Writing a Lab Report

There are no real rules for writing a lab report. Every teacher has his or her own method and, in real life, every publication has its own required format. All will agree, however, that a lab report is a way of "reporting" a scientific investigation. And all scientific investigations share some common components. The seven components of a lab report are summarized below. Note that not all components are required for every lab.

Title Page
Please include the following on your title page.

• clear, concise title
• appropriate, related graphic
• your name
• your lab partner(s)' names
• course
• date
• hour

Abstract
An abstract provides a brief overview of the entire lab report. It usually contains a few sentences from each of the parts below.

Purpose
The purpose of an experiment can be written as a statement or question. Consult your class notes for examples of each.

• The purpose of this lab is to see what happens to the pH of a solution as lemon juice is added.
• What will happen to the pH of a solution as lemon juice is added?

Hypothesis
A hypothesis is an "educated quess." But it is not just a guess! Based on your past knowledge and research, what do you think is going to happen? A hypothesis statement is generally written in the future tense. 

• When lemon juice is added to a solution, the pH will decrease.

Methodology
This section contains two sub-parts:

• Materials - a bulleted list of the required equipment and/or materials
• Procedure - a detailed and replicable description of the procedure followed. This can be written in steps. (Include a picture of the set-up if applicable.)

Data
This section contains the data and/or observations collected during the experiment. Numerical data should be organized in a table. Always include units!

Reults
Results is "anything you do to the data." This includes any calculations, graphing, or statistical analysis. This section may contain text, graphs, and additional tables. The results section should be written in past tense.

Conclusion
In the conclusion, you summarize the results of the lab. What is the relationship between the variables studied? You know if you are on the right track if you are responding to your purpose statement. A conclusion is written in past tense in paragraph form and should follow this general format:

• Topic sentence (Rewrite purpose statement in past tense.)
• Summarize the relationship between the variables.
• Support your summary statements with data and/or graphical relationships.
• Discuss the validity of the results.
• Give several reasons for any errors present within the data. Include suggestions for improvement.
• Include a closing statement regarding additional research.