Writing Lab Reports

NotesA lab report is written in the 3rd person. Most

scientists are short on romance and personality, so no I's or we's, no flowery language, no ellipses, no metaphors, no slang, no rhetorical questions and no exclamation points! Keep your report as bland as possible.

To get a really good idea of what a report should look like, skim through scientific journals.

PlagiarismDo not plagiarize!

Cite all your sources, whether you've quoted them, paraphrased them, or simply used a figure or two. All high schools, colleges and universities have been cracking down on plagiarism and you will be caught.

Introduction (or Theory) - What's this all about? Why do this experiment? Tell them why you're doing what you're

doing.

Should contain your research question, prediction about what you think will happen and a hypothesis explaining why you think it will happen.

Experimental (or Procedure) How exactly?This section should look just like a recipe. Use EXACT information and detailed

instructions.

Usually, you will be borrowing the procedure from a lab manual, a textbook, or a journal article, so don't bother copying the whole thing out: it is sufficient to make reference to the source.

Results - What happened?Use tables to organize your observations and

collected data.

All tables and figures should be numbered and labelled (so you can refer to them later).

The results section should also include your sample calculations, if any.

Discussion - What did you do? Why? What happened? Why?This is the most important

section of your report. A detailed account of what happened in the

experiment. Go step-by-step through the procedure while

discussing. The most important question here is, Why?

Show that you understand the science behind the experiment. (Use sources here!)

The discussion section is also where you interpret your results and draw conclusions.

Refer to your tables and diagrams. You should be comparing your results to expected values from research. (Use sources here!)

If you got unexpected results, explain why.How you interpret your results is more

important than the results themselves.

Conclusion – What, how, what happened and why? Better luck next time!A quick overview of what was done and how.

Repeat the major results and explain how they relate to something in the real world.

SourcesUse the formatting that your teacher asks

you to use (ex. APA, MLA).

Any source that you cited needs to have a full reference.