Writing a Lab Report

4 Key excerpts on "Writing a Lab Report"

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  eBook - PDF

  Experimental Methods for Science and Engineering Students

  An Introduction to the Analysis and Presentation of Data

  • Les Kirkup(Author)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  It is unlikely that you would write a report on completion of every laboratory session you attend. In many situations, especially in the early years of study in 1 It is acknowledged that there may be situations in which you are unaware of the background and interests of your audience, making presentation preparation a challenge. science and engineering, keeping a laboratory notebook may be given more emphasis with respect to documenting and communicating work done in the laboratory. Nevertheless, it is not unusual to be required to write up one or more experiments in the form of a report in the first year of study at university or college. As you progress through a course in science or engineering, more emphasis is generally placed on the communication of experimental results. Consequently, the assessment of reports is likely to constitute a significant proportion of marks awarded for experimental work you undertake. The communication may take the form of a report to an instructor or supervisor and be based on an extended experiment or a project. Beyond this, we recognise that writing reports is a core activity practised by scientists and engineers everywhere. A thorough and well-written report enhances the reputation of the author(s) and can be a decisive factor when decisions are made about providing resources so that, for example, the scope of the work can be expanded. The process of writing a report requires drawing together and organising the elements that make up a report, including: • the aim of the experiment • the background to the experiment • the method and materials used • the data gathered • the analysis and discussion of the data • the conclusions drawn from the data • the references used to point the reader to similar work or to support what has been written. The process of writing a report, which requires revisiting all aspects of an experi- ment, often rewards its author with a deeper understanding of the experiment.

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  Physics Lab Experiments

  • Matthew French(Author)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Mercury Learning and Information

    (Publisher)

  Presenting Results • 175 mydata.002, or mydata000.txt, mydata001.txt, mydata002.txt. Remember to make a copy on a memory stick or email a copy before leaving the lab. 5.2 REPORTS As well as keeping a neat lab book showing all the results and analysis of each experiment, students will often be required to write up two or three experiments formally as though they were scien- tific articles. This is a vital part of becoming a good Physicist, as once a cutting edge experiment is completed, the results analyzed and a new discovery has potentially been made the results need to be communicated with other Physicists. This has traditionally been achieved by writing the experiment up as a scientific paper and then submitting it to a scientific journal. The journal then ask a num- ber of other Physicists (the identities of whom are unknown the the authors) working in similar fields at other universities or research laboratories to be a referee for the paper and to make critical com- ments upon the work. Referee comments are passed back to the authors for their comment or so that they make modifications to their paper. Based upon these comments the journal editors will make a decision to accept or reject the paper for publication. The aim of writing formal reports is to develop skills in writing papers: these will be vital in a future career in academia and almost certainly useful for a future career in any other field. They provide a good opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of an experiment beyond that achieved in a one or two day laboratory session. This section gives an overview of the typical structure of a formal written report and provides some advice on how to include refer- ences and write a report on a computer. 5.2.1 SOFTWARE Simple reports with a small number of equations, figures, and references can be most simply written in Microsoft Word, 176 • Physics Lab Experiments OpenOffice Writer, or an equivalent computer program.

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  eBook - ePub

  Laboratory Psychology

  A Beginner's Guide

  • Julia Nunn(Author)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Psychology Press

    (Publisher)

  Finally, and again this is something of personal benefit, writing reports provides you with the opportunity to practise and improve, through feedback, your written communication skills. And although the practice may seem very specific to psychology, and not all of you will move on to do psychological research, the skills of conceptual analysis, organisation, and clear presentation of information will stand you in good stead whatever you go on to do in life. So the fourth function of report writing is that it provides a forum for learning a variety of skills.

  SUMMARY Reasons for writing reports.

  • Communication of findings.
  • Provision of potential for replication, checking, and modification.
  • Clarification of ideas, increasing understanding.
  • Promoting wider reading.
  • Learning scientific written communication skills.

  Format of the report

  Your report will have to be written in a certain format, with specific sections, each with its own heading, describing different elements of the experiment. This format reflects scientific convention in reporting psychological research in journals (see Chapter 9 ), and the sooner you accept it and come to differentiate which elements of the experiment go into which section, the easier you’ll make life for yourself.

  The content of each section is discussed in some detail later in this chapter, but first let’s take a look at the overall organisation of a report. Although there may be minor variations across different courses, the basic format is as follows:

  Title. This should identify what the study is about in a single sentence.

  Abstract. An outline summary of the experiment. A short paragraph summarising everything about the experiment—what was investigated, why, and how; the results, and interpretations of findings.

  Introduction. The reason for conducting the study. Outline of the background to the experiment; description of relevant past research; a statement of the rationale and aim(s); a statement about the expected outcome (experimental hypothesis).

  Method.

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  eBook - ePub

  The Student's Guide to Studying Psychology

  • Thomas M Heffernan(Author)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • Psychology Press

    (Publisher)

  Please bear in mind that your own initial attempts at practical write-ups may fall far short of the guidelines provided here. However, as you progress through your course, you should show improvements with regard to your report writing skills. Report writing itself should get easier with the guidance provided on courses/modules on research methods and, of course, with practice.

  Summary of format for an experimental report: Title, Abstract, Introduction, Method: design, participants, materials, and procedure, Results, Discussion, References, Appendices.

  An example of a practical write-up can be found in Example 6.1.

  Example 6.1: A practical write-up

  Having covered basic research methods (Chapter 4 ), having briefly considered the major ethical issues in carrying out research (Chapter 5 ), and having identified the major subsections of an empirical report (Chapter 6 ) it would be useful to provide a writt en example of a completed practical report. Here is an example of a practical write-up of an experiment. The experiments in the first year of a course are normally tutor-led – that is, they are designed by the research methods tutor, who supplies background references and details of the method, and who may also collate the data for the results and discuss the findings with students. When progressing through to the second year, and particularly in the final year, of a degree course, the student is expected to engage more in their own literature searching, hypothesis making, design of the method, etc., but will be given good guidance on all of these aspects by her or his tutor.

  This practical write-up is a medium-length (approximately 1800 words) first-year undergraduate practical, and would be expected to achieve a mark in the high 60s – possibly low 70s assessment range at this level. It is stressed here that for a second-year practical, and certainly for a final-year practical, although following the same format, the write-up will be substantially longer than in the example given here. Thus, the Introduction and Discussion sections of a final-year project would be extended to include more coverage of the literature, critical discussion, etc. The format used in this example is the same as that identified above. However, the report writer should try to include as many aspects of the report as she or he can so that they might achieve as high a mark as possible when assessed by the tutor. Please note that for your own reports each subsection (Method, Results, and so on) should begin on a new page. Students should bear in mind that report writing is a skill that develops over time, and that their initial attempts may fall short of the standard set out here.

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