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Guidelines For Writing a Lab Report Introduction
(1-2
paragraphs) 1. The introduction should provide
a biological background on your topic. A
focused introduction is better than a general one.
Introduce the concepts that you tested in your experiment (i.e. pH,
temperature, etc.) and talk about their potential role in the chemical process
you tested (i.e. enzyme activity or photosynthesis). 2. End the introduction with a clear statement of your hypothesis. The information you present in the introduction before presenting your hypothesis should have already explained to the reader the reasoning behind your hypothesis, so it should not come as a surprise (i.e. don’t spend the entire introduction explaining how chemical reactions should proceed at a higher rate at warmer temperatures, then hypothesize that you expect the fastest rate to proceed in the colder temperature). You obviously cannot change your hypothesis to be consistent with the information you find, so you need to present relevant information that explains the reasoning behind your hypothesis. Materials
and Methods (1 paragraph) 1. This should be a description of
the experiment. It should be
detailed enough so that another biology student could repeat the experiment, but
it should not be so detailed that you have written a step-by-step cookbook
recipe. State what
you did, not how
you did it. 2. If you ran your experiment more
than once, be sure to state what differed between the two trials.
If nothing differed, then simply say that you ran the experiment a second
time and averaged the data. 3. Explain what you measured in your
experiment and how you measured it. Results
(1 paragraph) 1. Before you begin, think about how you can present your results concisely and effectively. 2. Provide a graph that illustrates your experimental data clearly. In the text, you should point out the main results of your experiment. Discussion
(1-2 paragraphs) 1. Explain whether your hypothesis
supported or refuted and which of your results supported or refuted it. 2. Explain the biology behind your
results (you should have already explained the biology behind your expected
results/hypothesis in the introduction, so don’t repeat the same information
again.) The information in the
discussion should mirror the information in the introduction, but you should
explain things in more depth in the discussion. 3. Were there problems with your
study? If so, how did they affect
your interpretation of the results? How
might you improve the study were you to redo it? For every procedural problem you present you must explain how
it would have affected your results. For every improvement you suggest,
you need to explain how/why it would improve the outcome of the experiment.
Do not spend the entire discussion section criticizing your experiment or
blaming your lab partners for procedural errors. 4. Talk about the “big picture”
– the biological implications of your study. 5. Talk about what future research could be done. This part does not need to be lengthy. One or two sentence is usually fine, unless you want to talk about some great ideas you have. Please don’t give me a list of how the results of your experiment can help end world hunger and resolve political conflict. J Literature
Cited 1. You must cite all the references you used in your lab report (i.e. textbook or lab manual). The lab manual also needs to be cited in the methods. Your textbook, or another textbook will be a necessary resource for your introduction and/or discussion section for background/general information. - If you can meaningfully incorporate
more references into your paper, then that will probably improve your
Introduction/Discussion. 2. Cite everything that’s not
common knowledge. If you looked
something up in a textbook then cite the book for that information. 3. You may use internet resources for
additional information. If you use
a website for information, you need to provide the appropriate citation format
for it. 4. Do not change the order of the authors listed for a given reference. General Comments: 1. Provide a cover page with a title
of your experiment and your name. 2. Type your paper and double-space
your work. 3. The lab report should be 2-4 pages
long. This is meant to serve as a
guideline. You should focus on
providing a report that is complete with regards to the content. 4. This assignment is worth 30 points and will be graded according to the rubric that will be provided shortly on the course website. |
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©2003-2004 Dilek Sanver-Wang, MS
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