Calculate Lab Report Significance
Being a student of a laboratory course you know that writing a laboratory report is what you usually do after each topic and lab experiments. In this type of written assignments students describe the experiment they have completed, how it went and its results. It may also influence your grade. Some teachers would want to assist you and provide you with guidelines for writing such a report. Some reports are written in lab notebooks, and others should be separate ones.
We have prepared a common template for composing lab reports you can use not matter if it is your first report or not.
Lab Report Examples
Lab report must-haves
There are lab reports that do not contain title pages. However, if your teacher demands one, you should indicate the following information:
- Experiment title;
- Your name or names of experiment performers;
- Teacher’s name;
- Experiment performance date and date of report submission.
Title
The title usually includes the name of a performed investigation. Try to keep it below 10 words. Check out the following title example: «Receptivity of Different Types of Sugar By Flies». If there is a chance, try to give preference to a keyword, as a first word in the title.
Introduction
Introduction is normally the paragraph you begin your report with. In this paragraph you state the purpose of your investigation or why you did it. Here, should also insert your hypothesis that should be as long as one sentence.
If you want to include some background info to your introduction, try to keep it short. In few words describe the course of the investigation and its findings, and a short conclusion.
In case you are not planning an introduction, you should still indicate the purpose of the investigation and your hypothesis.
Add Materials
This is another short part, where you simply list everything you have used for your experiment.
Include Experiment methods
When you write about methods you have used to perform the investigation you describe your step-by-step actions in the course of the experiment.
Precisely, this is a plan of action. That is why you have to be very detailed, when describing it to make it easy for anyone to perform the experiment, if such case arises. It should look like you are giving directions what actions to perform and in what sequence. If there is a possibility, it would be good if you add a chart or a diagram.
Data
All the information you get during your experiment should be written down. Normally, these numbers are shown in a table. You don’t need to give any explanation or description in this part. The figures are the facts that indicate the conducted experiment.
Results
This section is where you have to provide description of the figures in your table and give explanations.
Analyses section
This part should provide a description of the data you have obtained in the course of the experiment; include any calculations made on their basis and explain whether you managed to find proofs of your hypothesis or no.
If you think there could be possible mistakes made during the experiment, this is where you should indicate them. Or if you believe the methods you used are not sufficient, you may mention ways to improve them.
Lab report conclusion
Conclusion does not usually take longer than a paragraph. In this part you briefly describe your experiment and its results, whether you managed to have your hypothesis accepted or no, and what the effects are.
Figures, charts and graphs in your lab report
If you include a few details or all the data into your lab report, do not forget to label them with a separate title. All the details should have a name. Bear in mind to give figures appropriate names, including charts and graphs. Usually, they are called simply: Figure 1, and so on.
References in your lab report
If you use somebody’s work as a basis for your experiment or use quotations, you must include references to these sources.