How Do You Write a Scientific Lab Report? - Scribendi

How to Write a Scientific Lab Report

Once your lab session has come to a close and your experiments are complete, it's time to write up your methods and your findings in a lab report. But how do you go about this? How do you structure the report, and where do you even begin?

Understanding Lab Reports

A lab report is a piece of academic writing that brings together the data, materials, methods, and purpose of your experiment in one write-up. It's essentially a document that communicates your experiment to those who did not witness it.

What's the Point of Writing a Lab Report?

There are two primary purposes for writing lab reports. The first is to present the data you collected in tables, figures, and graphs (as appropriate). The second is to demonstrate your understanding of your field and your command of the scientific method. Thus, the purpose isn't just to offer up your raw data but to provide a meaningful discussion about what.

What to Include in Your Lab Report

How do you put your lab report together, and what do you need to include? Although reports vary depending on the nature of the scientific experiment, most feature the same components.

Title Page

The title page includes the name of your experiment, plus details such as your name, class, supervisor, and other important information.

Abstract

When you are writing your abstract, you are creating a complete summary of what you will cover in the body. The abstract is not an introduction; it provides an overview of the entire reportfrom start to finish, briefly covering the experiment's purpose, methods, hypothesis, results, discussion, and conclusion. The whole thing should be around 200 words.

Introduction

The introduction is the first part of the body of your report. You'll set the tone here by covering the purpose of your experiment and offering some of the existing discussion around the topic(s) of your research. The research question, hypotheses, and objectives of the experiment should be clearly stated

Explain the statistical tests you intend to use and any assumptions associated with them.

First, you'll need to clearly present the raw data in the form of graphs, tables, and other formats. After this, you can begin to identify and highlight findings that are particularly important. Indicate which findings demonstrate statistical significance. Subsequently, transition into the next section: the discussion

Discussion

The discussion is perhaps the most important part of the entire report. Here, you should go beyond the raw data and interpret the results you have found. Do they support your hypothesis, or do they suggest something else?

There may have been limitations in your experimental procedure or something you'd like to have done better. You can address this here and offer ideas for potential future experiments and research avenues.

Conclusion

When you write a lab report, the discussion and conclusion are not the same thing. The conclusion brings the whole report to a close, which involves summarizing the experiment's main outcomes while describing their relevance to the wider scientific context. You may have a number of different findings and cover them all in the discussion, but in the conclusion, you'll draw attention to the most important of these findings.

References

Your experiment is your work, but These sources will need to be cited and referenced. A detailed literature review will be included as part of the introduction section to demonstrate the need and significance of the present study. You may need to cite previous research in the materials/methods section when referring to tools and approaches developed by other researchers. You may also need to cite past studies while discussing your findings. Your institution or publishing journal will have specific requirements for citations and references (e.g., ). Make sure you consistently use the right style.

Appendices (If Applicable)

You won't always need to include an appendix, but it can be a good way to give your reader information without interrupting the flow of your report. For instance, if you have a considerable amount of raw data, you might not want to include them all in the body of the report. Instead, you might use a condensed dataset in the main report and direct your reader to the full dataset in the appendix.

Biggest Mistakes When Writing a Lab Report

Avoid these common mistakes as you write your report.

Failing the Repeatability Test

You might think it's easy to repeat your experiment, but that's because you've just done it yourself. Other researchers won't find it so simple to repeat your experiment unless you provide clear and obvious steps. Let someone else read your report to catch potential gaps in the procedure and repeat your experiment to ensure clarity.

Reaching Unsupported Conclusions

One of the biggest mistakes researchers make is developing conclusions that are not supported by the data. The data may hint at a certain conclusion, but they may not prove that conclusion. You can address and discuss anything in your results, but be wary of exaggerating their importance.

Incomplete Referencing

If you were writing a literature review or academic essay, you'd undoubtedly reference everything. However, a lab report is different—this is your own work, so you might not feel compelled to offer references. All outside claims and ideas should be cited, so it is important to read through your work and ensure that your citations are correctly placed and formatted.

Writing Your Lab Report—A Few Tips

A few tips can help you write your lab report the right way.

Keep an Academic Tone

Maintain an academic tone throughout every section of your report. Contractions, slang, and idioms should be avoided in academic writing. Prioritize precise, formal, and objective word choice. When you're describing different experimental steps, it's easy to slip out of this language and tone, so be careful to preserve consistency in this regard.

Use Visual Materials

Your experimental work needs to be repeatable. While your descriptions may be very good, visual materials will still help in this regard.

Get Help with Reviewing and Proofreading

After completing your experiment, it can be hard to step outside of your own work and assess how it needs to be improved. A third party can give you a different viewpoint.

The Assistance You Need as You Craft Your Scientific Lab Report

Sometimes, you just need a different set of eyes to catch the spelling and grammar errors in your work. Other times, you might need an expert editor to provide their perspective on the logic, clarity, structure, and content of your report. Scribendi can help with whatever situation applies to you and your lab report.

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Scientific Lab Report: FAQs

What is the checklist of a scientific lab report?

Use this checklist to make sure you've included everything in your lab report:

A title and title page
The methodology, materials, and equipment used
The procedure, reported in chronological order
The results achieved
A discussion of those results
The conclusions drawn
A list of citations and references
An appendix or appendices, if applicable

What does a scientific lab report entail?

out an experiment on the impact of light intensity on photosynthesis in plants. You hypothesize and outline the experimental design you'll apply to test this, using light intensity as an independent variable. Once your experiment is complete, you write a report based on what you did, why you did it, and what the results were.