LABORATORY REPORT FORMAT

STANDARDS FOR WRITTEN WORK

General Guidelines and Rules

ü Labs must follow specified format to be eligible for full credit.

ü Lab reports must be computer printed or typed in black ink.

ü Student name must appear on report in correct MLA format (refer to MLA booklet).

ü Partner names must be listed.

ü Points will be deducted for use of pronouns, grammatical and spelling errors.

ü Lab reports are due one week after class completion unless otherwise stated.

Lab Report Format

Title: The title should be centered on the top of the page. In most cases, the title is

provided by the lab manual or by the teacher.

Purpose: State the purpose for performing the experiment. In one or two sentences

explain the reason for doing the lab. Develop a hypothesis. Identify dependent and independent variables and controls.

Materials: List all the materials necessary to complete the experiment. Common items

(i.e. writing utensils, sink, paper towels for clean up, etc.) may be omitted.

Experimental Design/Procedure: Briefly list the steps necessary to conduct or

reproduce the experiment. This can be accomplished simply by numbering the steps or in paragraph form.

Data/Observations: Data collection will vary depending on the lab performed. Data

may be in the form of a description, diagram, graph, table, chart, or a combination (i.e. table and graph). Organize data in a way that is immediately clear to the reader. Be sure to label all items in this section with headings and units of measure.

Conclusion: This is the most important portion of the report. In general, there are four

goals when writing a good conclusion. They include: restating the purpose of the lab and hypothesis, discussion of the hypothesis or theory demonstrated in the lab (What did you learn?), validity of the data collected with possible sources of error (What may/did go wrong in the procedure?), and further tests to be performed to increase the validity of the data collected.