Jennifer Ambrose Hanson CTC Assistant Director

The Lab Report (#2 due September 24-28) ● ● The lab report measures your individual ability to document your procedures and explain the significance of the lab experiment to others. ● ● Successful lab reports require proper format, organization, and clarity. ● ● Organize your lab report as follows: Abstract, Introduction and Background, Experimental Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, References, Appendices. ● ● See the assignment sheet on the Hanson CTC web site students/academic-support/ctc/course-support students/academic-support/ctc/course-support for specific instructions on what to include in each section.

Signs of Excellence: What Makes a Successful Lab Report? A clear, concise, non-technical Abstract so that a top executive can review and act on the report. Introduction and Background and Conclusion sections that provide detail but remain general enough so that immediate supervisors can understand main points even if they are not subject-matter experts. Professionals in your field will understand Experimental Methods, Results, Discussion, and Appendices sections. Present your procedures and findings in a clear and complete manner that allows others to easily duplicate the experiment.

Signs of Excellence: What Makes a Successful Lab Report? Think about your audience. Logical narratives Logical narratives Precise technical descriptions and concise explanations Precise technical descriptions and concise explanations Persuasive language Persuasive language Third person, past tense Third person, past tense Standard table, figure, and equation labels Standard table, figure, and equation labels

Grading Overview Of the 50 points you receive for this report, 20 points will be based on your writing. We will grade for clarity of expression, organization, and proper formatting. For a closer look at our grading criteria, see the lab report evaluation sheet Hanson CTC Course Support page students/academic-support/ctc/course-support. students/academic-support/ctc/course-support

The Lab Report: Avoid Plagiarism Although you may do the work of the labs with others, you must write a report on your own. Copying the written work of others or any collaboration with others on writing the report may mean that you receive no credit for the lab. In addition, you may be charged with plagiarism and your teacher or the University may take further action.

How to Avoid Plagiarism? Paraphrasing means that you have taken someone else's ideas, concepts or language and put them in your own words. This practice is perfectly acceptable. Writers often build on other people's ideas or borrow from other people's work to support their own scholarship. HOWEVER, you must give credit where credit is due. If you use someone else's material and rewrite it in your own words, you must provide a citation after that paraphrased information.

Using APA: Examples of In-text and Reference List Citations In-text: The aluminum alloy 2024-T3 has a hardness of 120 using the standard Brinell hardness method (MatWeb, 2007). Reference list: Callister, William D. and Rethwisch, David G., (2008). Fundamentals of Materials Science and Engineering(3 rd ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Remember Write to specific audiences at different points in the report. Organize coherently. Write unified paragraphs and use precise subjects and verbs. Cite your sources and include a reference page. Explain what you did, how you did it, why you did it, and what you found. Your audience wants both clarity and analysis.

A Final Thought Visit the Hanson CTC We strongly advise you to sign up for an appointment to receive suggestions for improving your lab reports. The Hanson CTC is located in 2224 SC (in the Student Commons). This semester we are open― We strongly advise you to sign up for an appointment to receive suggestions for improving your lab reports. The Hanson CTC is located in 2224 SC (in the Student Commons). This semester we are open― ― Monday ― Friday, 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. Sunday afternoons, 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. support/hanson-center-technical-communication

Thank You