1. Writing the Discussion
Lab Reports
Writing the Discussion

2. Elements of the Discussion
Write the answer to the question or the discovery that you have made.
Support your answer with data from the lab.
DO NOT REPEAT EVERY DATA POINT.
Summarize the data instead.

3. Elements of the Disucssion
Do your findings support or negate your hypothesis?
How?
If your hypothesis is not supported, what did you learn?

4. Elements of the Discussion
Was your experiment valid?
Identify each source of possible error and how each error might have distorted the data that you measured.
Every lab has error; it is impossible to avoid it.
Failure to identify possible error indicates that you do not understand the scientific process.

5. Elements of the Discussion
Include ways that you would extend the lab investigation.
What new related questions occurred to you during the lab?
What improvements would you include?
Please do not include time—we don’t have any more than the schedule gives us!