If we needed to make an outline of how to write a lab report, we would enumerate the following. Define the issue and the theory that is to be proved or refuted, write down the things required to start the work, think of the algorithm to be followed. As you do your lab, make sure that the correct order of actions is preserved. Put down the features you’ve noticed, explain and summarize them. Note whether the theory was confirmed or disproved. Attach the list of mistakes which could take place. So, it’s easy to say, but how to do that step by step in practice?
When writing a lab report, you must operate the appropriate terminology properly to understand what exactly you need to do. So, first of all, what is a laboratory? Of course, you know that it is a place where a prepared person performs scientific experiments. As long as you are aware of a lab meaning, you’ll understand what kinds of procedures are held there. As it has already been stated, any lab report presupposes recording the actions undertaken to verify some thesis or prove it is wrong. This type of report may be done for scientific purposes solely and also as a part of the educational program. In the first case, the reports may see the world as manifestations of a certain scientific achievement, and they pass an attestation first. In a learning process, a laboratory report is often required for a successful completing of a study course of the exact sciences. Here are the objectives and ways to use the lab report in theoretical and practical activity. With their help, you can:
- perform the investigation for scientific purposes
- work out a thesis/a statement on a certain phenomenon
- work with an appropriate material to verify your theory
- examine the available observations made before
- make an impartial and honest assessment of the investigated field
- express thoughts clearly and intelligibly
- use statistical evidence for examining the theory
- explain the process and the results thoroughly to create a possibility for further application of your conclusions
Talking about a lab format, it is necessary to note that it must contain at least a few persuasive proofs, each with a detailed description. The best thing is that if you include a considerable number of all the available evidence, analyses etc.
You may think that some of the points do not fit the general picture, but still leave some space for them because they may appear to become the starting points for further ideas that may come to you later, especially in case the current theory won’t be verified enough.
What’s more is that the facts provided and ideas developed by you are able to be applied on some other bases to serve as a support for other ideas related to the thesis. In any case, there’s a chance for you to face the occurrences you won’t be able to predict, but will have a possibility to confirm the obtained information due to them.
Make sure that you keep up with the given directions describing the correct manner of your writing in the sense of stylistic peculiarities, language use etc. Don’t forget about it, no matter what your stage of writing is.
Thus, what is the lab report? Very often, it is an integral part of your learning performance that adds a lot to your final result. You may be provided with a layout for a lab report writing, then get the most out of it. The report may be handed out as an independent piece of work as well as bound to the other lab reports contained in a special workbook.
How to Do a Lab Report Properly
Apart from the knowledge about how to do a lab report, first of all, you need to know how to start it. So, you have to get determined on how to call your work. It shouldn’t sound cluttered, but it has to be detailed enough to be understandable. When you make a formatting, keep in mind that the first thing you need to designate is the name of your experiment and your own name. Then you specify your academic advisor and the day your report is performed.
What is the main objective of your experiment? What is it for? You may write a lab report abstract with the summary concerning the applicability of your work in general. Just to behold it yourself.
Now, here’s an introduction for a lab report coming. State the general knowledge on your theme, define the basic terminology, tell about the facts which were established before and indicate the ways and means of conducting your experiment. This part will also be helpful in case you don’t have a clear idea on how to write a discussion in a lab report. The aim of the work has to be limited to one utterance and it may be a statement as well as an interrogation.
State the theory which, in your opinion, presupposes clarification of the given problem or demonstrates the expected result. The idea you are going to prove doesn’t come from nowhere, and if you’ve chosen to develop it, it means that it has certain pre-conditions. Remember that a theory isn’t always confirmed, and it’s fine as this is not the only goal of your experiment. One utterance for a theory will do as well.
No matter what subject you write on, whether it is a chemistry lab report, a physics lab report or a biology lab report, use the required expressions that will assist you in creating coherence.
Create a record of every single thing you applied and operated as you worked. The fuller your record is, the greater are chances that your testing can be tried out by someone else and checked up as regards veracity of its results. You may also not need to make a list on your own. Instead, you might be given one containing required things to use. It is necessary to enumerate them exactly the way you applied them.
Every action you perform that gets the course of your experiment forward, must be explained in details. Listing all the safety measures is indispensable.
When you conduct an experiment, there are always elements that can be modified in the process for testing some phenomena and the unchangeable ones. In your theory statement, the elements you are going to change must be indicated.
You may need to describe the process of your work in one of two ways: there can be a demand to create a list of directions for a proper arrangement of various procedures as regards their order and techniques of implementation, or you may have to write a kind of scientific essay with a detailed explanation of all your actions. Refer to your scientific advisor to decide on the relevant option.
To become familiar with how to write a results section and conclusion for a lab, read further.
How to Make a Lab Report Closing Stage
When you understand how to make a lab report, you are obviously aware that the first thing to turn a hand to is starting your experiment. Do that according to a previously defined algorithm of actions and with the help of available tools, reagents, etc. You already know how to write a lab procedure description, and it’s worth admitting that preparing all the necessary written and material basis beforehand will guide you through the process of experiment conduction without losing a thread of what you need to support, no matter what you’ll discover during the process.
Write down the peculiarities you’ve seen making your experiment. You just need to put down pure facts arranging and classifying them in a simple and comprehensible way. Refresh your knowledge on how to write data analysis, because you’ll need it for creating charts, spreadsheets, diagrams etc. with the precise indication of numeric data. In the end, you’ll obtain the information in a descriptive form where you’ll make it clear what procedures you performed in overall, and the information of a strictly mathematical character including numbers pointing out the size, degree, length, area, pressure and so on, depending on the type of your task.
In any formal lab report, the obtained outcomes, effects or products have to be evaluated or put as a contrast to previously obtained results. Consider reasoning for why this or that occurrence could take place in case you’ve got the other result than you expected.
Make a statement of whether your thesis was proved or disapproved, and doing this, rely on your own results and conclusions. Think of the possibility to draw additional conclusions out of the performed job and results.
Remember that a scientific lab report also presupposes enumeration of the mistakes that could prevent receiving accurate results and suggest ways to avoid or make it right.