A lab report is a common assignment among college students that often causes some difficulties. It’s not always possible to write it the right way from the very beginning even when having all the needed requirements on hand. Keep reading to learn about some handy tips on writing your lab report and ace this challenge without struggling too much.
Know the Basics
The lab report writing process differs a lot from typical essay writing. Not only the structure of this paper is different but the approach to the process as well. So, what you should start with is an outline of your report which should contain:
- The section that provides an understanding of what the purpose of the experiment is, what the findings are, what is significant about the experiment, and the conclusion. This section is called an Abstract and it should be written at the last step because it should summarize all your work.
- The background information in the Introduction section, as well as a summary of previous studies and your hypothesis.
- Equipment or Materials and Methods, including a guide on how to replicate the experiment in the Procedure part.
- Results
- Analysis and Discussion
- Conclusion
- References and Appendices
The main difficulty with a lab report is to make the right conclusion based on the experiment and results. This might sound like an easy task, however, many students fail to explain what was the reason behind the experiment and what it means.
Use the Right Words
There are some general rules for lab reports that everyone should stick to when working on one. For example:
- Tense. The process of the experiment is described in the past tense because it was already conducted by you or your team. So, you should describe all the steps in the past tense.
- Person. Lab reports are usually written from the third-person point of view.
- Glossary. Look for the right terminology and phrases that should be used in a lab report. For example, ‘a variable,’ ‘visualizing the data,’ etc.
Your lab report should sound professional, yet easy to read. The main point of this academic work is to provide guidelines for everyone who would like to conduct the same experiment and describe the results and their meanings.
If you fear making too many mistakes in your lab report, you might want to send us your request. We will gladly help you with your lab report as we are experienced in writing various types of papers, including lab reports.
Build Connections
All of your findings should be linked to your hypothesis. As you write your hypothesis in the introduction part, you might think that it should be written in the first place. It’s not a must, however, usually, it should be a sentence or two about your thoughts and predictions about the results of the experiment – the question or the problem that you are planning to check with your experiment.
Not always your hypothesis matches the reality and the results of your experiment. In this case, you should mention in the conclusion that your results showed an unexpected result which means that you were wrong with your hypothesis. But the connections between the two must be clearly described.
Another thing about writing a lab report is the logical flow and progression between the sections. It means that every previous part should have a logical continuing the following one. Avoid deviating from the subject of the study. Be concise and filter the information that should be put in your paper.
Don’t Forget About Literature Review
All the studies and research results regarding the topic of your experiment which can be found in the scientific journals and other literature should be analyzed and mentioned in your work. This is very important because of many reasons, for example, in order to avoid repetitions and wrong interpretation of results.
It also should be done in order to build and describe the background of your experiment, prove the significance of your study, and add more credibility to your findings.