Are there any simpler assignment than writing a lab report? This is what exactly a lot of students think about when hearing that other student’s struggle with doing this kind of assignment. It happens because of not realizing what an actual report is.
People think that a lab report is about writing down your observations and filling in the instructions form. In practice, everything is slightly different. A lab report is definitely much more than that, especially at college and university.
How to Write a Good Lab Report (Tips for College Students)
So, if you don’t know yet what an actual lab report is, keep reading. We promise you’re going to get a lot of interesting and useful information. Additionally, you can visit any other Australian trusted website to get a more professional view at this kind of college assignment.
Writing a Lab Report Properly
At college and university, you’re likely to have many assignments related to writing a report. So, it is essential to be able to write a good one without spending too much time and effort on it.
First of all, let’s give an explanation about what a lab report is. A lab report is a document, which explains what you’ve actually done during an experiment. It describes the purpose, the process, and the results you’ve obtained in the end.
There is one more significant detail about a lab report, which so many students miss out while writing it. It is a fact that through a report you also have to describe new information you’ve learned.
There are several types of lab reports as well as the ways of writing them. Everything depends on the subject and topic you have. The requirements from your teacher also define, which type of a report you’re going to complete.
But in general, all lab reports have some common features, which should never be neglected. So, let’s have a look at those exact features right now.
A Basic Guide to Writing a Lab Report
- Forget about writing poetically while working on your lab report. A report is about clarity, accuracy, strict format, and brief explanations. All information should be expressed in a concise manner.
- Do not make it longer than you’re asked. Usually, it is no longer than 2 pages only. If with an essay, you can go a little bit further in the paragraphs, with a lab report you can’t do it. The length has to be the same as required in the instructions.
- To make your report look more professional, remove the personal pronouns from it. Don’t use phrases like «I’ve learned that». Just say what exactly you’ve learned.
- Forget about slang. As with any other academic assignment, slang and cliche phrases are not recommended at all. Instead, use the academic vocabulary and specific words on the topic, which you’re writing about. It is a technical document, which requires topical vocabulary, figures, charts, graphs, diagrams, tables, and so on.
- The structure. The structure of a lab report is a core of it. So, never go beyond the structure. Of course, it may differ accordingly to what type of a report you have, but in most cases, it will be the following – title, abstract, introduction, procedure, results, discussion section, conclusion and references.
- The most disputable part is an abstract. Usually, students don’t know exactly what they should and shouldn’t include in it. To make a long story short, in the abstract you summarize the procedures, results, and conclusions of your experiment in a few words. Thus, the readers should be able to understand whether your report is relevant to what they are looking for or not without reading the whole paper but the abstract only. The abstract is no longer than a paragraph of two-three sentences. Though it usually comes after the title part, it is written when the whole paper is completed as you have to mention the conclusions here too.
- An introduction is where you provide the background information about your experiment. And the concluding part is where you summarize the experiment and discuss whether it has supported the hypothesis or not. The conclusion is not longer than 10% of the required word count.
- And the references is where you inform the readers about the literature used during the research process. Here you should mention any additional materials cited in your paper.
As with any other academic writing, a lab report should be completed without grammatical and spelling mistakes. This means that proofreading and editing are a must.
Also, pay attention to any calculations, which you’ve performed during the experiment. All of the figures have to be 100% correct as well as measurements mentioned.
That’s all for writing a lab report in a proper way. Hopefully, now you have a better understanding of what it actually is and realize better how to perform your next report assignment to get a higher grade.
