Has your professor ever advised you to adhere to the format of a lab report? All you need to know I that a lab report is not complete without all its parts! Unless every section appears in your report, good grades are likely to be given to you. This web page will assist achieve high-level knowledge applicable to a lab report.
- Abstract
Here you are expected to be as concise as possible, yet detailed. Let people know the summary of your report. The following should appear under this section.
- Depict the central question of the paper. What objective is your study to achieve?
- Show what was done in a brief statement. You can borrow this statement from methods section.
- Let us know what was discovered in a single statement, and this can be borrowed under the results section.
- What did you finally conclude? Hint: get this from the discussion section. Do so in just a single statement.
So here is the key- write your abstract after you are done with the entire report.
- Introduction
Here, let your professor know why you choose to do that experiment. Some background information is expected. They should suggest why the topic became of interest to you. What is the nature of the problem, what is the scope and method are you going to apply to investigate? It is important that you explain to the reader what you are proposing for accurate observations.
- Experimental method and materials
Here, one is expected to describe the experimental procedures, doing so in details is wisdom. This could help someone interested in repeating this experiment to be possible. In this case, describe the scientific procedures you used to study the problem. The materials you used, the subjects as well as equipment. What steps did you take in the experiment and how did you proceed along? Importantly, you should describe mathematical equations as well statistical tests.
- Results
Here, present the data that you managed to collect from the experiment. Make it simpler using text, figures, and tables. All the results should be presented especially those that do not support your hypothesis.
- Discussion
This section should explain to your reader the importance of the results and give a detailed account of all that occurred in the course of the experiment. You can quickly write this section by evaluating the findings. Finally, make a suggestion based on theoretical implications for your results. You should importantly extent your findings to other species; give the big picture.
- Conclusion
Briefly let the reader know what you have done, how it was done and the findings. These largely relate to the abstract. Below this, you can give references of academic materials used.