Advice on Writing Lab Reports for BL4820
Bill Campbell
PDF for Printing this Document: Lab Report Advice
Lab Reports must be prepared on a computer using a word processor and analysis
programs such as spread sheet and graphing tools. Hand-written Reports will not be
accepted. English must be correctly used including spelling - use the spell checker!
Style versus Substance:
- A fixed format or style is required for the Lab Report
- Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion (Summary)
- Similar to style used in writing a scientific manuscript for a journal
While style is necessary, substance is what really counts:
- The 4 part style of the Lab Report is required but is only the framework for a top lab
report
- Substance is what gets the Lab Report the Top Grade and Most Points
- Show me in the Lab Report: 1) what you intended to do (Introduction), 2) how you did it
(Methods), 3) what you found out (Results), and 4) what you think it means (Discussion)
- A final Summary is a good finishing touch to show you can say it all in a few short
words
1. Introduction (What you intended to do)
- Why the Expt was done
- What is unique about the Expt
- Explain principles underlying the Expt
- Present Equations and Chemical Structures for this Expt
- Is there any Physiological Context to this Expt
- Are there any special things about this Expt that help to understand it
- What do Biochemists with the methods studied in this Expt
- Summary: INTRODUCTION should be short, to-the-point and well illustrated with
equations/structures.
2. Methods (How you did the Expt)
- Describe the Experimental Design in a short paragraph - just the key concepts underlying
the plan for doing the expt
- Guidelines you followed in doing the Expt (text citation and pages used/expt # etc)
- What you did differently than the text description (special instructions from TA etc)
- Identify anything you did that was different than what was expected (mistakes in your
lab work)
- Summary: Start with a short description of the experimental design. METHODS
should be very short with only enough detail to make it clear what protocols you followed
- just enough to allow someone else to reproduce your work from the same written sources.
3. Results (What you found out in the lab and analysis of the data using Tables
and Figures)
- Present your Data here - every bit of it - even if you think it is not correct
- Think about the layout of the Results to best present the data
- It’s OK to mix raw data and analysis - like the data for a graph and then the graph
- Illustrations (graphs and tables) can be separated from the main text - just be sure to
refer to them in the text part.
- Graphs should be computer drawn - be sure to label graphs well and identify different
data sets with different symbols
- Tables need to have clear column heading and proper units attached to them, but can be
done by hand if your word process does not support tables very well
- Summary: Don’t interpret the Results, leave that to the Discussion. Be sure
to cover all aspects of the Expt, even those done by your partners. Do identify special
problems you had (ie. Mention places where you known you screwed up).
4. Discussion (What you think it means)
- Start Discussion with statement of what you were trying to do in the Expt and then
review the Results, step-by-step, by stating what you found and what that means to the
overall Expt.
- Don’t make catch-all excuses - "like we probably made some pipetting
errors" - but do Discuss the impact of known mistakes - "like we added the wrong
amounts of reagent #2 to the reaction so all the absorbances for the standard curve were
in error"
- How does the Expt fit in your contextual understanding of its biochemical usefulness -
in other words why would a biochemist do this expt and what would it mean to him/her in
understanding the properties of a biochemical (ie protein or enzyme) and the function of
the biochemical in the organisms from which it came. This is the link of the Discussion to
the Introduction
5. Summary and Conclusion (Say it all in a few words)
- This is a good way to wrap up your Lab Report and bring it to an end
- Writing a good Summary is difficult
- A good Summary really demonstrates you known what happened in the Expt
- A good Conclusion shows you know what the Objective of the Expt was and how you achieved
it
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