How to Write a University Lab Report
Every college student pursuing a scientific career path will have to write his fair share of lab reports. The lab report is one of the most important parts of scientific research because it allows a scientist to share his experimental results with the rest of the scientific community. Although lab reports can be difficult and time-consuming, writing a lab report that receives top marks is accomplishable by following some simple steps and procedures.
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
-
Recording and Presenting Scientific Data
-
1
Record all relevant data and observations during the experiment. Whether the experiment is successful or not, it is important that all observations are unbiasedly reported. Many scientific discoveries can be attributed to what scientists first thought of as a mistake.
-
2
Create tables and graphs by hand or by using a computer. All data must be appropriately labelled and measurements defined. When making a graph, always put the independent variable on the x-axis and the dependent variable on the y-axis. For example, if you recorded the growth of a plant, time would be an independent variable, while the height of the plant would be a dependent variable.
-
-
3
Re-read the experimental procedure before you start to write your lab report. This will refresh your memory about the experiment and possibly alert you to any errors that may have been made during the experiment.
-
4
Consult your laboratory notebook. While conducting an experiment, all observations and procedures followed should be recorded in the lab notebook.
-
5
Find primary sources that relate to the experiment that can be used as references in the paper. One of the key aspects of the scientific method is relating your experimental results to those of other scientists.
Writing The Laboratory Report
-
6
Start the paper with an introduction. The introduction should adequately introduce subject matter related to the experiment, state your hypothesis, relate the experiment to the subject matter and report a summary of expected experiment results.
-
7
Describe the experimental procedure and list the materials required for the experiment. This section of the paper should explain exactly how the experiment was performed and should not be a replication of the procedure given for you to follow. Analyze how you and your group performed the experiment, including any errors or inconsistencies. Make sure to list any controls for the experiment in this section as well. Controls make experimental data stronger by eliminating variables that can skew the results. Explain how the experimental procedure relates to the tables included in your results in this section as well. For example, if a table is followed to prepare solutions, reference use of the table in the experiment.
-
8
Define the results of the experiment. This section of the paper should include all graphs and tables labelled appropriately. Explain the results indicated by the table, but do not draw any conclusions about the data in this section. Explaining the data should be left for the discussion section.
-
9
Discuss the implications of your experiment.The discussion is arguably the most important part of a scientific lab report. In this section, you will analyze the ramifications of your results and relate them to the results of previous experiments by other scientists. Speculation about the results of the experiment is all right in this section if it is identified as such. Finish this section by explaining how the experiment could have been improved and how future experiments could support your hypothesis.
-
10
Include references to primary sources about others work throughout the entire research paper. Primary sources can only be other scientific laboratory reports that relate to the experiment. You must either support or disregard the hypothesis and or experimental results with these sources. Remember to list all sources in the references section in either MLA or APA format.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
A lab report is not about proving yourself wrong or right; it is about discussing the experiment and its results in a non-biased manner. It is perfectly acceptable to write a lab report on a failed experiment. Just remember to speculate on what could have caused the results to come out the way they did.
Perform the experiment at least three times before relying heavily on the data. Although this may not be possible in the timespan allocated at a university level, all published data in professional scientific papers comes from repeated experiments.
Do not try to cover up or change bad data in a lab report. This is against principle of the scientific method and will often do more harm then good. Many scientists will find that observations they at first considered "wrong" actually indicated something very relevant and important.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit person writing image by Tammy Mobley from Fotolia.com
