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How To Write Up A Lab Report

This document outlines the guidelines for writing a formal lab report, emphasizing the importance of clarity and neatness. It details the required sections of the report, including the purpose, hypothesis, materials, procedure, observations, analysis, conclusion, and errors, along with specific formatting instructions. Each student must write their own report, ensuring they understand the experiment and its results.

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7 views2 pages

How To Write Up A Lab Report

This document outlines the guidelines for writing a formal lab report, emphasizing the importance of clarity and neatness. It details the required sections of the report, including the purpose, hypothesis, materials, procedure, observations, analysis, conclusion, and errors, along with specific formatting instructions. Each student must write their own report, ensuring they understand the experiment and its results.

Uploaded by

ryanhung9886
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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General

Lab Reports How To Write Up Lab Reports Handout

How to write up a formal lab report

The purpose of experiments is to better understand a concept or for the discovery of a new one. Presenting the findings
of the experiment is done through a lab report that outlines how the experiment worked and what the results were.

Rules for Writing a Lab Report:

• Should be done in blue or black ink. The lab report can be typed up in black ink.
• All lines made in the report (for underlining, for charts or certain graphs) must be made with a ruler or
straightedge
• Each student will write up their own lab report and turned in individually
• The lab report should be done neatly and easy to read

1) COVER PAGE (not required for this course)


• Use blank paper (not lined)
• Put the Lab or Investigation Number in the center of the page and underline it
• Put the Title of the Lab underneath it with CAPITALIZED LETTERS and underline it
• Put your Name, Teacher’s Name, Your Class, and Due Date on the bottom right corner of the cover page
• Put a list of your Group Members (not including yourself) on the bottom left corner of the cover page
• No pictures or drawings should be on the cover page (front or back)

2) LAB WRITE-UP
• If typed, use blank paper (not lined); if written, use lined paper
• Put the Lab or Investigation Number on the top left of the first page and underline it
• Put the Title of the Lab on the top middle of the first page, CAPITALIZED, and underline it
• The lab write-up should be printed, handwritten or typed neatly
• Must include ALL of the following headings (which are underlined)

Purpose: (Purpose / Question / Problem)


• Write down the purpose of the lab; what you are trying to determine
• This should be done in one sentence
• Cannot be written as a question
• Most times this is given to you (from teacher or textbook)

Hypothesis:
• This is an Educated Guess as to what you think is the possible reason or relationship
• This is NOT a question, but a brief statement that includes what your prediction is based on what is
happening
• This can be true or not. You do NOT have to be correct, but it should be your best guess as to what you
feel is correct
• Eg. If I mix blue paint with red paint, I will get white paint
• Eg. I think that my marks will increase if I study more than 10 minutes for a test

Background information:
• List important information and/or formulas that will be used in the experiment

Materials:
• List ALL the materials that will be used in the experiment
• If it is in your textbook, you may refer to it as “See page ### in _____”
Procedure:
• Write down step by step instructions in order to perform the experiment
• Number each step separately (like a recipe)
• If it is in your textbook, you may refer to it as “See page ### in ______”

• All of the above sections should be done BEFORE the experiment is started
• This is important so that you understand what will happen in the experiment and possibly help you to
understand what the results will be
Observations:
• This is the recording of data or information including visual observations
gathered while doing the experiment
• It can be done as notes, charts, graphs, sketches or recordings of the experiment
Analysis: (Discussion / Questions)
• After gathering the data, this is the section for finding out what happened and making some correlations as
to what happened and possibly why
• This will include answering questions about the experiment or interpreting the results

• Up to this point, the information in the lab report can be similar with your group members, but NOT copied or
printed out for one another
• Each student is responsible for understanding the experiment and the results, so make sure you know what was
going on

Conclusion:
• This is written as a SMALL paragraph that will answer the Purpose of the experiment
• First state whether or not your hypothesis was correct
• Secondly, prove or disprove your first sentence with the results or actual data
• Eg. Our hypothesis was incorrect. Red and blue paint did make white paint. Our results showed that red
and blue paint made purple paint.
Errors:
• List any possible inconsistencies that may have affected the experiment
• List at least two possible reasons
• There is no such thing as “No Errors”
• Can be included in conclusion rather than its own section
• Percent Error value can be included if you are comparing to an expected value

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