Formal Lab Report Guidelines



Formal Lab Report Guidelines

Your formal lab report should be organized as follows:

Title Page

On the title page you should include the name of the lab, your name, and class period.

Introduction

This should be no longer than one paragraph and should explain the topic being investigated within the lab. Your introduction should provide the purpose for conducting the lab as well as a clear explanation of any key terms associated with the topic or lab.

Procedure

This should be written in paragraph form. Your procedure should be detailed enough that a non-science person could pick up your report and be able to complete the experiment. Do not assume that anything is common knowledge (example: if a Bunsen burner is used then explain all the steps necessary to hook up and light the burner). There is no need to separately list out materials because the materials will be included in your description of the procedure. Do not copy or plagarize any portion of the lab procedure given to you during the actual lab.

Analysis

This section of the report should include any results obtained from the experiment. If any data is collected during the experiment, then a data table should be included in this section. Also, if you are asked to construct a graph of your data, the graph should be inserted in this section (you will need to create computer generated graphs/tables). In addition, you should write a one paragraph summary of the data obtained but be careful not to draw any conclusions (example: at twenty degrees the copper had a mass of 34 grams).

Conclusion

This is the section of the report where you should carefully analyze your data and draw conclusions based on your results. A good conclusion also carefully considers any possible sources of error and the effects that these errors would have had on the data and the experiment as a whole.

Conclusion Questions

This section should be answered in complete sentences. Answers should be numbered. There is no need to write the question, just the answer.

General

All formal labs should be typed, double – spaced, Times New Roman 12 point font. Each section of the report should be clearly labeled (introduction, procedure, etc). Formal labs count as two lab grades.

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