Paper

Lab Reports

Abstract

- Brief overview of the entire experiment

- What was done in the expiment? Why do we care? What were the results?

Intro

- Background info, specifically related to the specific treatment or experiment

Results

- Verbally go over the results. Don't just give a graph or table and say the results displayed in the graph

- Always include all of your data. If you are not sure, INCLUDE IT

- LABEL your graphs and tables properly! Always make sure you have units and axis are labeled correctly

Discussion

- Explain the results, why did we see what we saw?

- Relate the reults back to the background information. Was what we saw what we expected? If not, what was expected and why were the resulst not what we expected?

- Include possible sources of error!

Conclusion

- Don't talk about what you personally learned, you should talk about what was learned from the experiment.

- "The results of this experiment showed that inhibitors do impact the rate of reaction catalyzed by enzymes" NOT "I learned a lot about enzymes and how to use a spectrophotometer"

Other Notes

- Do not use "I", "me", or "my". There will never be a need to use those personal pronouns

- NO "I then added the enzyme to the solution"

- YES "Free enzyme was then added to the solution"

- Use CBE citation format. If your source is from the internet it should include the [Internet] portion of the citation

- In-text citation, (Author Year)

-Ex "...enzyme" (Farooq 2014).

- Don't just throw in quotes, make them part of your sentence. Make it flow.

- In this class, use CBE format for in-text and end-text citations. NOT MLA.

- Make sure you pay attention to grammar and spelling. You will lose points if you have numerous grammatical errors.