Lab Report
Steps of Writing a Lab Report
When writing a lab report, it is important to consider the structure of the paper. One common format for organizing data is an outline with five main points: introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, and conclusion. This standard ensures that all necessary information has been included while still allowing room for creativity in how points are presented.
A well-written lab report must be concise yet thorough. This means only including details that are relevant to the question being investigated or the hypothesis being tested. At some point during your time in school you may have become accustomed to producing long documents containing every detail about what you did in the lab – however, this is not at all appropriate for reporting empirical data obtained through experimentation.”
For example: “The paper must contain all of the relevant details needed to retrace your steps in order to reproduce or confirm your experimental results. However, remember that you are not writing a scientific research paper- keep it concise and readable for whoever may need to follow up with further experiments.”
Introduction
The introduction is used to give the context of the question being investigated and why this experiment was performed. A good way to start an introduction paragraph is by using a hook sentence, which has been defined as “a statement that intrigues readers enough for them to continue reading.” This will grab their attention and make them want to learn more about what you did in the lab. This opening paragraph should also include some background information on the topic – how do these results fit into what is already known about the topic?
Materials & Methods
This section describes the equipment used to perform the experiments and protocols for performing these instructions. There are many different ways to present this information – some people prefer a bulleted list while others may use tables containing all of the details. It is important that this section be as concise as possible by including only those details which are relevant to your particular investigation, as described above. Again, you want to make sure that anyone who reads your lab report can follow along with what was done in the lab and reproduce these results if necessary.
Results
The results should answer; “what happened” during your experiment? For example: “What substances were involved and how did they react?” Remember that you should still be concise and only include the details needed to answer this question.
Discussion
This is where you summarize what occurred in your experiment and compare those results to other experiments that have been performed on this topic as well as any relevant background information. This section should also include a brief explanation of why certain things occurred during lab, such as “why does it work better at night?”
Conclusion
The conclusion summarizes the main points learned from this investigation and serves as a wrap-up for how these results fit into what we already know about this topic. You may want to consider including some suggestions for future research here too! Many students make the mistake of forgetting to include a clear closing sentence before their references. Again, remember that you want this report to be as concise as possible and it should not contain any unnecessary information or rambling.
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