Writing Laboratory Reports BB

Why the need for Good Lab. report Main form of assessment. Means of communication among scientist A means of training for scientific report writing

 Parts of a Lab. Report Date Title Aims Introduction Materials and Methods Results Discussion Conclusion References

Date The date on which the lab was done. Title Indicate exactly what you have studied. E.g. The effects of light and temperature on the growth of the bacterium, escherichia coli. Less than 15 words. Good enough to capture readers attention.

Avoid “Observations on the Effects of...” “A Report on the Effects of...” “A Study on the Effects of....”

Aims The problem that your procedure and data attempts to answer. Use “to investigate,” “to plot,” “to measure,” or “to compare.”

Introduction Why did you study this problem? What other researchers have done? What is the point of the present study? Identify the problem or issue and provide the background information.

In the introduction we are moving from the general to the specific: A general discussion of the problem area, to your specific. Successive paragraphs should be explicitly connected and from the thread of a coherent argument.  

Brief literature review (to describe previous research conducted on the problem), How the current experiment will help to clarify or expand the knowledge.

Use Textbook Journal articles Internet text Lab manuals Present tense is mostly preferred

Materials and Methods What did you do? How did you do it? What materials and equipment did you use?

Use Past tense Passive voice Complete sentences Avoid Writing in the form of instructions Listing materials in a laboratory manual.

Results What did you find? Do Present your observations Data in table form Graphs Include results that went “wrong” or were unexpected Use past tense

Labels should be self explanatory Labeling: Tables are usually labeled at the top and figures at the bottom. Labels should be self explanatory Table 1. Percent of soybean plants exhibiting visible injury after exposure to acid precipitation. Don’t No interpretations Conclusions about what they mean Calculations This follows results in labs where certain calculations are made

Discussion What does it mean? How does it relate to previous work in the field? Explain what you think your data mean. Describe patterns and relationships that emerged.

Why you observed what you did How it happened (or the most likely reason). How it relates to the purpose of the experiment. Compare these results to trends described in the introduction and to theoretical behavior.

Conclusion Use past tense (when you are describing your experiment). Present tense (comparing to current theory). Conclusion Your final paragraph is the conclusion. Brief Restatement of the purpose The main results Relevant of the Lab to the field of study.

References List only papers and resources actually mentioned (cited) within the report. Why Reference? Purpose of sharing information. Gives credit to the person who did the work (avoid scientific misconduct) Provide your work with authority.

Remember ALL information within the report that is not your original work or ideas should be referenced. Do not quoted directly, but paraphrase or summarize.

Types/Methods of referencing Two main types Internal (In-built referencing) External (Out of text referencing)

Internal (In-built referencing) Its usually written in the report by indicating the author(s) surname and year of publication. e.g. Part of a sentence Owusu (2009) Owusu and Darko (2002) Mensah et al. (1996)

At the end of a sentence (Owusu, 2009). (Darko and Mensah, 2002). (Ansah et al., 1996).

e.g. of Internal referencing Chemotherapy is the principal means by which B. L is treated (Hirsch, 2006). There is high incidence of B. L in areas such as equatorial Africa and north eastern Brazil (Pedrosa et al., 1993). According to Buetler and Gelbart (1995) plasma glucose is increased in diabetes. Smith (1999) has also found that E.coli is one of the only microbes to ………. The extent of rotation of plane polarized light by an optically active compound is an important role of the polarimeter (www.chem.usu.edu.com). .

External (Out of text referencing) Only reference cited in the report should be listed in alphabetical order. Book Referencing Name of Author(s), year of publication, Title of the book, Edition, Publisher, Place of publication and number of referenced page(s). e.g. Kiluchi, E., (1996). Ecological Studies on Japanese Marine Organisms, 1st Edition, McGraw Hill, Glasgow, pp. 120-126.

Journal Referencing Name of Author(s), year of publication, title of the publication, name of the Journal (Italics), Volume of the Journal (Bold) and number of the referenced pages e.g. Aikins, S. and Kikichi, E., (2001). Studies on habitat selection by amphipods using artificial substrates within an estuarine environment, Hydrobiologia, 457, 77-86. If the volume has numbers, put the number in brackets after the volume. e. g. 457(1), 77-86

Internet Referencing website address (Bold), Homepage owner (Italics), Title or brief description of the site, date and time of visitation. e. g. http://www.cla.co.uk 21/11/99, 3:12pm.