First and foremost, Moderators I'm not asking anyone to tell me what to write about specifically, just advice on how to start and things that would be important to include that will improve your lab report such as graphs, tables, etc. So I've never written a lab report and am pretty stressed on how to write one. I don't really even know where to start as my lab manual is pretty worthless. It seems that my professor wants you to just figure it out which is fine. Any advice on how to start one and make it good and logical? It has to be 10-12 pages. Thanks so much
writing a lab report
- Thread starter luke587
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...or google other college's writing centers or departments. For example, I found these overviews quickly:
http://classweb.gmu.edu/biologyresources/writingguide/ScientificPaper.htm
http://www.biog1105-1106.org/labs/sciwrit/writing.html
http://classweb.gmu.edu/biologyresources/writingguide/ScientificPaper.htm
http://www.biog1105-1106.org/labs/sciwrit/writing.html
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Okay, take some notebook paper, go to the bathroom, defecate, wipe 10-12 times on different sheets of paper (college ruled) and give it to your professor.
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10-12 pages seem awfully excessive for a beginning science class (assumption made because you have not written one before). That's where I would begin. Verify this. Figure out if it's single or double space. Then get all appropriate sections there. Write your abstract last.... Get an APA book... That may help. Also ask you professor and/or the writing center at your campus.
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Make your procedure super long and detailed, every painful step. I mean, don't write "then proceed to wipe sweat off face after multiple trips to get DI water" or anything crazy, but definitely enough so that someone else repeating the procedure would know exactly how you had done it. Then you have a list of all your supplies, etc. All your calculations, then preferably a data table/graph of some sort and a loooong conclusion and results section. I'm sayin loooong if it has to be 10 pages wow. Unless, with me anyway, the calculations take up 3-5 pages. Eh, actually 10 pages isn't that bad. Just DETAILED procedure and ELABORATE results/conclusion section and you should be fine.
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You should just ask your teacher what they want. There's lots of things you can put in a lab report, but you should keep it as concise and clear as possible.
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Whoa, a 10 page lab report? dang..
I think most science lab reports follow the same form:
Abstract, Intro, Material & Method, Results, Discussion, Figures and Tables, citations.
Sounds like your professor wants a full fledged science paper, so I think you'll have to include all of these to get to a 10~12 pg report. To do that you'll have to write really long intros, long discussion, and a long list of citations too.
Generally I use most of the citations in the Intro and discussion. Since the intro is where you usually discuss the significance of the lab project, if it's a lab about microbiology, I would write something like "according to scientist John Doe, XX% of diseases were caused by a microbial pathogen..." etc. and include this in the citation page.
If you want I have a sample paper in pdf that was distributed in one of my classes that I could e-mail you.
PM me if you need one.
I think most science lab reports follow the same form:
Abstract, Intro, Material & Method, Results, Discussion, Figures and Tables, citations.
Sounds like your professor wants a full fledged science paper, so I think you'll have to include all of these to get to a 10~12 pg report. To do that you'll have to write really long intros, long discussion, and a long list of citations too.
Generally I use most of the citations in the Intro and discussion. Since the intro is where you usually discuss the significance of the lab project, if it's a lab about microbiology, I would write something like "according to scientist John Doe, XX% of diseases were caused by a microbial pathogen..." etc. and include this in the citation page.
If you want I have a sample paper in pdf that was distributed in one of my classes that I could e-mail you.
PM me if you need one.
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Here's what I usually did. There are a few ways to go about doing it and others may have different opinions, but I never found it hard to make volume when writing lab papers. The first couple will take forever but you'll develop a system soon enough.
Cover page (doesn't count for page count)
Executive Summary: Similar to an abstract. Write it after the rest of the paper is written. Should include a high level view of what was done, what was discovered, and a couple main takeaways.
Intro: (self explanatory, should include background, why the experiment is being done, also may want to restate the problem in your own words)
Approach: How you're going to attack the problem. Usually involves some sort of experiment.
Procedure: This is where you detail each step painfully
Observations: Lab results. Use graphs and colorful pictures if possible. It's great if you can include graphs that show trends. Important: these graphs and pictures, if goldilocks sized (not too big, not too small) can take up a fair amount of space without making it seem like you're trying to take up a fair amount of space.
Analysis: Any sort of data processing of the observations. Like if the procedure was to drop a ball from several heights, the observations was a table/graph showing height versus time of fall, the analysis would be where you'd cipher out what acceleration due to gravity is.
Conclusions: Restate the results of your analysis. Relate the results back to what you described in the intro. How is this relevant to your initial goals in doing the experiment? What can you interpret from your data and analysis? What applications could this study have in your future career as a college student or doctor? ie gravity is very important for aerospace engineers, basketball players and skydivers.
References: Include ALL references you used including your textbook and info you've found externally. Use the writing manual to figure out how to cite things properly.
Appendix: This won't count in your page count, but you can put your raw data (as opposed to tables that are found in your observations section above) here. You can also put in details of your analysis and refer to it in your analysis section, i.e. "As described in Appendix IV the coefficient of yadda..."
Cover page (doesn't count for page count)
Executive Summary: Similar to an abstract. Write it after the rest of the paper is written. Should include a high level view of what was done, what was discovered, and a couple main takeaways.
Intro: (self explanatory, should include background, why the experiment is being done, also may want to restate the problem in your own words)
Approach: How you're going to attack the problem. Usually involves some sort of experiment.
Procedure: This is where you detail each step painfully
Observations: Lab results. Use graphs and colorful pictures if possible. It's great if you can include graphs that show trends. Important: these graphs and pictures, if goldilocks sized (not too big, not too small) can take up a fair amount of space without making it seem like you're trying to take up a fair amount of space.
Analysis: Any sort of data processing of the observations. Like if the procedure was to drop a ball from several heights, the observations was a table/graph showing height versus time of fall, the analysis would be where you'd cipher out what acceleration due to gravity is.
Conclusions: Restate the results of your analysis. Relate the results back to what you described in the intro. How is this relevant to your initial goals in doing the experiment? What can you interpret from your data and analysis? What applications could this study have in your future career as a college student or doctor? ie gravity is very important for aerospace engineers, basketball players and skydivers.
References: Include ALL references you used including your textbook and info you've found externally. Use the writing manual to figure out how to cite things properly.
Appendix: This won't count in your page count, but you can put your raw data (as opposed to tables that are found in your observations section above) here. You can also put in details of your analysis and refer to it in your analysis section, i.e. "As described in Appendix IV the coefficient of yadda..."
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