Whether in high school or at university, most of your laboratory courses will involve writing a lab report. This segment will impact your final grade and give you a head start for the upcoming years.
Hence, what makes an excellent lab report? Apart from including the essential elements, it must follow a specific format written in a formal language. Sometimes, your teacher will give detailed instructions about the structure and what to include. But if you get no such notes, feel free to hire Edusson’s writing service besides using this thorough lab report composition guide.
Purpose of Lab Report
A lab report is a brief account of all the findings you witness during a scientific experiment. It must highlight your insight and what you learned throughout the process.
Lab Report Essentials
Several components make up the lab report structure, and each of these is mandatory to include for a successful project. Here is the perfect structure you need to bear in mind.
Title (Page)
Ideally, your instructor will tell you to include a title page, which is usually one page long. Alternatively, you might only need to stick to a title. This element aims to inform the reader about the fundamentals of your work and typically involves:
- The title is the topic of your assignment and should be as brief and concrete as possible and contain no more than ten words. Also, ensure it describes the purpose of your experiment.
- Give your name and surname and details about the lab partners.
- Write the mentor’s name and surname.
- Insert the date of lab research or the report submission date.
Abstract
This element aims to summarize the research aims, the methods used, the results obtained, and the conclusions. Experienced writers that can write your report leave this part for the end because it should explain the reasons for doing the experiment. It must also highlight the problem addressed and the benefits of the findings. In most cases, the abstract shouldn’t exceed 150 words in total. Generally, you would include the following:
- A sentence or two about the study rationale
- Overview of the participants and setting
- Methods used: their design, questionnaires, surveys, and tests
- A sentence or two to summarize the most significant findings
- Abstract ending with the implications of your experiment on common perceptions and literature
Introduction
The introductory segment can be one or two sentences or several paragraphs long, depending on the complexity of the topic. Most importantly, it should explain the objectives of the study. The intro must clearly state the problem and mention any theory relevant to the respective field. In short, you will start with general background theory and information and then narrow the topic to the study focus.
Moreover, remember to include your motivation for conducting such research and the hypothesis. The research question should be easily understandable and specific.
Method
The method section lists and explains all the steps you took to collect and analyze data. Moreover, it should be so detailed that the reader can follow the steps and duplicate the experiment. This part goes in the past tense and describes the experimental design, the subjects or participants, materials/equipment, and procedures in chronological order.
Experimental Design
In this part, you must underline if the design of the experiment is within or between subjects. In the first approach, all participants undergo all conditions, whereas, in the second, each participant experiences one condition only. Explain how you assigned the sample units to the different conditions.
Subjects/Participants
Ensure you describe all human subjects according to demographic characteristics (gender, ethnicity, age range, and mean age). Similarly, include genetic data for animals and plants. Share the total number of participants in the study and per group/condition. If relevant, explain the subject recruitment procedure.
Materials
List all materials and equipment used to collect data. For instance, a science lab report can include seeds, water, pots, fertilizers, etc. As for equipment, you should refer to the model names and types of specialized equipment. Consider sharing a labeled diagram of permanent equipment and the exact experimental setup.
Procedures
Describe the steps taken to collect data chronologically. Be concise and include only relevant information for evaluation of the critical thinking essay or report. If you must offer more details, put them in the appendices part at the end of your report. This section must also brief the analysis methods, the tests you ran, and the software or programs you used.
If you consulted a lab manual, state whether you followed it or altered some steps for objective reasons. Consider referencing the manual, provided your instructor doesn’t insist on rewriting it into coherent paragraphs.
Results
The results section should contain the outcome of the statistical analysis procedure in past tense. Experimental results relate to your hypothesis and support or refute your initial claim. Ideally, you will:
- describe the statistics,
- share test results,
- emphasize the significance of the outcome,
- estimate confidence intervals and standard errors.
Moreover, relate results and organize raw data in tables and figures for visual impact and easier comprehension. Key points and results can come in text format, but large sets of figures must go in tables and graphs.
In a complex laboratory report, insert a sample calculation. Provide a brief description of all calculated values and explain the symbols used. Finally, remember to include the raw data in the Appendices section of your research paper.
Discussion
The discussion section should showcase your understanding of the experimental objective and process. It must also demonstrate your analysis and critical thinking skills. In the discussion section:
- Interpret your key results,
- Compare findings with expectations,
- Identify experimental error sources,
- Describe any unexpected results,
- Suggest improvements for further research.
Interpreting refers to clarifying how the main findings answer the research question. Your results should ultimately support the hypotheses. You must also compare the expected results with the actual findings.
In addition, the discussion section should mention whether repeated measures and analysis procedures were correct and appropriate. Then, a typical lab report will compare findings with previous research and explain critical discrepancies.
Finally, an efficient discussion section will point out the strengths and limitations of the study. At this point, focus on the report’s reliability and internal validity. As for limitations, include standard deviations and how random errors affected the measurements or findings. Analyze experimental error cases and suggest ways to improve and resolve them in the future.
Conclusion
The lab report conclusion often consists of one paragraph but can be longer and aims to summarize the experiment, including whether the hypothesis was proven or refuted. In short, you must draw conclusions with a relevant impact on the scientific field. The conclusion section is the final one, so it should offer a brief overview of the strengths, limitations, and implications for future work.
References
Since lab reports explore theoretical issues and try to support claims, your research will probably relate to someone else’s work. To this end, you will cite the facts in the references section. Hence, list all relevant sources that require documentation and ensure they are credible.
This segment can precede the Appendices part, which usually contains lengthy procedures, graphs, and figures. This additional segment at the end of your manuscript usually includes raw numbers and supplementary information. Hence, refer to the Appendix when it contains something mentioned in the written portion of the results.
Also, remember to label all graphs and figures with an appropriate number (Figure 1) and a descriptive essay title worth exploring further. All axes and units of measurement, dependent, independent, and extraneous variables, must be included.
Several Tips on Lab Report Writing
Remember that the ideas and arguments in your lab work must follow a logical progression that is easy to grasp. The experiment conducted and the results obtained must lead to the lab purpose and hypotheses.
Hence, be concise and selective regarding facts, explanations, and sources cited. Always include relevant facts and studies to support your work. Finally, don’t forget to edit and proofread your research work to ensure it’s free of typos and grammatical errors.
FAQ
What format is a lab report in?
Writing a good lab report format is time-consuming and requires honed research skills. Additionally, lab reports must have a formal structure, so most teachers share a lab manual with their students. If this isn’t the case, follow the guidelines above and include the eight vital sections.
What does a lab write-up mean?
Lab write-ups aim to demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of a specific research method. To this end, you must perform and evaluate a hands-on lab experiment. Unlike research papers, this assignment type is shorter and focuses on a single problem. Also, most lab manuscripts are integral to STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) courses.
How long is a lab report introduction?
Contrary to essay writing, where the intro can be one paragraph long, the introduction for a lab experiment is longer. The exact length can vary between three paragraphs and a couple of pages depending on topic complexity, your instructor’s requirements, and the extent of your research. Still, most students prefer to keep their introductions a page long.
What are the 8 major sections of a lab report?
The laboratory report outline can vary but usually has eight major sections. Your work must start with a Title followed by an Abstract summarizing the overall research. Next comes the Introduction, which frames the context of the topic, and the Method section, which must describe the lab procedure and materials. The central part (the Results) offers a statistical analysis of the issue, whereas the Discussion section interprets and assesses the results and limitations. The Conclusion and the References are the final parts of your academic assignment.
How do you format lab report results?
You can format your results in several ways, including as a written description, figures, tables, and appendices. If you describe your results in a text format, you must focus on summarized data, overall trends, patterns, and compelling data. Next, the section can contain graphs that visually present your results. Similarly, tables are ideal for structuring complex or intricate statistics. Remember that you must refer to each figure and table in the written part of the results section.
Is the abstract the longest part of a lab report?
No, the discussion section is the most extensive part of lab reports. It is the core, the atomic structure of your scientific work. Since the discussion contains logical explanations and comparisons to similar investigations, it can be several pages long. Conversely, abstracts serve to draw attention and hence, are usually one page long.
