Lab reports are an essential part of our education system, especially higher education. Professional institutes lack relevancy if they do not ask their students for lab reports. It is because lab reports determine the learning, skills, and attentiveness of students in labs. It is also a way to grade students according to their lab performance. There are some steps and tips every report or essay writer must follow for making a lab report. Some of these steps are narrated below to aid new writers and students in writing.
A high-quality lab report must be unique, concise, technical, and properly formatted to appeal to the teacher. It should not only look presentable, but the content inside it should be meaningful. A lab report cannot have extra details and definitions as it is predetermined that the teacher knows them. Thus, the only thing a report needs is personally collected data in the laboratory and personal analysis of those results. This does not mean that the report can start abruptly. A report needs a proper start with the main heading followed by different headings that can elaborate the report. The steps that are to be followed in order are as follows:
The first step is to add a title of the lab report. For instance, in the lab, if you determine the effect of litmus paper. Then the title can be "Litmus paper test". The title should be short and explanatory for the teacher to know that the student is aware of the lab's purpose.
The next step is to start with an introduction heading that can contain a brief definition of the test conducted in the lab. It should not be a long explanation, just two-liner information is enough.
After the introduction's heading, objectives are listed in bulleted form. The objectives include the learning outcomes and the knowledge gained after the experiment. This heading is followed by the materials and equipment list that is used inside the laboratory. It is also in points so that anyone can read it easily in one glance.
After these two headings, the main heading of the procedure is added. Under this section, all the steps that a lab assistant or student has performed are stated in the third person pronoun. The whole procedure is the crux of the experiment and should be detailed enough for an amateur to understand what happened in the lab.
The next section holds utmost importance; it is the results section where a table, figure, or set of statements are elicited after careful examination. The results are important, and they must be accurate. Lastly, a discussion should be performed based on the personal opinion of the student. This section is a replacement for the conclusion heading of the research papers and essays.
While I write my essay or report, this is the main layout that I always follow. If these steps are not followed, then the report would look haphazard. These headings make a report look presentable and readable in one glance. Moreover, the use of headings makes it more formal and appropriate.
Up till now, the discussion was about the stepwise solution following a roadmap of headings. However, that is not the only aspect of lab report writing. There is another aspect that must be catered to, and that is the formatting of a document. An unformatted document is not pleasant looking at all. Thus, all the documents must be formatted.
Researchers have devised different ways of formatting and named them for distinguishing. For different genres of writing, there are different ways. The most suitable ones for lab reports are APA and Chicago. Here we will investigate each of them separately. Before we discuss each of them, it is to be clarified that the use of references is prohibited in lab reports; since it is a personal account of lab work.
In APA, there is a separate title page, where the title, name, and institution name are written. In the whole document, the running head of the title goes on along with the page numbers. Once the report starts after the title page, the title is written again in the center; then the content starts. The level one headings in APA are centered and bold, while the level two headings are left indented with bold font. The lab reports usually have level one headings only. But in some cases, there is a need for level two heading in procedure or other sections. This is the most frequently used format and is the most professional one to use for such reports.
The Chicago format also has a separate title page, but the title is not repeated on the content page. The level one heading of the Chicago format is centered and bold, while the level two heading is centered without bold. This format is less frequently used; however, some universities prefer this one for unknown reasons.
These are the steps and ways to compose your lab report effectively. Nonetheless, you can ask a report or paper writing service for help in case of urgency or any issue while writing one. These companies will guide you or write one for you if you fill them in with accurate descriptions and results. Hence, keep your nerves calm and write your reports without any pressure by following these steps.
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