{"id":302,"date":"2018-03-11T14:02:33","date_gmt":"2018-03-11T18:02:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/crosby-hall-knowledge-repository\/?page_id=302"},"modified":"2018-04-26T16:59:41","modified_gmt":"2018-04-26T20:59:41","slug":"write-lab-report","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/crosby-hall-knowledge-repository\/write-lab-report\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Write A Lab Report"},"content":{"rendered":"

Writing a lab report is a pretty simple thing.\u00a0 Unless you are told to use a specific format follow the time honored adage of, “Tell me what you are going to tell me, tell me, and tell me what you told me.”\u00a0 Looking at the components of this expression:<\/p>\n

Tell me what you are going to tell me – Write an introduction<\/h3>\n

Explain\u00a0the big picture.\u00a0 What\u00a0problem or project are you\u00a0presenting?\u00a0 Explain the scope of the work if applicable.<\/p>\n

Tell me – The body of the work<\/h3>\n

Present what you did, generally with enough detail that the work could be repeated for verification.\u00a0 Include subsections as needed for setup, equipment, software flow control(algorithm), operating procedures,\u00a0or\u00a0data reduction.<\/p>\n

In any written work you should consider your audience first.\u00a0 The document is almost never for you.\u00a0 What is the audience looking for?\u00a0 \u00a0If the point of the work is to sell something, then you will want to write about how it will save the customer time, labor, or materials and ultimately cost.\u00a0 That justifies the purchase.\u00a0 If the work is\u00a0educational, then you want to\u00a0explain the underlying theory and how the theory was applied in the experiment.\u00a0 Ultimately your grade\u00a0should reflect how well you demonstrated mastery of the material to your instructor.\u00a0 If you show that you understand all the important underlying\u00a0concepts, but\u00a0then make small mistakes like a math error, it’s much easier for an instructor to justify grading with leniency.<\/p>\n

Whenever you have calculations to perform write out the equations and define each\u00a0term.<\/p>\n

Tell me what you told me – Write a\u00a0conclusion<\/h3>\n

What did you learn?\u00a0 Did the data from an experiment match any predictions?\u00a0 What future work should be done?\u00a0 Did anything happen that would make your data unreliable?<\/p>\n

General rules for good writing<\/h3>\n

As you write the sections of your document always remember to do the following:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. If you add a picture or diagram give it a numerical title such as, “Figure 1”.\u00a0 Any time you add a diagram, be sure to talk about it and tell the reader why it is significant and the message they should get from it.<\/li>\n
  2. NEVER USE “I” OR “ME”!!!!\u00a0 Writing a technical paper is meant to educate an audience.\u00a0 They don’t care about you.\u00a0 They care about becoming better educated for the time they have invested.\u00a0\u00a0 Instead of writing, “I tested a pressure vessel until it failed.”\u00a0write “A pressure vessel was tested to failure.”<\/li>\n
  3. The report should be written in the passive voice.<\/li>\n
  4. Any data that you researched and used should be cited either in the body or as an end note.<\/li>\n
  5. Avoid slang,\u00a0colloquialisms, sarcasm, and unsubstantiated critiques.\u00a0 Reports are ALWAYS formal documents.\u00a0 Never write something like, “The U.S. economy is currently at 4.1% unemployment and is projected to remain there unless we have the mother of all wars.”\u00a0 The last comment is inappropriate for a formal document.<\/li>\n
  6. Run spell check.\u00a0 This may seem obvious\u00a0but it is still a problem.<\/li>\n
  7. Use complete sentences.\u00a0 A sentence always has a noun and a verb.<\/li>\n
  8. Write out numbers less than three words.\u00a0 “40” should be written as “forty”.\u00a0 “7894.45” is acceptable as digits.<\/li>\n
  9. If an equation is a critical part of something you are testing, write it out and define the terms involved.\u00a0 Do not use cell phone pictures of hand written formulas.<\/li>\n
  10. Don’t use imprecise values such as “The rate of inflation is 2-3%”.\u00a0 If the topic has a defined value, use it.\u00a0 Instead write, “The one hundred year historical average for the rate of inflation in the United States is 3.22%”<\/li>\n
  11. Leave subjective evaluations out of a technical paper. Let the reader draw their own conclusion or guide them to a conclusion with honest data.<\/li>\n
  12. Capitalize the first letter in a sentence. (I can’t believe I have to say that to college seniors!)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Examples:<\/h3>\n

    Here is a professional report written by Lockheed for the XH-51 program.<\/a><\/p>\n

    Here is\u00a0 the template for the MEE443 measurement labs.<\/a><\/p>\n

    .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Writing a lab report is a pretty simple thing.\u00a0 Unless you are told to use a specific format follow the time honored adage of, “Tell me what you are going to tell me, tell me, and tell me what you told me.”\u00a0 Looking at the components of this expression: Tell me what you are going […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":890,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-302","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nHow To Write A Lab Report - Crosby Hall Knowledge Repository - University of Maine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/crosby-hall-knowledge-repository\/write-lab-report\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How To Write A Lab Report - 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