Lab Report Format and Expectations

Use the following guidelines when writing a formal lab report for SCI 200.

In general:  We expect correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar; appropriate internal citations and bibliography must also be included.  A paragraph consists of 5-6 complete sentences and is cohesive and coherent.  Each section of the lab report should be labeled with the appropriate heading (Introduction, Procedures, etc.).  The lab report should be in past tense (with one exception, which will be noted below).  Use 12 point font, double space, and 1 inch margins.

Introduction:  What did you do in this experiment, and why?  You should have a hypothesis, and it MUST be stated.  It may be provided at the start or the end of this section.  Give the background information that an intelligent but uninformed reader would need to understand why you are testing this hypothesis.  This section should be at least two paragraphs.  Don’t forget internal citations – most of your background information will be from somewhere else (lab handout, Dr. Peterson’s lecture, etc.)  If ALL of the information in a paragraph is from the same source, then one citation at the end of the paragraph is sufficient.

Procedures:  In this section, write in your own words what you did.  You will still need to cite the lab handout.  Do so at the end of each paragraph.  You may have more than one paragraph depending upon the experiment.  If you use information from another source, be sure to cite it as well.  Explain what your dependent and independent variables are, as well as what the control is – all of this is part of your experimental set up.  Be careful NOT to include any data or observations; that belongs in the next section.

Results:  This section should be clear and organized.  Data should be presented in a format that is understandable to the reader.  This may be a chart, a graph, or a table – it will depend upon the nature of the data collected.  Depending upon the particular lab, you may have your individual results as well as the class results as a whole.  Refer your reader to the table, chart, or graph, and make sure it is well-labeled.  Include samples of any calculations you did.  You might also have some observations that you wish to describe; these might be in a table, or you may wish to report them in paragraph format.  Summarize the main results that you present in the table (“growth was observed under condition x and not under condition y”).  Do NOT interpret your data or speculate on what it means in this section; that is what the discussion is for.

Discussion:  Remind your reader of your hypothesis, and discuss whether or not the results you obtained support or refute your hypothesis.  Now interpret your data.  What do you think it means?  Remember, it’s not wrong or bad if your results don’t support your hypothesis; you just need to explain WHY you think you got the results you did.  If your results support your hypothesis, what else could you do to test your hypothesis?  If they don’t support your hypothesis, what hypothesis might be appropriate?  The next two questions should be in future tense: How might you improve the experiment or address any problems you encountered?  In either case, what further experiments would you like to pursue?  The discussion overall should be at least two paragraphs.