A laboratory report is a document that describes and analyzes a scientific experiment. As you study or work in science, you will repeatedly need to prepare this type of report. It is also common in engineering, mathematics, and technology fields.

The lab report is written to explain the value of your work to someone who was not involved and wants to reproduce it. The purpose of these reports is also to conduct further experiments and make changes to the used methods.

Report writing requires the ability to clearly and in detail describe all your steps, understand the principles of the experiment, and the result obtained. Since there is a clear structure — the writing of this document is easier than it seems.

What’s Inside?

So, let’s imagine that you hear the “write lab report for me” phrase from your professor. What are the main rules to follow? The typical structure contains a title page, abstract, introduction, method, results, annotated bibliography and discussion.

The structure of each document may vary. This may depend on the assignment you have received from your teacher or instructor. To understand this, consider the key elements and general guidelines of a lab report.

Title

This part of the report describes itself. The name of the experiment, participants, and date are indicated here. Try to be concise when writing.

Abstract

It outlines the main aspects of the document, such as the purpose, main observations, significance, and conclusions. Hence, it is better to make this part at the end after preparing the lab report. It is best to choose a sentence from each main part and create an abstract from them. The information in this part is concise and usually takes 100 to 200 words. But always check the task, the word limit may be different.

Introduction

This section focuses on the objective. It is worth noting that the usual introductions contain a thesis statement or introduction thesis, but in the case of a lab report, it indicates the purpose statement. This part also contains background information with enough relevant data, the amount of which directly depends on the complexity of the experiment.

Start with the theory. Use original reliable scientific studies that you will rely on. Then you can proceed to studies whose calculations were not consistent. This will rationalize the purpose of the current research — to continue the investigation, and start an experimental procedure discussion. If all studies have shown consistent calculations, select the most relevant.

This section should also provide definitions of key terms, concepts, abbreviations, and formulas that will be used later in the document.

In terms of size, this part should take up about 1/4 of the entire text of the lab report.

Method

The method section provides details about participants, materials or apparatus, and procedure. Under participants, we can see how many people participated, their gender, whether they were students, volunteers, or employees. All relevant data may be required to reproduce the case.

Then all the equipment that was used during the research is indicated. And in the procedure section is described how it was used. All steps performed are recorded in a logical structure in chronological order.

Results

This part presents the results of the research. These can be a sample of calculations, numbers, graphs, or tables. For a better understanding of the data, they can be given a brief description, so the reader will not get lost and will be guided in the section.

Please note that in this part we communicate only about finding, not what they mean concerning a study.

Discussion

The discussion part explains how the results were achieved and how they can be used. Do not just report but analyze them. To do this, use graphs, and comparisons, look at time trends and apply known theories.

Errors and their impact on data should also be included in this section. As a result, the issue of data accuracy should be part of the discussion conclusion.

Important Details

Grammatical style in which lab reports are written. Traditionally, the passive voice and the third person pronoun are used. In contrast to reflective writing, which is used for a book review or an article critique, and where there are no such restrictions.

Still, the use of an active voice has recently become acceptable. As requirements are changing, it is recommended to review the requirements for each assignment.

Conclusion

The ability to write lab reports is a very vital competence for every scientist and most technical students in university or college. In this way, research data is systematized and stored, and other scientists can easily use it. Think of it as a crowdsourcing program for the development of science. Each document helps to develop a certain field and becomes the basis for further development.

This type of report is just as valuable as a literature review, personal statement, or research proposal. All this is studied to train the basic skills of logical thinking but each in its unique way.