Distinguished and Young Scientists Confront Writing a Lab Report

Marie Curie said: “A scientist in his laboratory is not a mere technician: he is also a child confronting natural phenomena that impress him as though they were fairy tales”. Reliable experimental data and concise description are prerequisites to writing a lab report. Let us pass through the procedure of lab report writing.

• Figure out a title. Successful writing a lab report begins with a precise and short title.

• Write an introduction. Writing a lab report, state the purpose of your experiment. Describe the problem you are supposed to tackle. If necessary, give background information for understanding your experiment.

• Describe materials and methods. This section gives extensive description of everything you needed to carry out your experiment. If you use a lab book, follow the instructions. Writing a lab report, bear in mind that your paper can be referred to if somebody else wants to reduplicate your experiment. Provide a detailed manual of the carried out procedure.

• Show the results. Lab report writing presumes some previous knowledge of the subject and new information gathered during the experiment. These new facts are actual results of the research. Summarize the obtained data. You can organize them into tables, graphs, figures depending on the nature of the research.

• Think over the discussion. Lab report writing is aimed to summarize the findings, interpret the obtained data and put forward your own ideas concerning the experiment. Writing a lab report, draw special attention to discussion. It should contain the conclusions of your research. If your experiment has failed, think of possible obstacles and suggest future experiment, which will be successful.

• Compile references. You may use lab book, books of the field, journal articles. List all references in the process of writing a lab report.

• Draw tables and graphs. Use an appropriate style for tables and graphs. Do not overload your paper with illustrations. Lab report writing for academic purposes presupposes not only concise description, but also complete understanding of the experiment.