professional lab report writer

professional lab report writer

Effective Strategies for Writing Professional Laboratory Reports

1. Introduction to Laboratory Reports

Laboratory reports are an integral part of employment in the scientific community, where publication of data in a laboratory notebook is often not enough. Reports of findings in a layman’s format are often made to provide a foundation for a final conclusion or paper. A professional report is also necessary for grants, professional meetings, and as a justification for our work and time. What, where, why, how, and what makes it a “professional” report, as well as parts of the report, are presented and discussed.

Professional laboratory reports are a way of externally communicating our progress to upper-level personnel, and it may lead to modifications to the intended course. The limitations end of a complete report is like a formalization of your conclusions in that one section of a scientific article, but in a professional report setting. A complete report requires an explanation (not mere mention) of every limitation in detail and includes a “possible solution”. The solution is expected to answer the question “so what?” posed in the statement of the limitations. The lessons learned are anticipated to be linked with the limitations and, in some places, with the modified approach. This final sentence should answer the question “why should I care?” hypothetical question of a doubter.

2. Key Components of a Professional Lab Report

Designing professional laboratory reports is an important requirement in experimental sciences, with laboratory reports allowing for knowledge to be communicated to a broader audience. Reports should have a clear introduction, and the material and methods plus results and discussion sections should focus on answering the research questions. Throughout these sections, relevant figures, tables, and equations should be used to effectively communicate information. Finally, a conclusion should summarize the key findings of the study in as few words as possible. In the abstract, the conclusion, and at several key points throughout the entire report, it is important to identify the scientific relevance and contributions of the study. It is essential that the underlying concepts and theories behind the experiments or research are explained succinctly and thoroughly, no matter whether a new theory is being presented, or an established idea is being tested.

Effective professional engineering and scientific practice require the ability to design professional laboratory reports. The opportunity to practice this skill in an undergraduate laboratory class can be valuable, and the instruction students receive in this setting should be of the same professional standard as they would receive at the graduate level or from professional engineers and scientists. Laboratories teach students to generate valuable and accurate experimental data; but more important, they teach students to communicate the new knowledge uncovered in the laboratory. The development of speaking and writing skills is an important goal in many engineering and science classrooms. While there has been much recent discussion on the role that writing and language plays in teaching science at select institutions, many professional and technical programs have not yet integrated this material.

3. Writing Techniques and Tips for Clarity and Precision

Use simple, direct language. Researchers must make their reports easy to understand so that readers can focus on their results. Use the active voice. Writing in the active rather than the passive voice will make your writing more direct and succinct. Make sure the tenses of your verbs are correct. Scientific papers are usually written in the past tense. Use the present tense only for the general facts and for results already obtained. Use appropriate qualifiers. One of the most critical yet obvious characteristics of professional scientific writing is the clearly stated degree of certainty in the reporter’s conclusions and statements. Such qualifications do not imply any lack of confidence in the reported results; rather, they reflect the integrity and honesty of the scientist or technical writer. Use technical terms precisely. Have others critique your work. As you write and revise your report, it is easy to miss errors in capitalization, punctuation, and word usage of technical terms due to the fact that you are so close to your research and that you have read your report so many times. Other eyes may spot an error that you have missed. Skip confusing statements. Do not use a reader’s time or energy by presenting data in a confusing or disorganized manner. Restructure or abandon the nonsensical or irrelevant parts of poorly written sentences; otherwise, you weaken the impact of your results and damage your scientific credibility.

4. Common Mistakes to Avoid in Lab Report Writing

Lab reports are used by universities and employers to assess your understanding and important skills, such as professionalism and the ability to communicate effectively. The following list outlines common errors and how you can avoid them.

Adding too much information: Students often incorrectly add a lot of extraneous information that is not actually part of the data they have collected. Avoid these things: Do not include ‘discussion’ or interpretation/scientific theory in your ‘conversation’ section. If you do, you may be accused of deliberately mixing results with interpretation, which is unethical. – Do not include images in a report that can stand as a piece of ‘fair game’ data (as part of your ‘data’).

Designing a report to make analysis easier: Sometimes, students wrongly design their reports to make certain analyses easier than they would be using other designs. Not provided.

Common problems that make the text harder to read and understand: – Including irrelevant information – Waffling – Over-commentating – Writing negative comments about class or the ADC writing centre – Mentioning logical errors – Talking about other courses

Do not treat your conclusions and recommendations as though they were some kind of afterthought. If you have conclusions to make, try to make them as you go along (rather than at the end) and try using some form of referencing, e.g. include words like ‘consequently’, ‘therefore’, ‘for these reasons, it can be said that’, ‘the experiment’.

In conclusion, the findings from this lab best support x, y, and z.

5. Resources for Further Improvement

Where to Go From Here: Resources for Further Improvement

Keeping up to date with available resources is a great way to ensure that your writing improves consistently over time. Here are some websites that may provide guidance, references, and some tools that you may wish to use in order to learn about science writing and how to improve your laboratory report writing.

– The Purdue OWL is a free online writing lab run by the Writing Lab and Professional Writing (formerly English) at Purdue University. This site contains information and content on writing in many formats, including formatting laboratory reports and writing in APA or CBE formats. The Mary Flager Cary Library has a guide to citing sources. – The University of Michigan Chemistry Library provides some brief information on reports, including a list of descriptive articles on the elements of a report and a link to an article on improving figures. – Writing at the University of Toronto has an extensive section on writing in the sciences, complete with citation and formatting guides for the various scientific disciplines and a large collection of writing resources. In addition to the writing assignments and annotated papers available, students can access resources related to writing in the lab, giving presentations, and preparing for exams in the sciences.