– Sample calculations.
– Other items of interest to only the most interested
reader.