Writing a lab report is both a journey and a destination.
During an experiment, you travel beyond the information in a textbook to a
tactile environment. Here, you'll encounter unexpected characteristics about
devices and concepts. Once the experiment is finished, you gain insight by
analyzing your results. Performing experiments and writing lab reports provide
hands-on experiences with engineering concepts and devices.
A lab report is an account of an experiment and what was
discovered during the experiment. Typically, lab reports present data, discuss
results, and provide conclusions. Some lab reports also describe the experiment
and the procedures followed. As a student, lab experiments provide you with
hands-on experience. Writing about your work in a lab then forces you to think
logically about your data. For example, if you get unexpected results from a
lab experiment, you'll speculate why you got those results in the report.
Project Notebooks
Project notebooks record your experiments and include information
about the procedures you followed and your findings, as well as the successes
and failures during an experiment itself. Notebooks also help you remember an
experiment's details. If several weeks or months have passed since you actually
completed an experiment, reading your entries from that time as you write your
report will help you remember the details.
Audience
Readers may or may not know the details of a lab report. You
shouldn't assume that they know a test well enough to fill in the report's blanks
or that they know anything about the actual lab. Check with your instructor to
know who your audience is. To help you describe your lab thoroughly, assume
you're writing for a peer in your class, a student who knows what the
instruments are, but who doesn't know any of the details of what you're doing.
Or, assume you're writing for engineers who will use your information on a
project. They may not be familiar with all the terms, so you should explain the
lab to them.
Types of Lab Reports
Not all laboratory work requires a report. In fact, at times
you may conduct an experiment and only document the numerical results. Other
times, you'll elaborate on the experiment's details by formally presenting the
procedures you followed and the equipment you used.
Another type of lab report is a project report. A project
report is similar to a lab report in that they both present data. However, the
difference between the two is often the amount of information conveyed. Project
reports usually document more than results. Always check with your instructor
to know what type of report you are required to write and what information you
should include.
Lab Reports
Lab reports typically cover a more narrow scope than project
reports. For example, you may be asked to report only the answers to equations
or a specific experiment's results. Lab reports, like their name, report work
completed in a laboratory. The format of a lab report may be as simple as
filling in blank lines on a worksheet or as complex as writing a full report
with an abstract, procedures section, results section, summaries, and
conclusions. Lab reports usually don't include references; however, as a
student, you may refer to information from your textbook and lectures for some
reports.
Project Reports
Project reports typically cover a broader scope than lab
reports. In other words, this type of report presents a wider understanding of
a specific topic. For example, instead of reporting only the resulting numbers
of an experiment, a project report might supply background information or
alternate solutions to a problem. Further, a project report does not
necessarily document an experiment's results. It may describe a design or
concept instead. Because project reports provide a "bigger picture,"
they usually include references.
General Format
Lab reports, like other kinds of writing, have an organized
format. Organizing your report depends on how the report will be used and what
headings your readers expect to find. For example, in industry, an engineer
reading a report may be concerned only about a test's results and not the
procedures or equipment used. On the other hand, a peer in your class reading
your report may need to know what equipment you used or how you conducted your
test.
Most lab reports follow a general format. However, you may be required to use
different headings or to present your data in a different order. You may also
be required to include or exclude specific information. Be sure to check with
your instructor before using the format depicted here.
Title Page
A lab report should always include a title clearly
identifying the lab. A title should be descriptive and accurate, but not wordy,
verbose or too terse. Discussions with several instructors show that no
relationship exists between the length or literary quality of a title and the
quality of a report. That is, a long title does not reflect how good the report
is.
Abstract
The abstract is extremely important because it helps readers
decide what to read and what to pass over. The idea of the abstract is to give
readers an honest evaluation of what's in the report, so they can quickly judge
whether they should spend their valuable time reading the report. This section
should give a true, brief description of what's in the report. The most important
purpose of the abstract is to allow somebody to get a quick picture of what's
in the paper and make a judgment.
The abstract is a brief summary of your report. Its length
corresponds with the report's length. So, for example, if your report is eight
pages long, you shouldn't use more than 150 words in the abstract. Generally,
abstracts define the lab's objective and the procedures followed. They also
include the lab's results.
Introduction
The introduction provides a rationale for why you are doing
an experiment and why the experiment is useful. It sets the framework or
overview for the rest of the report. Here, you can also present the problem you
are solving and summarize any related research.
An introduction should be an introduction. For instance, if
you're going to give a speech, presumably the master of ceremonies will
introduce you. He or she will give your name, perhaps provide your background,
the title of what you'll talk about, and maybe why you have chosen to give the
talk. An introduction to a report works the same way.
Experiment
Under the experiment heading, you should describe each step
of the lab test. Here, you might also document your goals and the steps taken
to accomplish those goals. Basically, you are writing down everything you did
during the experiment.
The experiment section tells readers what you wanted to
accomplish (to measure a the voltage of a circuit, for instance), what steps
you took to accomplish your goals, and what materials and equipment you used to
accomplish your goals.
Results
In the results, you should report what you found. Here, you
may or may not include data interpretations. Some readers expect
interpretations, or conclusions, to be a separate heading. Check with your
instructor for what to include in your results.
The results section documents the test's outcome(s). Here,
readers discover what the test measured with exact data. Calculations or
equations may also be included.
Discussion & Conclusions
One of the goals of the discussion and conclusions section
is to comment on the outcome of what you did. You can also speculate about the
implications of what you found. Or even about the methods you used to obtain
your results.
Typically, the Discussion & Conclusion sections
demonstrate what was learned from the experiment. Here, what's been gained in
understanding, both from the experiment itself and from any background reading
in preparing the report are emphasized. For example, you might note that the
procedure you used was a good method for measuring capacity. As a student, it's
not likely that you'll be familiar with as many procedures as a practicing
engineer, but you can learn about them by reading textbooks and published
reports.
References
Lab reports may or may not include references. If you use information from the course textbook, cite it as a reference. You should also cite any Engineering standards used in your report. Check with your instructor to determine which reference style you should use.