Instructions for the Helicopter Lab



How to write lab reports in an impersonal reporting style

One of the items on the report writing checklist is to write in the 3rd person with no “I” or “we” or other personal pronouns. Additionally, procedures are preferred in paragraph form, not as a list of instruction. This is because you are writing a report of what happened ((notice past tense), not teaching a “how to” lesson.

Probably you have been encouraged to write procedures as steps and use “I” or “we” in the past, but now you must learn to use the accepted published science format. Follow the model below to see the difference.

Let’s imagine a non-scientific but easy to follow example of making great PB and J sandwiches. I will first model a typical style from past year’s science and then the modern science format.

“CLASSIC” WAY

Problem: The problem we explored was how to make a great tasting peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Hypothesis: We thought that if twice as much peanut butter than jelly was used, then the sandwich would taste best to most people because it balances the sweetness of jelly with the salty peanut butter.

Materials

• 2 slices of bread

• Jar of peanut butter

• Jar of jelly

• Butter knife

Procedure

1. Gather materials.

2. Take two slices of bread from the loaf.

3. Get 2 tablespoons of peanut butter from jar.

4. Use the butter knife to spread the peanut butter evenly on one bread slice.

5. Spread one tablespoon of jelly on the other bread slice in the same way as the peanut butter.

6. Put the two bread pieces together and provide to the taste tester.

MODERN WAY

The problem explored in this activity was how to make a great tasting peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The hypothesis tested was if twice as much peanut butter as jelly was used, then the sandwich would taste best to most people.

Procedure:

Two slices of bread were taken from the loaf. One slice was spread evenly with two tablespoons of peanut butter. The other slice of bread was evenly spread with one tablespoon of jelly. The two slices were put together and the sandwich presented to the taste tester.

NOTE:

The preferred section includes all the same information. There are no personal references, just statements of information. The procedure is in paragraph form with no bulleted or number steps, is in past tense and does not need a materials list because all necessary materials are included in the description of procedure. Even without a list of materials or steps, a reader wishing to do this experiment still has all the information to replicate (copy) what the original testers did.

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