How to Write a Lab Report

Writing a Lab Report

Lab Reports are the most common way to share experimental data with other researchers. Papers that a published in prestigious journals follow basically the same format as a lab report. The purpose of the paper is present the results of the experiment(s) that were performed. The authors then, explain the significance of these results. To make the paper more interesting and relevant, the introduction serves to provide some background information or the logic behind the experimental approach. The report is broken up into the sections: Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results and Discussion. The following paragraphs describe in more detail what is found in each section of the paper

Abstract

The abstract is a summary of the WHOLE paper. Someone reading the abstract should know WHY the experiment was done, HOW it was done, the RESULTS and the overall CONCLUSION(S). The abstract is short to the point. A good rule of thumb is to use 1-2 sentences to summarize each of the rest of the sections of the paper.

Introduction

The introduction provides a context for the work. Why is this work interesting? Why does one want to know that answer to the question that the authors are asking? In addition, any novel experimental approaches or techniques used in the study should be described in the introduction. The introduction is usually written AFTER the Methods, Results and Discussion are finished. . The introduction does not contain step by step instructions of how you did you experiment nor does it contain a summary of the experimental results and conclusions. The intro should be written in present or future tense. THIS IS OFTEN THE HARDEST PART TO WRITE!

Materials and Methods

Here you should have a detailed account of everything that you did. All concentrations, times, volumes, temperatures, etc. should be noted exactly the way you did them. Don’t write what it says in the manual if you did it differently,...