1. Laboratory Reports A Guide

2. Laboratory Reports b Formal Record of your practical work b Gives an account of  findings  deductions and  conclusions b From your experimental work

3. Form of lab report b A a formal record, written in a formal style b Divided into sections  Title Page  Introduction  Theory  Method  Results and Discussion  Conclusion

4. Title Page b Write in plain style - avoid colour and fancy decoration b Should contain the following information  Title of experiment  Your Name  Your course and the module  Date of performing experiment  Date of submitting report

5. Introduction b Gives a background to the experiment b Explains why do the experiment b Should end with a statement of the aim(s) of the experiment b Keep it short

6. Theory b Explains scientific principles behind experiment b Should include  risk assessment  any mathematical relationships  diagrams where appropriate b Should be in your own words

7. Method b Describes what you actually did b Should be in past tense b Avoid simply copying lab instruction sheet b Use diagrams where appropriate b List make and model number of proprietary equipment.

8. Results & Discussion b Summarise your data  put raw data in appendix, together with calculations b Describe your data  Use tables and graphs where appropriate b Try to explain your results  Link to theory section - are results consistent with theory? b Summarise all your data  If you are going to discount a point, say so and say why

9. Conclusion b What has the experiment shown? b Based on actual results not what you think we want to see! b Keep it short b A Plea: Not  "the experiment worked".

10. Plagiarism b Plagiarism is passing someone else’s work off as your own. It is cheating and is taken seriously. b Strategies to avoid plagiarism  Keep notes as you read - in your own words - and use these to construct your answers.  Keep a notebook with you for this purpose.  Avoid printing or photocopying your source material if at all possible  Always make reference to your sources  If you must use the words of your source make it obvious you are quoting and state your source  Quote sparingly.

11. Writing up b Start with a draft  It does not have to be  Neat  Legible to anyone but you b Use a word processor  Making changes is much easier b Remember to reference properly

12. For more help & Info b DISSC  http://dissc.tees.ac.uk/mainmenu.html  You may also visit DISSC in the LRC b These notes may be found on my website  http://sst.tees.ac.uk/external/U0000504/  Select Learning Skills from the main menu.