A n00b's guide to writing a satisfactory lab report

As the title suggests, the purpose of this section of my website is to serve as a guideline of sorts for writing your lab reports. Once again, you will need a bound lab notebook with carbon copies for this course. These are available for purchase in the JC bookstore and are usually located by the Chemistry textbooks on the lower level of the store. I will be requiring you to turn in your carbon copies at the end of each lab session. This is to prevent dry-labbing, which is a violation of the Honor Code. I expect your lab reports to be type-written. Any handwritten material that you turn in to me is expected to be neat, organized and legible. The same applies to the carbon copies you hand in to me.

Obviously, one of the skills you will be developing over the course of this semester is writing laboratory reports. Writing these reports can be a little overwhelming for a novice in terms of knowing what to write about, although some planning and organization can make the whole process manageable. The following sections of this guide should assist in the task of writing your required weekly lab reports.

1. Before you start writing
Before you start to write your report, take some time to think about the content of your report. A rough outline will keep you focused on the task at hand. Consider the following questions when constructing your outline:
  1. What is the intended message of your report?
  2. What is the new result or contribution you want to present?
  3. What do you want to convince your audience of?
If you have not done so already, you should do some research to find previous important information that is related to your experiment. Try to summarize and organize these findings as well as the ideas you have obtained from your outline into key sentences that will eventually develop into paragraphs.

2. The structure of a report: what you will write
While it is understandable that each writer has his/her own writing style, it is important to know that lab reports generally have a well-accepted format. Each of the sections presented below are included in a typical report, although authors may sometime use different headings. The sections are as follows:
  1. Abstract (on your title page)
  2. Introduction
  3. Experimental
  4. Results
  5. Discussion/Conclusion
Each of these sections serves a different purpose, which are described in greater detail in the following sections.

2.1. Abstract
An abstract is a single paragraph that precedes the report and summarizes the content of the entire paper. The contents of an abstract will include a general introduction to the topic, an outline of the major results, and a summary of the conclusion. An example of a well-written abstract is shown below:
“The {zeta} isotype of protein kinase C (PKC{zeta}) is a member of the atypical PKC subfamily and has been widely implicated in the regulation of cellular functions. Increasing evidence from studies using in vitro and in vivo systems points to PKC{zeta} as a key regulator of critical intracellular signaling pathways induced by various extracellular stimuli. The major activation pathway of PKC{zeta} depends on phosphatidylinositol (PI)-3,4,5-trisphosphate (PIP3), which is mainly produced by PI-3 kinase. 3'-PI-dependent protein kinase 1, which binds with high affinity to PIP3, phosphorylates and activates PKC{zeta}. Many studies demonstrated the involvement of PKC{zeta} in the mitogen-activated protein kinase cascade, transcriptional factor NF{kappa}B activation, ribosomal S6-protein kinase signaling, and cell polarity. An important molecular event in a cell is the association of PKC{zeta} with other signaling molecules, as well as scaffold proteins, to form large complexes that regulate their pathways. The understanding of the mechanisms underlying PKC{zeta}-mediated control of intracellular signaling is beginning to provide important insights into the roles of PKC{zeta} in various cells..” (Hirai and Chida, 2003).

In the abstract shown above, it tells the reader the main objective(s) of the research, gives a concise summary of the important results, and summarizes the conclusion as well as its significance. Take note that this abstract does not aim to overwhelm the reader with complex derivations, details, or sophisticated results. The length of this particular abstract is 169 words. As a general rule, however, a typical abstract should have between 150-200 words.

2.2. Introduction
This is an important section of the paper in the sense that it serves to reel in your audience. This is where most of your background research will also be presented. As stated before, you will be focusing on the main objective(s) of your research, NOT your experimental procedures.

2.2.a. Introductory paragraph
The first paragraph should follow an inverted triangle principle: begin with a broad thesis statement and become more detailed until finally addressing the specific objective of your paper. You want to interest your audience by clearly identifying the purpose of your research.

2.2.b. Middle paragraphs
Following your introductory paragraph is a series of middle paragraphs that will serve as the body of your introduction. These usually function as a literature review of sorts, since you will be citing a bulk of any previous relevant information you have found in your research.

Together, these middle paragraphs will accomplish the following:
  1. Directly lead up to the objective(s) of the paper you are writing
  2. Outline the state of knowledge
  3. Justify the novelty of your paper’s contribution
By presenting a literature review, you are giving credit to the contributions of previous researchers as well as stating the importance of your research.

2.2.c. Final paragraph
This final paragraph will summarize the remaining sections of your paper (mainly the Discussion/Conclusion). By doing this, this final paragraph serves to place your findings in the context of the previous research presented in the middle paragraphs, hence emphasizing on the importance of your research. The final paragraph will also assist in organizing your logic. If this last paragraph is unclear in its message, the rest of your paper will be built on a weak foundation.

2.3. Experimental
Also known as Procedure (among other headings), this is the section where you will put all of your experimental protocols. You want to clearly tell the reader clearly how the results were obtained without introduction of interpretation or opinion. You should be concise and specific. You should also make references to any accepted methods as well as any changes you have made. If multiple tests/experiments were used to obtain your results (which is often the case in research projects), you may use subheadings to further organize this section of your report.

2.4. Results and/or Discussion
This section is by far the most flexible in terms of organization and style. Some prefer to divide this into two sections, while others merge the two sections together. While I personally prefer the latter, I will leave the choice up to you.

In general, the stand-alone results section will present results without interpretation. They are simply results, the raw data presented or the results obtained after applying the techniques you outlined in your experimental section. Meanwhile, the discussion section is where you will interpret the results to reach the major conclusions. It is also in the discussion section where your opinion enters the picture; make a comparison between your results and earlier work, as well as highlight anything that is new and important.

If you are combining your results section with the discussion section, you will be making interpretation and suggest any implication(s). When the results and discussion are combined, you should make a clear distinction between a result and a discussion. This is done by paragraphing, section subheadings, or careful writing. Usually, however, this is achieved by presenting a series of figures and describing the figures in detail through the text. This is where figure legends are extremely useful.

2.5. Conclusion
Obviously, you will not introduce any new information or insights here; you will only summarize and conclude. This section may (or may not) be longer than the abstract and will include more specific conclusions than the one(s) presented in the abstract.

A good way to write this section is to divide it into two paragraphs, with the first paragraph summarizing the different sections of your paper while the second paragraph presents the important conclusions. Your conclusion is different from the final paragraph of your introduction in the sense that your conclusion draws on the fact that your reader knows all of the new results presented in the article. You may also include a third paragraph that identifies any future research directions.

A good general rule when writing your conclusion is to keep it short and make it as specific as possible. Remember that when a reader is first skimming a paper, he/she will often first read the introduction and then the conclusion. Therefore, it is important that all of your significant findings are summarized and united in your conclusion as a means to tie the entire paper together.

3. Some final remarks: