Lab Reports

[Pietrantonio]

Anyone have any good websites, books, etc of interest pertaining to writing strong lab reports? I don't think mine is half bad, but it's without a grade and the first of many to come.

I have experience reading medical journals which are structured fairly similar, but writing one is different.

Thanks in advance. Appreciate the help.

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[NuttyEngDude]

I had problems writing lab reports when I returned for my post-bacc, the best thing I can recommend is to ask your lab TA for advice, especially if they are the ones grading it. Some TA's have some quirks that no webpage or resource can provide. If the TA is unresponsive, try to find out what the other students who are scoring well are doing (ask them for help).

For example:
I had a career's worth of writing technical and lab reports but I was getting marked down in General Chem because I was using terminology that the TA felt did not apply. Something like that I would not have learned from reading other resources. In another class, a research class, my feedback was that my reports were "too technical."

 

[DocWinter]

Ask your TA for an example of what a good lab report looks like. Make sure you hit EVERY area (i.e data, processes, labeling pages, conclusion, etc)

 

[Quizlet04]

Send me a tell with some scans of your lab reports. I've written a lot, graded a bunch, and can give you some pointers.

 

[Elizabethx89]

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[NuttyEngDude]

Is it typical to have to write lab reports in pre-req labs? I've only taken Gen Chem 1 lab so far, as well as Bio 1 and 2 labs several years ago, but I've never had to compile a formal lab report. In Gen Chem, we have lab manuals with a series of questions to answer for each lab. They're like 10 pages long and take forever, but they're not formal, structured reports.

It's school, professor and TA dependent. I've had some physics labs with completely formal lab reports and a different professor/TA wanted what you were asking. It used to be typical but it may be becoming less typical nowadays.

 

[wholeheartedly]

Yeah, it varies by class etc. I'd say half were just answering follow up questions and half were writing reports. Sometimes it varied within the class depending on what we actually did in lab.

OP, agree with the above. Your TA is going to be your best source of info on this.