[When you complete the use of this template, all information inside brackets, and the brackets themselves, must be deleted. In
most cases they should be replaced with appropriate text.]
Introduction
If you pursue a career in any field of Science you will be writing many formal lab reports. In college, your
professors will usually give you some strict rules to follow, including the style and font. This is similar to the
rules of submitting a report to a journal, where everything is specified so that the journal is uniform and so that
readers find the articles easier to read. The specific rules for the formal lab report also simplify grading, since
all lab reports will be organized in a uniform manner.
Therefore, in this class you will be given a specific set of guidelines that you must follow exactly. You must use
the template provided with the sections of the report organized exactly with the numbering and ordering
provided.
General Stylistic Issues1
Uniformity of style is the key to scientific communication. The journal editors, the referees who review a
manuscript, and the journal readers who are interested in the results presented in a paper all expect certain
things to be present in a manuscript and that they are in a certain order. Just like the sloppy-looking paper, a
paper that does not adhere to the expected style reflects poorly on the author, no matter how good the science is.
1) Use third person, passive voice. The paper should be written in a third person, passive voice. Occasionally,
but rarely, it is appropriate to use “we” when describing the intention of the authors. It generally depends upon
the intended subject of the sentence. Consider the two sentences below:
a) Calcium solid (5 g) was poured into a beaker.
b) We poured calcium solid (5 g) into a beaker.
In the first sentence (a), which is passive, the subject is the calcium solid. In the second sentence, the subject is
the experimenters. In scientific articles, the subject is most often the science and not the experimenters.
2) Be concise.
In scientific writing, it is very important to say as much as is needed while using as few words as
possible. Lab reports should be thorough, but repetition should be avoided. The entire report should be clear and
straightforward.
3) Use correct verb tenses. Many students become confused when trying to decide whether to use past or
present tense in their reports. The general rules for verb tenses are as follows:
The experimental procedure has already been conducted, so use the past tense of the verb when referring
to it:
Ex: The purpose of the experiment was…
The compound was weighed to 5 g…
The report, equipment, and theory still exist, so use the present tense of the verb for them:
Ex: The purpose of this report is… Bunsen burners are used…
1
The Laboratory Report, M. C. Nagan and J. M. McCormick
http://chemlab.truman.edu/chemlab_backup/labreports_files/LabReports.htm#References
Lab Report, Germanna Community College, http://www.germanna.edu/tutor/handouts/chemistry/Lab_Report.pdf
Academy Physics
Page 1/6
4) Target the paper for another student. Unless directed otherwise, assume the reader of your laboratory
report is your peer, the average physics student, not the teacher. Therefore, everything should be explained as if
the reader knows some physics, but is not an expert in the subject of the paper. By no means does the reader
know what you are doing, or why you are conducting your experiment. Think about what you would want to
know about the subject if you were the reader. Therefore, the paper should be thoroughly understandable
without having read any lab instructions.
Academy Physics
Page 2/6
[TITLE]
Date Data Taken: [DATE1]
Date Report Submitted: [DATE2]
Author : [name]
Members of Lab Group: [group member names]
I. Design of Experiment
1. Purpose and Overview of Approach
[Describe the purpose of the experiment or the problem to be investigated. In some cases this will be a description of the
theory that you are trying to validate with data. In other cases, you will be provided with a problem statement from the
teacher that you are attempting to address. If you are attempting to test a theory that can be described by a physics
equation, that equation should be included here along with a clear explanation of the meaning of the equation. ]
2. Hypothesis
[The hypothesis is included in this section. It should be explicitly stated.]
3. General Approach and Theory Of Experimental Design
[In the lab you will be recording some measurements that will have to be manipulated to provide an experimental
comparison with the theoretical result. In this section you will describe the theory of the experiment and how you will
manipulate the data to achieve the desired outcome. This section only provides an overview of the experimental
approach. Details of your procedure will be described in another section.
Describe the concept of the experiment. Describe how you will use the data to make a comparison between the
hypothesis and experimental measurements and observations. This is a complete description of how you will use the data
to complete the calculations required for this lab. If you choose, you may select on set of data points as an example to
include in your text. All of the rest of the calculations will appear in Section 4.a below, in the form of tables.
It is best if you learn how to use software to add equations directly into your document. However, you may instead leave
blank spaces and then neatly write the equations in by hand. All equations must be numbered so that they can be easily
referred to within the text.]
II. Implementation of Experimental Design
4. Equipment Table with description of how equipment used
[Make a brief table showing the equipment used and how each piece of equipment is used in the lab. If you have multiple
sections to the measurement then it might be best to include a separate table for each set of equipment.]
5. Experimental setup
[Draw a schematic of experimental setup(s). (One for each setup.) This may be drawn by hand and added to a back page.
If it is added on the back of the report then it must be referred to in this section (it should say see attachment). Any
diagram must have a figure caption.
Preferably, it may be generated on the computer and included within the text at this section. Another alternative may be to
draw it by hand, scan it, and then include it in this section of the text. Do not place a copy of the diagram from the lab
instructions in the lab report. Label the elements of the diagram. In addition to the diagram, you must describe the
elements of this diagram in the accompanying text so that a reader will understand how the setup works.]
6. Experimental procedure, analysis of precision and accuracy, and care used in making measurements
[This is a general description of the procedure used in the lab. In many cases I will provide you with a step-by-step
sequence of steps that you must perform for this lab. I am not interested in you restating this to me. If you directly copy
fromThat will result in no credit for this section. Instead, your text must show an understanding of the steps involved,
showing that you have an understanding of why the specific steps were taken.
Academy Physics
Page 3/6
Determine significant digits. All measurements must be recorded with significant figures that are appropriate to the
instrumentation used. Significant figures must be treated carefully throughout the lab report. Significant figure errors from
throughout the lab report will be accumulated and charged to this element of the rubric.]
7. Pros and Cons of Approach
[Explain pros and cons of particular experimental approach. In this section you will describe which aspects of the
experiment worked well and which aspects created problems in collecting the data that you needed to complete the lab.]
III. Measurements and Observations
8. Data Table(s)
[The data must be displayed in table formats. Even individual values, should be placed in a table or box to make it easy
for the reader to find the values used. The table must include the measurements, the units, and the precision or the error
bar.]
9. Additional relevant observations
[Additional relevant observations: Should show understanding of experimental issues. This is where you will record
additional observations that might not fit into a table form.]
IV. Data Analysis
10. Data Analysis Tables
[All data analysis should be arranged in tables. In section 1b, above, you described how the data is used to convert raw
data into a form in which you can compare the results against theoretical or accepted values.
Do not include the data analysis in the text. It is too difficult to follow. Display data in data tables with labeled column
headings and units. The analysis tables will have some columns that are raw data and some columns that are calculated
from the data. This needs to be noted on the column labels. If the tables are not self-explanatory then you should include
some text to describe why you chose to do the calculations that you performed.]
11. Graphs and Results of linearized fits
[All graphs have a heading, axes labeled, and units. Labeled line separations on the graph should be multiples of 1, 2, 5,
10, 20, 50, etc. It would be best for the graphs to be generated on a computer. If you are not capable of doing that, draw
a graph by hand using graph paper and attach it to the end of the report. Refer to it in the text of your report here.
Linearize results to be able to use linear fits as needed. Use a computer to fit lines to data points in graphs. The equation
for the fitted line should be displayed on the graph as a solid line with no data points on it.]
12. Calculations
[The details of your calculations were documented in section 1.b, where you described the experimental theory- what data
you would take and how you would use that data and in section 4.a where the intermediate values that you need to
produce a final result were documented. In this section you will summarize your final results.]
V. Error Analysis
13. Sources of error
[Identify the significant sources of error in your measurement. Consider each aspect of the measurement that you made.
In section 2.a you described how you carefully performed the measurement. In this section you will describe the sources
of error that are inevitable in any measurement. You must determine the relative importance of the various sources of
error. Source of error might include the readability of the scales of a device’s least division, the calibration of the
instrument, method of measurement, etc.
Human error – what you can and cannot include in this report
I am not interested in the trivial comment “human error” or “calculation error” without further explanation. This kind of
comment without further explanation is equivalent to stating that the experiment or calculations were performed
carelessly. However, you could describe that, for example, it was not possible to release a cart at an exact time and that
based on that you introduced an error on the time measurement of ±0.10s. Another example in which human related
errors come into play relate to reaction time, such as when you use a stopwatch to determine when a particular time
interval starts and stops.]
14. Percent error relative to established value.
Academy Physics
Page 4/6
[Estimate magnitude and direction of errors. Calculate percent error from theory or accepted values. In most cases, these
errors compare a measured value against an established or calculated value. The formula for percent error is
%𝐸𝑟𝑟𝑜𝑟 = |
𝑀𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑉𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒 − 𝑃𝑟𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑜𝑟 𝐶𝑎𝑙𝑐𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑉𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒
| X 100%
𝑀𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑉𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒
]
6. Communicate results
15. Inferences and conclusions
[Draw inferences and conclusions from experimental data.
There were a set of hypotheses that a you stated at the beginning of the lab. Each one needs to be discussed in this
section.
If your measurement was not consistent with the hypothesis, then you should attempt to describe why.
Consider each of the following questions as you write up this section:
-What is the relationship between your measurements and your final results?
-What trends were observable?
-What can you conclude from the graphs that you made?
-How did the independent variables affect the dependent variables? (For example, did an increase in a given measured
(independent) variable result in an increase or decrease in the associated calculated (dependent) variable?)
]
16. Improvement to experimental procedure
[Suggest ways to improve experiment. You must come up with some ideas to get full credit.]
17. Questions for further study
[Propose questions for further study. You must come up with some ideas to get full credit.]
Academy Physics
Page 5/6
Rubric (Do not include this section in your lab report)
None of these rubric sections can be left blank ( except for section 4d if it is not relevant to the particular experiment).
General For Entire Report
a) On time: If the report is due by a specific class period, it must be turned in by that period or it is counted as
handed in by next day. Lateness penalty is 25% for each day late.
b) You own work: You may discuss the experiment with your lab partner and other classmates, but the lab
report that you turn in must be entirely your own work. Lab reports are subject to all the rules governing
academic honesty. The data that you present must be from your lab group only. Plagiarism will result in a zero
for both of the students involved.
c) Overall appearance and grammar: Must be typewritten. Electronic versions are not acceptable. Must be
proofread for typos, spelling errors, grammatical errors, sentence construction, and clear pros.
d) Precision, Accuracy, Units: Determine significant digits. All measurements must be recorded with
significant figures that are appropriate to the instrumentation used. All calculations based on these
measurements must use rules for rounding of significant figures. All values must be expressed with units.
Descriptive Information (Title Section)
a) Title section of lab completed correctly.
I. Design of experiment
1) Purpose and Experimental Approach
2) Hypothesis
3) Experimental Approach and Theory of Experimental Design
II. Implementation of experimental design
4) Equipment Table with description of how equipment used
5) Experimental Setup
6) Experimental procedure, analysis of precision and accuracy, and care used in making measurements
7) Pros and Cons of Experimental Approach
III. Measurements and observations
8) Data table(s)
9) Additional relevant observations
IV. Data analysis
10) Analysis Tables
11) Create graphs as needed
12) Calculations
V. Analyze errors
13) Sources of error.
14) Percent error
6. Communicate results
15) Inferences and conclusions:
16) Improvement to experimental procedure
17) Questions for further study
Academy Physics
Page 6/6
Max
Pts
Off
100
100
10
10
2
13
3
4
9
22
2
5
10
5
10
5
5
5
10
5
10
5
10
5
5