Lab Report
A lab report provides a record of experiments. The most basic format, IMRAD (introduction, methods, results, and discussion) provides the background, experiment, results and interpretation of your investigation. This specific formatting helps readers answer questions about your research.
Tips
- A lot of information about the lab can be found in the lab guide. Start there and then use that information to start your background search.
- While in lab, make sure to take detailed notes. Write down all of the things that you did and especially anything that seems interesting.
- Make sure to summarize and test your results. While raw data may be attached as an appendix, we don't want that in the results section.
- For your discussion section, make sure to reiterate what you did, what you found and focus on what you think, possible sources of errors and an extension/follow-up of the experiment.
- Take a look at this article that helps you understanding how and why to write like a scientist.
Guides
Below are a number of guides to help you through the research process. They are organized loosely in chronological order.
Writing lab reports and scientific papers
A guide from Iowa State University
A very detailed guide from the UNC writing center. This guide gives very specific information for what you should do and include in each section of the report. This is probably the only resources you need
A guide from Monash University
A lab report/paper guide from Dr. Nate Kornell from Williams College
A brief guide for lab reports
References
Dolphin, W.D. Writing lab reports and scientific papers. Retrieved from http://www.mhhe.com/biosci/genbio/maderinquiry/writing.html
Monash University Learning Support. The lab report. Retrieved from http://www.monash.edu/lls/llonline/writing/science/5.xml
Kornell, N. Teaching. Retrieved from http://sites.williams.edu/nk2/files/2014/09/APA-6-template1.docx
UNC Writing Center. Scientific reports. Retrieved from http://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/scientific-reports/
Helmenstine, A.M. How to write a lab report. Retrieved from
Gopen, G.D., & Swan, J.A. (1990). The science of scientific writing. American Scientist, 78, 550-558.
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