professional lab report

professional lab report

The Art of Writing a Professional Laboratory Report

1. Introduction to Laboratory Reports

Laboratory reports (or lab reports) are written or oral documents that contain the record, processes used, or experimental results of a scientific investigation. Through lab reports, the researcher or a team of researchers, scientists, engineers, educators can explain the steps to a reader, who can see the results of the work. Laboratory reports serve various purposes: (1) help scientists document every step of an experiment, (2) eliminate chances of fraud by providing a reference of the details, (3) help scientists in conducting unique, distinguishing, and meaningful investigations, (4) enable verification of the data and results, (5) facilitate the duplication of a study by other researchers. A well-documented professional laboratory report defines the focus or goal of the experiment, important strategies used in the experiment, steps, proper sequences of events, results, findings, and conclusions that have come from the test/experiment.

Like any report, laboratory reports serve as a way to communicate and discuss the scientific findings that are generated from huge work. They clear the goals of an investigation, create a work plan, provide instructions for carrying out procedures, and report experimental or new procedures. Professional lab reports present work in clear form and provide research results that even with documentation. Typically, the audience for the report includes faculty members, instructors, or policymakers, but such reports are also used when consulting with agencies in the community. Many times, students and researchers also need to prepare reports for academic and professional meetings.

2. Key Components of a Professional Lab Report

Concisely written and highly professional laboratory reports contribute to the portrait that scientific investigators are practiced and well-versed in their craft. Creating a report that includes all of the crucial elements of a professional lab report helps to communicate the entire story of a given scientific investigation. What are the major components of a well-written laboratory report? What is the purpose of the report?

A professional lab report comprises a number of key components, starting with a title that reflects the main research investigation covered in the report. The introduction to a lab report provides detailed information regarding the background concerning the research study and reasons the research is conducted. It ought to form a rational rationale for the study and suggest the crucial hypotheses. The methods portion of the laboratory report includes a separate subsection of subjects along with materials and instrumentation that were used in the course of the study. Similarly, the results of an investigation should be presented separately, with more than one section for various experiments. The discussion portion of a lab report is the most convoluted and details-laden section of the entire report. It is in this section that the initial hypotheses are authenticated or invalidated and errors are identified. The discussion should be structured in an organized manner, starting with a summary of the findings and any kind of trend exhibited, followed by an exhaustive discussion of significant outcomes. Even though assume readers can interpret gross results from figures and tables, do not describe the data at length. The conclusion, the final portion of a professional lab report, allows for reflection upon the results of the investigation in a wider context. This usually involves a brief statement about the research in light of the results and what the investigator has learned as a result of carrying out the study. The conclusion is where the writer can acknowledge, where appropriate, continuity or discontinuity with prior knowledge and disputes in the current research.

3. Data Collection and Analysis Techniques

Data Collection and Analysis Techniques: Part of the professional style is the ability to construct a system that addresses the particular needs that data, or knowledge obtained from the data, presents (p. 130). In other words, professionals must articulate the scientific specifics of the methods used to collect and interpret their data and to demonstrate the validity of findings. This knowledge is demonstrated by appropriate field-specific use of methods that have the technical adequacy to provide the quality of data, comply with data protocol, and apply the theoretical approach applicable for the present state of knowledge and with equipment and facilities available.

Data Gathering Techniques. Knowledge of field-specific data gathering methods addresses data validity. Definition and being able to apply the specifics of methods within a theoretical context demonstrate expertise in a field. Methods can include both secondary and primary data collection. For primary data collection, the method would be the type of research such as survey or experiment. For secondary research, the data collection technique would be the quality of the integrated data from a stated period of record. Data would be gathered with methods described using key protocols and/or standards. This database would be the result of collecting data in the same way, at the same times of year, quality assured and validated, that shows a bias or trend over a time series. Methods are separate from tools of measurements. This may mean you use the same scientific equipment to collect your results, as have been used historically, and this would be the “how” of field(sample)-to-lab processing.

4. Formatting and Presentation Guidelines

A professionally organized laboratory report will never fail to impress. The following guidelines, however benign they may initially seem, are vitally important if you are to produce a structured report where your experiment and reasoning are clear and easy to follow. These guidelines break down into 2 types: an appreciation of the order in which a scientific write-up develops, and smart ways to make a report look professional. The latter is still important because the initial look and feel of the writing is all a potential employer has on which to base an opinion.

Structural Guidelines: Any text entry, word definition, or simple argument used to explain something about your lab work is called a text or a body. If we line up all the text groups in a clear sequence, this order is the layout of the document. All modern, professional, well-written text will always fall into the following layout: Title, Headings and Subheadings, Introduction, Materials, Methods & Theory, Your Results, Discussion, Conclusion, Bibliography, Appendices. So you must follow these layout guidelines when preparing any professional document. How you lay these texts out on each page of the document is presentation. Although layout should generally be the same from document to document, not sending the correct presentation signals can cause confusion. You should be careful then, to use a presentation platform, such as a PDF formatted document with good line and page margins, a clean font sensible font size, and a double-spaced main text. Times New Roman is more suitable for a professional report than Comic Sans, for example.

A title of a piece of writing is always central and bold. Italicized is the name of the person or persons who undertook the experiment and are writing the report (usually, Introduction). An introduction gives some basic definitions and theory that the whole report is based on. Upper case words such as “Introduction” act as a heading.

5. Conclusions and Recommendations

• This section will draw conclusions and make recommendations regarding a topic involving literature that has already been reviewed in the previous section’s literature review.

• Conclusions: It’s extremely important and shows good scientific reasoning to draw conclusions that are supported by evidence. Students should describe what happened in the lab in the discussion section of their report and then take this a step further by interpreting the results. What do the results mean? It’s important that this be a “why” question. Stand firm on scientific reasoning. Your conclusion should summarize, in an organized manner, the results and interpretation. o Good unrealistic example: The reaction went well due to operator skill. Bad unrealistic example: The reaction rotor speed is always where it needs to be.

• Recommendations: Another major mistake made by students is not giving clear and actionable recommendations. Thinking critically about the activity before, during, and after the lab can help to ensure that students are making reasonable recommendations. The recommendations could also be highlighted as basic knowledge, good practices, and/or those that require a fundamental rethinking of the laboratory. In general, you can think of a laboratory that had major, minor and no problems, and then report on their significance and means for resolution. A simplified example of good recommendation: Inform the operator that the analysis will start soon. The manual recommends that a proper reverse flow and Ar flushing be used during the heating in order to avoid deleterious (Na, OH) buildup around the reference electrode over time. No aluminum pots will be available for the next couple of weeks. Can the lab buy a couple of new ones? Make sure the bases are ok. Heat the NaOH solution before putting in the KOH to prevent a Bunsen! If you do the experiment, only try paths 1 & 2. If you have time, try the experiment without a solution and do those tests at the same time as the Molakis runs. Be careful about the warning against the use of water in the Movat Dickson formula. Further information on solutions was obtained from the tissue book.

• In this report, a further detailed analysis of operator comments and SRAs will be discussed.