Are you facing difficulty writing a quality lab report per your course’s requirements? Lab reports are essential for most lab courses you will take in high school or college and significantly impact your final grades. Also, if you have decided to work in a lab science profession after you graduate, you must learn how to write excellent quality lab reports. In many cases, your advisor will guide you on writing such lab reports; however, if they do not teach you, this article will shed light on the steps you need to follow to write a lab report.
What Are The 10 Steps for Writing a Quality Lab Report?
Lab reports are similar to several other academic papers. For writing a quality lab report, you should follow a general framework in which lab reports are usually written. You shall craft your report in the following format:
- Title
- Abstract
- Introduction
- Materials and Methods
- Results
- Discussion
- Conclusion
- References
- Relate Your Results
- Avoid Manipulating the Data
Let’s explore these steps in further detail now.
Title
The title will be the first page of your quality lab report that your reader will see. It should include your name, your lab name and a title that will describe the work you have performed. When deciding the title of your lab report, you should keep the following things in mind:
- You should choose a short title that must summarise your report. Ideally, it should be no more than ten words.
- The title of your lab report should answer the questions like what, when, why and where—for instance, the impact of (what) Ammonia on (where) hair protein etc.
Abstract
The abstract section should provide a summary of your lab report. It should not take more than a page, should be 200 words long ideally, and must concisely mention the purpose of the lab report and the results.
Here are some of the best tips for writing a first-class abstract:
- It would be best if you write your abstract after completing your report. This way, you will be best prepared to summarise the report findings.
- Your lab report abstract should describe the purpose of your study and its rationale.
- The abstract should concisely describe the methods, materials and instruments used in the study.
- The abstract should also narrate the significant findings and outcomes of the studies.
- Your abstract should end with a sentence that describes the interpretation of the results and significance of the experiments you performed.
Introduction
The introduction section of a lab report provides background information on the aims and objectives of the experiments you perform. It should also briefly summarise the overall hypothesis tested during the experimentation.
Here are a few tips you should follow while crafting a quality lab report:
- It would help if you started your introduction section with a concise overview of the field or background of the experiment you performed.
- If readily available, you can also mention other relevant studies to your topic and explain their significance to the reader.
- Do not forget to mention your hypothesis in the introduction section of your lab report.
You can also consider consulting with experts to get help for lab report introduction writing.
Materials and Methods
A practical lab report provides the reader with all the information required to replicate the experiment. The methods and materials (equipment) section give a technical overview of the steps taken in the investigation. Make sure that the explanation of the procedure should be specific and not too detailed. It should describe how the report’s author performed each step and the critical observations he made during the process.
Results
It is one of the essential parts of writing a quality lab report. In this section, it will be best to briefly describe the outcome of the experiment you performed. It would help if you used tables and graphs in this section to show the findings clearly and elaborately. It will also provide the reader with a summary of conclusions. You should avoid discussing the results in this section – that discussion will occur in the report’s next section.
Discussion
In this section, the author of the lab report interprets the data collected during the research and experimentation and determines whether or not the data supports the hypothesis you made. In this section, you can also discuss methods you used to improve your research.
Conclusion
The conclusion section of a lab report typically consists of a single paragraph summarising the results of your experiments. It describes whether or not your experimentation supports the hypothesis you made. Compare the expected and the obtained results and suggest recommendations for further research on your topic.
References
In this section, you should list all the sources you cite in your work. It will include the previous studies that you might have referenced in your research, scientific and academic journals, and the reference of any statistical data necessary for formulating your hypothesis or conducting your experiment.
Relate Your Results
If possible, you should try to relate your conclusion and results to other studies. For instance, you might get results that complement other relevant studies or bring new perspectives on any contentious hypothesis. By doing so, you will demonstrate to your readers that your lab research and experiment are a part of some bigger picture and it has a broader scope.
Avoid Manipulating the Data
To craft a quality lab report, you must not manipulate the results if you know anomalous or deviated data might cause them. You should consider the “exception data” and mention that such effects may be accidental. It will prove helpful if someone else replicates the experiment you did; the person may not get the same data.
Conclusion:
We guarantee you will secure your desired grades if you follow these steps to write a quality lab report. We hope you will find these tips helpful when preparing your lab report. You should consider the requirements of your institute or guidelines provided by your supervisor when working on your lab report.
