This is the complete guide on how to write a lab report in 2022.
Whether you’ve written the report’s introduction but have no idea how to proceed further or you find the whole assignment too technical to start, this guide is for you.
A lab report is a significant segment of a laboratory course because it contributes quite significantly to our overall grade.
The report provides a clear record of raw data and experiments, the information you can extend or reproduce, data analysis, a presentable conclusion, and recommendations based on the experiments.
Clarity is an important aspect when it comes to writing a lab report. Your report should communicate your findings in a clear way that your readers can understand.
In addition to making sure the report reflects the process used to establish findings, you have to present it as an independent record that requires no further input from you.
How to Write a Lab Report Step-by-Step
Here’s the step-by-step guide that can help you to write a comprehensive lab report from start to finish:
Understand the Structure of a Lab Report
The first step to writing a comprehensive lab report is to understand the structure of the assignment.
Keep in mind that the sections to include will vary depending on the course requirements and scientific field, but they should communicate the purpose, methods, and findings of the experiments.
At the very least, the lab report that you write should have the following sections:
- Title: The first part of the lab report that should clearly express the topic of your study.
- Abstract: This section of the lab report structure summarizes the aims, methods, results, and conclusion of your lab experiment.
- Introduction: In this section, you have to establish a connection that helps your readers to understand the topic of the experiment.
- Method:
- Results: This section should show all the inferential and descriptive statistical analyses of your lab experiment.
- Discussion: This is the section where you give your interpretation and evaluation of the results, as well as the limits of your experiments.
- Conclusion: You write an overall summary of the result of your lab experiment.
- References: Here you list all the sources that you cited in your lab experiment using a specific formatting style such as MLA.
- Appendices: This is where you put all the lengthy materials used in the research experiment, including tables, figures, and procedures.
Keep in mind that while this is the overall structure of a lab report, it’s possible to omit or combine some sections depending on the assignment’s instructions.
For example, your instructor may ask you write research aims instead of the introduction, not to mention that you may have to omit the separate conclusion give or take.
Title
The title of your lab report gives the first impression of the assignment. So it should be such that it communicates the primary focus or purpose of your study.
The title of your lab report might not be creative, thought provoking, or the most interesting, and that’s completely fine.
The most important thing to understand here is that the title has to be as informative as possible to convey the findings of your study.
Abstract
The purpose of an abstract in a lab report is to give a condensed version of the lab in 150 to 300 words.
By reading the summarized version of the report, a reader should clearly understand your research aims, methods and materials used, the results, and your conclusions before getting to the introduction of your lab experiment.
The abstract in this case acts as a type of a framework, which helps readers to determine whether the report would be worth reading in the first place.
We write abstracts in the past tense. So you might want to consider working on the other sections of the report first and then come back later to write this 150 to 300 words long preview of the report.
Introduction
The introduction is what sets the stage for your lab report, so it should be as comprehensive as possible.
You need to focus on giving the complete background information on your research topic. Then go a step further to explain why your lab experiment is significant to a theoretical context or to the real world.
It’s in the introduction of the lab report that you write about previous research on the study. Follow this with a clear demonstration or explanation of how your study will expand, confirm, or gill an existing gap in the respective field.
Remember to include the theoretical basis of your study and mention laws and equations you intent to use. Lastly, make sure you mention the research aims as well as the expectations of the lab.
There are no hard rules to observe when it comes to the length of the introduction. So it doesn’t have to be long or short. It just has to be lengthy enough to communicate your message clearly.
Method
In this section, you give details of the steps you took to gather and analyze your lab’s data. It’s important to provide enough information so that others can easily follow the procedures and conduct a similar experiment if they wish to.
Written in past tense, the method section of the assignment should clearly explain the design, subjects, materials, and procedures you used to collect and analyze the data of your lab report.
- Experimental design: In addition to explaining whether your lab experiment is between or within subject design, make sure you describe how you assigned your sample units to conditions where appropriate.
- Subjects: You should explain human or plants in the terms of their genetic background. For humans, your explanations should be in terms of characteristics and demographic.
- Materials: Create a list of all the equipment used to gather date. If there are any specialized materials or equipment used for the experiment, mention its model.
- Procedures: Here’s where you explain the steps you took to gather data for the experiment, and you should have the steps appear in a chronological order. Use the lab manual to gather data and, where appropriate, you can reference the manual and state whether you changed anything on practical considerations.
Results
The results section must include report of the statistical analysis conducted during the experiment.
Take this a step further and explain whether your test supports the initial hypotheses made or refutes them altogether.
Discussion
This is where you demonstrate to your instructor that you understand the process of the experiment and can easily demonstrate your critical thinking.
In addition to interpreting your results and comparing current findings with your initial expectations, you should explain unexpected results and suggest improvement for the study.
Conclusion
This the final section of your lab report. It’s where you summarize the results of your experiment. It’s best to include a brief overview of the strengths, implications, and the limitations of the studies.