In the process of learning, students can be given an assignment to do a laboratory test and write a report of their findings. Mostly, the teacher will divide students into several manageable groups and assign each group the same or different assignments. After testing and obtaining results, students must understand the structure of writing a lab report and follow it strictly. This guide will give the steps you must follow to write the best lab report.
Understand the lab report structure
There is a developed structure that you must follow for your lab report to be accepted. Your teacher may give you the structure but if he doesn’t, you can get it online or create a structure using apps for writing lab report.
Your lab report starts with a title on what you were testing or the assignment you were given. You will write about the test objectives and discuss what you wanted to achieve. Any lab assignment must have a goal or goals and this is what you will discuss in your objectives.
Other important points in a lab report structure are the task assigned, resources, methods of test, results, and discussions or conclusions.
Write the abstract
In the abstract, give details of the problem you were investigating. It explains the assignment you were given and what you were required to do or test. The assignment might have been to measure different melting points of various metals. Explain how many pieces of metal you were given, the apparatus, burners, thermometers, and so on and indicate the results you expected.
Write your introduction
Your introduction will cover two sections – the procedure section and the equipment section. This is one of the most crucial sections of your report because the procedure and equipment will determine the result. To get the best report, you may brainstorm with other students, seek help from your teacher or a professional writer.
One of the requirements in college education is to write a lab report. The best way for writing a good lab report is to keenly study the objects under test and write a good introduction.
It will also be important to study lab report examples written by a lab report writer with relevant background on Uk.EduBirdie to help you understand how you should structure your report. Some of the areas you should be keen on are the conclusion of the lab report example and the experimental methods lab report in the report sample.
Procedure
The procedure gives details on the process you used to select your test objects. If you were testing metals, what criteria do you use to select which metal to test and which one to leave out? It could be your teacher picked the objects for you or you used the periodic table to decide which ones to pick.
Discuss if you weighed the objects to ascertain they were of equal weights. If you weighted them, what did you use to weigh them, and whether you recorded the weights. In simple terms, the procedure discusses the objects of your test and how you selected each.
Test equipment
The equipment section gives details on the lab tools you used. Give details of each piece of equipment and include details like calibration, material type, and dimensions. You might have used equipments like a bunsen burner, gas cylinder, tongs, weighing scale, cylinders, and so on.
Analyze your findings
When analyzing your findings, you discuss the results you achieved and how you achieved them. When testing different melting points on varying metals, you could have set all the metals at a certain degree of heat and observed the changes.
You might have gradually increased the heat in stages and observed the metal that melted the earliest and the one that melted last. Based on the degree of heat each metal melted, you might have discussed why metal A melted at temperature X while metal B melted at temperature Y and so on.
Detail your discussion and conclusion
Your discussion will support if the hypothesis originally discussed still stands or there should be a relook into it and make changes. Discuss your limitations during the test, assumptions, and conclusions. Label all figures and graphs correctly.
Citations
You must cite the sources you referred to, which could be textbooks, essays, journals, and so on. Follow the right citation style and edit your report thoroughly.
Conclusion
The guide to lab report writing is provided to help you carefully follow every test step, do a deep analysis, and scientifically conclude your findings. The best lab report will have an introduction, an analysis, discussions, and conclusions. The teacher may give a tailormade structure but in its absence, this structure can be applied to any subject.
Author’s Bio:
Brandon Kryeger works as a writer for a freelancing site that aims to help students from non-English speaking countries do their academic assignments. He’s a brilliant essay and research paper writer and has been in the writing business since his college days. His free time is for spray painting, cycling and watching thriller movies.
